Last week, state legislators passed the New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009, an omnibus bill designed to stimulate private sector development and job growth while revitalizing urban hubs. Sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Joe Roberts, A4048/S2299 expands the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit by broadening the definition of a “transit hub” to include light rail stations and businesses that are located along and utilize rail freight lines, doubling the geographic radius for Camden, and lowering the minimum investment needed to qualify.
The expanded tax credit program will provide a 100% corporate business tax credit to companies planning capital projects that invest at least $50 million and create or relocate 250 jobs within a half-mile of a transit station, and within one mile in Camden.
Similarly, the bill creates an Economic Redevelopment and Growth Grant program to encourage redevelopment in transit villages, “centers of place,” and port and airport areas. It authorizes Newark and Elizabeth to impose a 5% rental car tax to fund local redevelopment activities.
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I note that the bill specifically excludes development at Newark Airport, which may include the Airport station on the NEC. Not clear if the station is excluded, my reading is that the station is excluded. IT also appears to allow some credit for residential development, if it meets the $50 million minimum, unless I am reading this wrong. This will also extend the amount of area covered to include major new parts of Hudson County (ie LRT stations), and in Newark as shown above. Overall this is good, however, getting out to a mile starts to water down the impact of transit. By this definition, the auto centric Campbell Soup expansion in Camden gets a credit, whereas before it did not. This site is almost impossible to walk to from Rand Transportation Center.Further expansion to a one mile radius starts to lose the relationship to transit, 1 mile is not a walkable distance (about a 20 minute walk vs. 10 minute for 1/2 mile radius). I hope TSTC monitors this. Also, any new development should be required to undertake a survey of any project that is built to document what the impact on transit ridership is. That way we can monitor what the impacts of the program are. Unfortunatly there are a lot of requirments in the legislation, but nothing requires showing what the impact on transit is of a Urban Transit Hub credit. Maybe future versions can include this provision. ” Within 2 years of the investment, a statistically valid survey of workers and residents will be conducted to doucment the impact of the project on weekday transit ridership on all modes as well as other transportation modes such as walking, biking, and auto useage.
There also should be an allowance to waive up to 10% of local municipal parking requirements for employee or resident parking based on the fact these areas have high transit usage and building more parking is a burden to having development near transit.