FREEHOLD – As Freehold Borough officials continue to seek a transit village designation from the state Department of Transportation (DOT), they have authorized an $83,500 agreement for planning services they hope will lead to the designation.
Borough Council members recently authorized the agreement with Group Melvin Design (GMD) of Camden for transit village planning. The action marked the latest step in a process that began in 2015 to promote redevelopment of the borough’s downtown district.
According to the DOT, a designated transit village is a municipality that has demonstrated a commitment to revitalizing and redeveloping the area around its transit facility into compact mixed-used neighborhoods with emphasis on a residential component.
Freehold Borough has a bus station off Broad and Throckmorton streets.
The following communities are among the New Jersey municipalities that have achieved a transit village designation: Asbury Park, Belmar, Long Branch and Matwan in Monmouth County; South Amboy and Metuchen in Middlesex County; Rahway in Union County; and West Windsor in Mercer County.
According to the DOT, the designation provides a municipality with the following benefits: the state’s commitment to the municipality’s vision for redevelopment; coordination among the state agencies that make up the Transit Village Task Force; priority funding from some state agencies; technical assistance from some state agencies; and eligibility for grants from the DOT.
According to the council’s resolution, Freehold Borough pursued a competitive grant from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) with the intent of cultivating the necessary information to make a successful application for the transit village designation and subsequently engaged the Urban Land Institute to undergo a Technical Assistance Panel to address local issues, including strategies to redevelop the downtown area, resulting in input being received from residents and business owners in 2015.
Later in 2015, the NJTPA notified officials the municipality was a recipient of a grant with the NJTPA’s Planning for Emerging Centers Program, which helps municipalities adopt planning and land use regulations in order to promote transit-oriented development consistent with the authority’s long-term transportation plan, according to the resolution.
The NJTPA issued a competitive request for proposals in order to engage the services of a planning firm to perform the required studies for Freehold Borough to apply for transit village designation.
GMD was chosen to perform the required studies in 2016. The firm’s study study spanned two years and sought participation from all Freehold Borough stakeholders.
GMD submitted reports that included a Downtown Freehold Vision Plan, a Transit Area Redevelopment Plan, a Center Core Revitalization Plan and a Courthouse Square Redevelopment Plan.
Municipal officials said they found the reports illustrated the firm’s ability to guide Freehold Borough through the redevelopment improvement process. As a result, the governing body chose to retain GMD to take the next steps in achieving a transit village designation.
