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The City of Asbury Park will be featured during next week’s New Jersey Planning Conference, being held from Jan 25 to 26 at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick.

“This is a great opportunity to highlight to professionals and policy makers throughout the state what makes Asbury Park special and the work we are doing to ensure we have healthy communities,” the City’s Director of Planning and Redevelopment Michele Alonso [at right] said.

The “Greetings from Asbury Park” entitled seminar will focus on the strategy behind revitalizing the southwest side neighborhood. While planning in Asbury Park has been discussed previously at NJPC, this is the first time an entire seminar will be devoted to the revitalization work being done, city officials said in a written statement.

Participating in the panel will be Alonso, Gregory Hopson, Chairperson of Asbury Park Housing Authority Board; Woo Kim, Senior Associate at WRT [the Choice Neighborhoods plan consultant]; and Paul McEvily, Co-Executive Director of the Asbury Park based Interfaith Neighbors.

The seminar will spotlight the “One City. Asbury Park.” initiative outlined in the Choice Neighborhoods Plan, which aims to revitalize the city’s largest, but most economically challenged, residential neighborhood into a place of opportunity and economic growth.

The community-driven Choice Neighborhoods plan was funded through a $500,000 Housing and Urban Development [HUD] grant and is a result of collaborative work that began in September 2016 between officials from the City and the Asbury Park Housing Authority, a team of stakeholders and residents.

A series of public input meetings [shown above] resulted in early action initiatives like the October Better Block event [shown in feature photo and below], which included a public art installation and pop up retail offerings that helped envision a new landscape along the Springwood Avenue corridor.

Alonso said the plan outlines a set of comprehensive directives that address the needs of residents beyond just new housing.

“This community driven plan aims to revitalize the West Side without displacement and gentrification, and looks forward to a future filled with mixed-income housing, safe streets, economic opportunities, thriving students, and healthy families,” she said.

The NJPC is produced by The American Planning Association, New Jersey Chapter, and is the state’s largest land use conference with over 700 attendees, 200 speakers and 50 seminars planned. Attendees, which include land use professionals, state agencies, issue advocates, and the general public, learn up to date ways to advance the art and science of good planning, be it through physical, economic and/or social initiatives. The goal is to create communities that offer better and more equitable choices for how people live, work and play, officials said.

For information on the New Jersey Planning Conference, visit njplanningconference.org.

For information on the City of Asbury Park, visit cityofasburypark.com.

For information on the Choice Neighborhoods Plan, visit asburyparkchoice.com.

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