Policy development nonprofit New Jersey Future released a Strategic Action Plan calling for a transformation of the neighborhood around the Trenton Transit Center.

The neighborhood, which was designated as a federal Opportunity Zone, is home to several undeveloped properties, and lacks accommodation for pedestrians and bicyclists and a unifying neighborhood identity, making it ripe for redevelopment, New Jersey Future said Tuesday.

The Opportunity Zones program was enacted as part of the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and is designed to drive long-term capital investments into low-income rural and urban communities.

New Jersey Future recommends the neighborhood be developed by adding a variety of housing units, integrating public plazas and open spaces and fixing intersections to increase pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

“The Trenton Transit Center is, as the plan notes, under-utilized as an economic-development asset,” New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach said in a statement. “For many reasons — linking more people with economic opportunity, reducing transportation-related greenhouse-gas emissions, and increasing property values in the area — maximizing the redevelopment opportunities that already exist around the station should be one of the city’s highest priorities. The return on those investments will continue well into the next generation and beyond.”

New Jersey Future developed the plan for Greater Trenton in partnership with Trenton-based landscape architectural firm Clarke Caton Hintz. The plan was funded by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and undertaken in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Transit Opportunity Zone study, conducted for the City of Trenton.

Read the full article here.