Redevelopment is the process of rebuilding or restoring an area or structure, that which is currently in a measurable state of decline, disinvestment or abandonment, to a more productive condition or use. Redevelopment may also include rehabilitation, which means making a property livable again.
Redevelopment is APPROPRIATE when:
- Physical and economic deterioration problems are serious, and all other private and public-sector efforts to address them have failed;
- Properties have been lying vacant or underutilized for a long period of time;
- Property assemblage is needed to get sites large enough for desired land uses;
- The Municipality wants to control what is built;
- Private-sector reinvestment may need tax abatements, long-term tax exemptions or other revitalization financial assistance.
New Jersey's Local Redevelopment and Housing Law (N.J.S.A. 40A:12A-1 et seq.) defines the criteria and processes municipalities must use to designate an "area in need of redevelopment" and the special powers and financial incentives they may use to encourage redevelopment. In order for an area to be designated in need of redevelopment, the municipal governing body must order the planning board to prepare a redevelopment needs study for a specified area.
If the governing body approves the redevelopment needs study, it may then prepare a redevelopment plan that must identify, among other things, proposed land uses and building requirements, properties that may need to be acquired and any needed relocation measures, and other provisions needed to implement the redevelopment plan's goals. Redevelopment plans are adopted by ordinance, in essence amending a municipality's current land use and zoning plan.