New Jersey announced the designation of its 20th transit village last week with the acceptance of the City of Orange’s revitalization plan. Now eligible for priority status for state funding, the City of Orange was awarded $100,000 as a part of its designation along with technical planning assistance.

NJDOT’s Transit Village program provides financial incentives to communities committed to community revitalization, traffic reduction and air quality improvement in the areas surrounding their transit hubs. As we’ve previously reported in MTR, the Transit Village designation spurs economic development around the station, increases public transit ridership, and encourages multi-modal downtowns.

Nearby South Orange, designated back in 1999, has added retail and mixed-use development; built extensive bike parking at the train station, a wayfinding signage program and info kiosks, the Rahway River Greenway project to rehabilitate the Rahway River pedestrian and bicycle paths traversing the city; developed a bicycle pathway/route plan; and was recently the recipient of a Bikeways grant. In Rahway and Morristown, the Star-Ledger writes, Transit Village designation has spurred development that could “forever shape the face and fortune of those towns.” Developers broke ground on a new mixed-use development in New Brunswick this week, spurred by the city’s Transit Village designation.

This designation should also prove a boon to the City of Orange, whose station area has been neglected for years. Bruce Meyer, President of the Citizens Budget Advisory committee hit the nail on the head when he told the Star-Ledger, “The Orange’s designation of Transit Village is like Dorothy’s shoes in the ‘Wizard of Oz.’ They were always there, but she didn’t know how to use them.”