Long Branch seeks urban center status

Long Branch seeks urban center status
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

Long Branch is pursuing designation by the state as an urban center, a classification that would qualify the city for state funds that could be used toward open space, infrastructure improvements and development.

A self-assessment of the city is under way as part of the qualifying process for urban center designation by the state's Office of Smart Growth, Long Branch Zoning Officer Michele Bernich said at the City Council workshop session Nov. 10.

Bernich said the council could pass a resolution approving the self-assessment report Nov. 24 and the report would then be given to the Office of Smart Growth.

Bernich, accompanied by engineer David Maski, of CMX, Manalapan, presented the council with the 100-plus-page report at the workshop meeting.

"It is the first step of several in the process," Maski said. "It is an inventory by the city of existing conditions in terms of demographics and resources.

"It is a snapshot of where the city stands," he added. "It is also a narrative of all the activities and initiatives the city has taken up over the last 10 to 15 years.

"It is a comparison of those initiatives with the state plan and how the city is consistent with those goals and policies of the state plan," he continued.

Maski said he expects Long Branch to receive full plan endorsement from the state toward the end of 2010.

Maski described some of the goals of the assessment, which include moving up to an urban center designation, from the city's current status as a regional center.

"The goal of this process is it does put you into play for some priorities from the state in terms of permitting and funding," he said. "It is the process where you can extend your center designation.

"In the process, the city has requested to move up a level from regional center to urban center," he added.

Bernich, in an interview last week, said that the designations expire in 10-year increments.

"Before you expire, you have to reapply," she said. "This plan endorsement process is us applying to be a center designation again.

"Instead of us asking for a regional designation, we are looking to up it another notch as an urban center," she added. "We feel that is what Long Branch really is, and we will be prioritized to get more funding and permits."

Bernich explained what moving up to an urban center would mean for the city's finances.

"There are different types of funding and grants," she said. "It will enhance us and give us better ability for the grants and projects."

Maski said that if there were two equal applications for funding, then the plan-endorsed application would have a higher priority.

Bernich explained that obtaining grants and programs is more competitive as a regional center than as an urban center because there are more designated regional centers.

An executive summary on the website of the New Jersey State Planning Commission defines what urban center designation means.

"These urban centers offer the most diverse mix of industry, commerce, residences and cultural facilities of any central place," the summary states. "They are repositories of large infrastructure systems, industrial jobs, corporate headquarters, medical and research services, universities, government offices, convention centers, museums and other assets.

"They are also home to a large pool of skilled and presently unskilled labor that will, with appropriate investment, become among the state's most valuable human resource assets," it continues.

The summary also describes what a regional designation means.

"They often serve as major employment centers and offer regional services, such as higher education, health and arts/entertainment," the summary states. "In rural areas, they may be population centers and county seats, with small business districts serving residents."

A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs explained the advantages of an urban center.

"Urban centers are compact forms of development that when compared to sprawl development, consume less land, deplete fewer natural resources, are usually less expensive in terms of infrastructure investment

and are more efficient with respect to the delivery of public services," Lisa Ryan wrote in an email. "These urban centers offer the most diverse mix of industry, commerce, residences and cultural facilities of any central places in the state."

Ryan went on to say that it is the state's preference to use incentives to promote development in these centers as opposed to allowing sprawl development into open space.

"The state promotes and accommodates growth in centers, rather than open spaces and farmlands and woodlands," she said. "As a result, an area identified as a center can be eligible for economic growth incentives and priority grant placements."

Maski described the process for attaining urban center status after the council adopts the self-assessment.

"The next step after it is adopted, it will move on to the state, and the next major thing they come up with is they will ask to see the master plan and make an assessment of how much more work the city will have to do to gain full plan compliance," he said. "They then give you what is called an action plan, which is an itemized list of things to do."

One of the items the state may ask is for Long Branch to go through a visioning process, for which the city is requesting a waiver.

"One of their comments could be now you have to do a visioning process," Bernich said. "We feel we have already done that."

The self-assessment is a detailed look at the city, including the city's history of development as well as the city's current demographics.

A large portion of the assessment is an analysis comparing Long Branch to the rest of Monmouth County.

Long Branch had a population of just over 31,000 in 2000 and is projected to have grown to over 40,000 in 2009.

The assessment also shows that the city is more diverse than both the county and the state, with a higher level of blacks, Latinos and other populations.

The average city resident is also younger than both the county and state average.

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com