In the 2021 City Planning Institute, students from the Highlands Region created, distributed and analyzed an extensive survey to find out what young people want in their towns in the future. Those results were shared with elected officials and members of the Highlands Commission. In the Summer of 2022, those students were selected to be on a panel at the NJ Redevelopment Conference. They presented their work to professional planners form all over the state and were given praise for finding unique ways to gather the input of young people in the planning process.
Center for Community Planning
2022 City Planning Institute
2022 City Planning Institute
The NJ 2022 Summer City Planning Institute took place in
Newark, Paterson, Bloomfield, Passaic, Trenton, and the
Highlands Region.
Check out all student final presentations below!
PATERSON, NJ
Students from the Paterson City Planning Institute partnered with New Jersey Community Development Corporation to create a revitalization and rehabilitation plan for West Side Park. Students learned about the history of West Side Park and the previous planning efforts that have taken place there. They researched quality parks from all over the country to help inform what they wanted to propose for Paterson. Students worked collaboratively to develop a concept design for the future development of the park. Their ideas included connecting West Side Park to neighboring parks in the area through a system of trails and bridges along the Passaic River, boat launch sites, and reconfiguring the different sections of the park to create more child friendly and age-appropriate areas for young visitors. Their work was presented to the Executive members of NJCDC and community stakeholders. Their experience and final presentation was featured in an article in TAPinto Paterson. See the article HERE
Check out the student's proposal for West Side Park below!!
TRENTON, NJ
In 2021, the Trenton CPI designed and presented their ideas for an inclusive park several blocks from the Donnelly Homes Housing complex. As elements of the park are in the beginning stages of being built, students in the area began to express that there is no safe route to walk from the housing complex to the park. Students mapped out several different routes and created a plan to make those routes physically appealing and safe. Their plans include branding the park system with authentically created logos, installing bright and changing colored streetlights along the routes to the park to clearly delineate “kid friendly zones”, using abandoned buildings for vibrant graffiti art and creating a 3D illusion art pathway from the housing complex to the park. The final plans were presented to elected officials, community stakeholders and members of the Trenton Housing Authority.
PASSAIC, NJ
The Passaic City Planning Institute partnered with the. City of Passaic and Together North Jersey to complete two separate initiatives for the downtown area. The first initiative was to orchestrate a full inventory of all restaurants in the designated downtown neighborhood preservation program area. Students walked block by block in the Neighborhood Preservation Area to identify every restaurant, digitize their menu, capture their logos and social media sites. The students went on to create a database of that information to be used in an interactive digital map being created by the City. The map will help visitors navigate the diverse cuisine Passaic has to offer and hopefully be used as an economic development strategy as Passaic redevelops its downtown. The students second project was to create a survey for all downtown business to find out what issues or improvements are most important to them as the city plans for the future. Students were able to collect over 50 survey responses from local businesses, both by hand and digitally. They analyzed the data for patterns and common trends, and reported their findings in council chambers to their city officials, business administrator, members of the board of education and community stakeholders.
NEWARK, NJ
The City Planning Institute partnered with the City of Newark’s City Planning Department to support the completion of their new 10-year Master Plan (“Newark 360”). The planning department was interested in getting input and feedback from young people throughout the different parts of the city. The Newark City Planning Institute Team consisted of 20 high school students that designed an outreach strategy to engage middle and elementary schools in the planning process. CPI students designed 3 separate workshop models for different grade levels (one for high school students, one for middle school students and one for elementary school students. They visited schools in different wards of the city and collectively were able to conduct visioning sessions for 16 groups of over 200 students. They collected their findings and sorted student responses into a presentation that they were able to share with their City Planning Department and elected officials. Their work will help inform age specific development in the next decade and will appear in the Newark 360 Master Plan when it is released later this year.
BLOOMFIELD, NJ
The CPI partnered with Bloomfield for the first time this summer, conducting a one-day workshop in partnership with the Youth Municipal Internship Program. Students received an overview of city planning and the different elements they must consider when thinking about planning for a community. Student conducted visioning exercises focused on what they want to see in both their neighborhoods and their town in the future. They collaborated to develop some ideas and mini proposals for improvement. They shared their ideas the following week to elected officials in city hall as they explored and spent time working with the various municipal departments, including the city planning department.
NJ REDEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
HIGHLANDS COUNCIL
