Land Use Planning: We're Better Together

The Green, the most iconic parcel of land in Morristown, not only is a place for people to hang out, meet up, explore and admire, it's also a traffic circle. With numerous businesses surrounding it, the Green also is an economic hub. It's not just one of these things, it's all of them.

So, why should planning for Morristown's land use future be any more separated?

That has been the thinking of town planners, who are seeking a consultant through the North Jersey Transportation Authority in order to begin "a pilot Local Planning Assistance Program to assist the Town of Morristown in development of a Unified Land Use and Mobility Plan."

The Request for Proposals for consultants, due to the NJTPA by June 7, notes that the purpose of the project is "to create a plan that integrates local land-use development goals and regulations with transportation policies and investment through a publicly-driven, scenario-based planning process."

According to Phil Abramson, Morristown's planner through Jonathan Rose Companies, it goes against the traditional silo-based way of breaking down elements of a municipal master plan. That way of separating elements, however, has begun to show its flaws.

"Traffic, pedestrians, sidewalks, buildings, it's all the same," Abramson said. "We need to address them in the same way, what their relationship is among and between each other. That's the basis of our whole exercise; we're trying to do a very integrated approach to downtown Morristown."

A similar concept, through a $250,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation, is underway in Montclair, the planner said. Morristown's involvement with the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority is the first attempt for the usually highway-centric organization at working directly with muncipalities.

This pilot initiative between a regional planning entity like the NJTPA and a local government does not exist in this part of the state. But, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission has found success working with municipalties in south Jersey, Abrahmson said, helping towns with such projects as buildout studies and smartgrowth initiatives. 

"If you want to make a transportation network better, you need to work with land use," he said. "They needed to go work with municipalities."

Funding for Morristown's pilot program through the NJTPA would come through the town, the NJTPA and with the , Abramson said. It would go toward hosting civic engagement events, possibly online, as well as for "boots on the ground" canvassing.

"We're really trying to have conversations about planning and development in Morristown," he said. "This is not about a specific project. This is not for when there is a battle. We're trying to have these conversations more proactively."

Abramson said he hoped such planning efforts would be able to address such issues as congestion, for creating guidelines for better streetscapes and buildings and for concentrating density and development where Morristown can handle it.

But, such things are much harder to achieve without a plan, he said.

"We want a better collection of policies to guide," Abramson said. "This way, we're not at the behest of a developer. This is a project for us."