NJIT Experts Work with City and State on Regional Development

Prof. Darius Sollohub, who serves on the New Jersey Committee of the Regional Plan Association, and has advised the Newark NJ administrations of Cory Booker and Ras Baraka on airport, housing, parking, and rapid transit policies; and Dr. Colette Santasieri, who is Executive Director of the Center for Community Systems and a seasoned environmental planner, civil engineer, and social scientist, organized a gathering of regional agencies, infrastructure and planning experts to jointly develop plans for a Newark Airport City.

The Newark Airport City (NAC) is a coalition of universities, government bodies, and research entities coordinating to maximize the benefit to the city of Newark from its airport. Since 2017, this group has supported community interface, academic research, environmental review, urban planning and design, government and agency coordination, multi-modal transportation studies, and economic analysis to achieve the goal of developing an ‘airport city’ based in the south ward of Newark. 

With the support of a third round of funding from the Prudential Foundation, the NAC coalition brought together experts from Atlanta, Amsterdam, and Newark for a one-day virtual conference on April 30th, 2021. The focus was on what Newark can learn from the experience of city and infrastructure planners who accomplished similar projects in Atlanta and Amsterdam. Opening remarks were given by Dr. Joel Bloom, Mayor Baraka and former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin. Speakers focused on how to better use airports to optimize economic, societal, and environmental benefits in support of job generation and equitable, inclusive growth. During the afternoon session panelists explored opportunities for how Newark can benefit from changes proposed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 

“The Newark Airport City Conference was a unique opportunity to learn how Atlanta and Amsterdam viewed their airports as an economic engine, and then harnessed that power to catalyze growth. Their lessons learned and successes help inform the NAC coalition’s activities,” said Santasieri.

The vision for developing a Newark airport city encompasses both short-term and long-term goals. The short-term goals include opening the Newark Airport Station directly to the South Ward at Frelinghuysen Avenue by expanding the scope of the $4 billion AirTrain replacement to include the existing station. This strategy takes advantage of NAC legal research that seeks to circumvent legal challenges likely to arise in opening the station. In hopes of avoiding expensive litigation, the NAC coalition is recommending a repayment of the depreciated cost of the existing station, possibly by a third party, and petitioning for stimulus funds to expand the AirTrain replacement scope to pay for station modifications.

The long-term goals aim to promote urban development in the Dayton section of the South Ward. By leveraging airport activity and the associated economic development, research carried out by University of Pennsylvania, led by Dean Emerita Marilyn Taylor shows that this development could lead to significant benefits in terms of jobs, repurposed land use, housing and new residents. Based on Penn’s research estimates project 300 repurposed acres, 20-25 thousand new jobs, 10-12 thousand new dwelling units that include inclusionary and workforce housing, and 13-16 thousand new residents.

The Port Authority’s master plan process envisions rebuilding Terminal B further to the west. To create a Newark Airport City, the NAC coalition recommends a new terminal still further west straddling the railroad tracks of the Northeast Corridor. This new terminal will become the heart of a Newark Airport City that will include mixed-use neighborhoods that represent the best aspirations of Newark's future.

Looking to the future, the NAC coalition is working with the offices of Mayor Baraka and Governor Murphy to petition for federal stimulus funds to expand the Air Train replacement.  NJIT is also applying to the US Economic Development Authority and the NJ Economic Development Authority to begin an extensive economic analysis for the Newark Airport City.

“Benefitting from the unique economic and social dynamism that airports bring, a Newark Airport City, centered on a new terminal and train station can be a game changer for Newark. A combination of this type will be the only one of its kind in the US. Examples in Amsterdam and Hong Kong have been enormously successful. Engaging directly with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as the agency systematically rebuilds the airport, will be a critical first step,” said Sollohub.