Analyzing The Replacement Ordinance:

“2023 Proposed Newark Zoning & Land Use Regulations (NZLUR) Replacement Ordinance drafted by Heyer, Gruel & Associates Urban Planners for the City of Newark”

September 2023 Update

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Anticipated Municipal Council Final Public Hearing & Vote: Wednesday, November 1, 12:30 pm

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Prepared by HECTOR Urban Design, Newark NJ

on behalf of South Ward Environmental Alliance (SWEA)

and Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC)

With support from Victoria Foundation

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What’s Zoning?

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Zoning Law sets fundamental rules for how property owners in our Ward can use and build out their land.

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They are used by Planning & Zoning Boards to approve or disapprove everything that is built.

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Every lot in the city has a color and code that indicates the rules that property owners must follow in using their land and buildings. So these changes can make a big difference, good or bad!

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Decisions to change zoning alter the future of every block in Newark

Don’t let them be made for you and without you

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Summer 2023: Conflicting Understandings

Summer 2023: Conflicting Understandings

City Op-ed

“Progressive zoning changes will benefit all of Newark's neighborhoods,” NorthJersey.com, 7/19/23

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Community Response

“We must refine zoning changes for Newark: Analysis of Overhaul Reveals Lowered Standards and Weakened Protections ” NorthJersey.com, 8/23/23

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1. Like the suburbs, Newark’s current zoning is exclusionary and prevents new housing.

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• Adding housing to the market helps to stabilize rents and even drive prices down.

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• Opposition to 3-family houses has no basis in any real data or fact.

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• No connection between increased density, increased flooding, and undue strain on infrastructure

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• We need to change zoning law so people can work out of their homes as accountants, hair stylists, cooks, etc

• Newark has flexible zoning laws that have permitted over 36K housing units since 2016 adoption. Newark residents organizations depend on existing zoning to help protect against negative and predatory development.

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• This is a simplification disputed by economists who analyze housing markets segmented like Newark’s. Many have found similar zoning changes in other cities heighten speculation, land prices, and residential displacement.

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• Issue is not 3-family houses, which are already permitted in 75% of neighborhoods, but impacts from broad-brush upzoning of every block in city.

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• Increased water, waste, traffic, and stormwater management needs are real and need to be part of planning.

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• These activities are already legal under current zoning.

Discussions in the press

4 Areas for Revision

1. Lower Housing Standards and Environmental Injustice
2. Problem Businesses and Residential Blocks Converted to Commercial
3. Overcrowding and Threats to Affordability Due To Allowing More and Smaller Apartments in Every Building
4. Less Resident Say in Development Review

• Lower Housing Standards

and Environmental Injustice

New polluting businesses allowed near homes including

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Heavy Manufacturing

Electrical and Gas Switching Facilities

Exterminator/Pesticide Businesses

Truck, Tractor, and Trailer Parking

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Less indoor light and air

with lower minimum window requirements

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Require 50% less windows on rear of houses to be 1 square foot of window per 10 feet of facade

Require 30% less windows on apartment buildings front & sides, schools, dropping the minimum from 50% to 35%

7 out of 10 recent developments approved without requiring a Transparency Variance

Smaller yards and less space between buildings

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Eliminates minimum lot size requirements for new buildings

Backyard redefined as a percentage of lot (30% of lot) instead of a specific dimension (30 feet)

More paving and run-off

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Today a Low-Rise Multifamily Building is permitted a maximum 55% paved front yard area (usually six feet deep), and a maximum 30% paved back yard (required to be 30 feet deep). Replacement Ordinance permits the overall percentage of paved yard to be 80% paved

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• Elimination or reduction of conditions and standards for development have a negative cumulative impact on public health and quality of life
• Proposed changes do not do enough to account for impact on infrastructure, environment, and neighborhood character
• Reductions in minimum design standards for windows, permeable surfaces, and setbacks would reduce open space, add to Urban Heat Island effect, exacerbate flooding, and worsen climate resiliency
• Allowing construction on all undersized lots and converting required yards into percentages will result in boxier buildings, closer together with less space, impacting quality of life

Concerns

• Changes in design requirements reduce visual signals important to community safety due to taller minimum fence heights and fewer windows
• Detrimental impacts on overburdened infrastructure::
• Water / Sewer Systems - Increased development will increase contributions to the water and sewer systems. The burden for paying the cost of managing stormwater already falls disproportionately on water users. The City has not yet moved to adopt an equitable system for assessing sewer use fees. New development will exacerbate this challenge until it is addressed.
• Flooding and Combined Sewer Overflows - Proposed changes run counter to ongoing efforts to manage stormwater and floods.
• Traffic / Parking Contradiction - WIthout parking requirements, higher-density allowances will either go unused, as developers may consider them infeasible, or may be permitted, without appropriate space for additional cars.

2. More Problem Businesses

and Hundreds of Residential Blocks Converted to Commercial

Zones that Permit Them

New Permitted Uses on

Neighborhood Main Streets

such as Springfield, Clinton, Hawthorne, Bergen, Lyons, South Orange, Sanford Ave, Mt Prospect, Broadway, Bloomfield, Wilson, and Pacific

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Bars, Lounges, Taverns

Liquor Stores

Body Piercing

Tattoo Parlors

Private Clubs

Tobacco and Vape Stores

Bail Bond Agencies

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Breweries

Cigar/Hookah Bars

Boarding Houses

Hotels with up to 50 rooms

Homeless Shelters

Animal Clinics & Cafes

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Expansion of Commercial Zones (West Ward example)

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EXISTING

C-1 Zones (Small Shopping Areas)

Expansion of Commercial Zones (West Ward example)

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PROPOSED

Concerns

• Expanding areas that permit businesses that have often caused conflicts with neighbors will increase conflict and reduce community safety
• Removing all required conditions for Bars, Lounges, Boarding Houses, Body Art Studios, Food Pantries, Animal Boarding, and 14 other Conditional Uses Threatens Quality of Life and Resident Security
• Remapping hundreds of blocks from Residential to Commercial without individual notices will disrupt residents and fuel speculation

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3. Overcrowding and Threats to Affordability

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The Replacement Ordinance proposes a large-scale experiment dramatically raising limits on residential density, building height and size. This upzoning in combination with the removal of many standards and minimums, creates an incentive for private real estate market actors to seek profits in ways that are likely to de-stabilize neighborhoods and drive displacement.

Due to Allowing More and Smaller Apartments in Every Building

per 3500 sf

Redefinition of R-3 Zones (3-Family Residential)

Redefinition of R-2 and R-1 Zones (2- and 1-Family Residential)

All 2-Family Buildings Approved to Become 3-Family

All 1-Family Buildings Approved to Become 2-Family

Commercial-2 & Mixed Use-2 Zones

Proposed Density Changes

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Concerns

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• Encourages speculative development and reduces affordable housing supply
• Creates Incentives to target and replace rent-controlled buildings and “Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing” (NOAH) buildings with higher-density buildings earning greater rent rolls.
• Kites up property values, usually captured by current landowner
• Promotes studios and one-bedroom apartments rather than family-sized housing due to greater density than height allowance.
• Infrastructure stress on water, stormwater management, transportation, traffic, etc

• More crowded housing conditions through subdivision of existing buildings
• Scattershot development instead of strategic and focused development
• Higher barriers for nonprofit and small-scale developers due to increased land sales prices justified by new higher allowable densities
• Conflicts due to requirement for 1 parking space per unit
• Higher permitted densities will raise assessments and property taxes, threatening resident homeowners on fixed incomes
• Density increases are additive with bonuses already included in Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance

4. Less Resident Say On Proposed Developments

• Moving many decisions from the Zoning Board to the Planning Board would reduce resident voice in development decisions, shifting power away from residents and toward developers by exempting many uses from public notices and hearings. Instead, these approvals would be done administratively by staff or consultants.

Increased Exemptions from Public Review Process, Loopholes, and Unworkable Provisions

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• Loosens rules so more developments qualify as Permitted Uses, which the Planning Board is required to approve
• Allows City staff or consultant to approve
• Adding apartments to existing buildings
• Changing building use without public notice or public hearing
• 3-family conversions and new construction without public notice or public hearing
• Creates new loopholes and carve-outs such as density and height exemption for Ferry Street
• Sets up burdensome and unworkable requirements such as annual Green Roof Inspections, new Home Business Permits, and Temporary Use Permits
• Includes provisions already struck down by courts such as owner-occupancy requirements and short-term lease ban on Accessory Dwelling Units

• “Nothing About Us Without Us is For Us”
• Moving decisions from the Zoning Board to the Planning Board reduces resident voice in development decisions, shifting power away from residents and toward developers by exempting many uses from public notices and hearings.
• Misses chance to streamline approvals via increased staffing and procedural reforms
• Cutting application requirements and new loopholes make understanding the code more difficult for residents and non-incumbent developers
• Heightened potential for lawsuits to strike down illegal provisions
• More difficult for Planning Staff to negotiate for high-quality development in Newark
• Further locks in planning approval system staffed by consultants lacking detailed knowledge of and relationships in Newark neighborhoods

Concerns

Other Proposed Changes

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• Higher Fences
• Requires higher minimum required fence heights in many locations raised from 4-feet or 5-feet to 6-feet, creating unfriendlier environments and cutting off sight lines. Also prohibits all chain link fences.
• Parking Problems
• Because parking requirements are not changed (generally requiring 1 parking space per apartment), creates contradiction with increased residential density. Will most development be given variances (exceptions) for parking?

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• New Burdensome Permits
• While current zoning allows home businesses, proposed changes require people who work at home on a computer or making clothes to follow the same rules as home medical offices, including getting a zoning permit. Also permits public businesses in backyard buildings.
• Proposed new Temporary Use permits for things that don’t currently require Zoning Permits like Party Tents

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Let’s get residents from all 5 Wards

to let Municipal Council Know We Need

One More Revision on the Replacement Zoning!

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Wed, Nov 1, 12:30 PM

Municipal Council Public Hearing

on replacement zoning ordinance

No need to sign up

Every speaker gets 3 minutes

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More resources: www.linktr.ee/newarkzoning

Sign up for email list: newarkzoning2023@gmail.com

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Additional resources

www.linktr.ee/newarkzoning

• June 2023 Report: Analyzing The Replacement Ordinance
• Ward Info-sheets & Slideshows
• Videos of Testimony to Council

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Questions and group email sign-up: newarkzoning2023@gmail.com

Suggestions for Statements

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State any problems you expect specific proposed changes to cause.

• Try to talk about at least 1 specific proposed change, and not more than 3.
• Many residents have concerns about topics including Housing and Affordability, Environment, Property and Landlords, and Neighborhood Quality of Life.
• Finally, give a few reasons for your expectation. What reasons or direct experiences do you have that the Replacement Ordinance will cause these issues or conflicts in your neighborhood?
• These are statements, not questions.

SAMPLE STATEMENT

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“We already have a challenge with absentee landlords, and LLCs purchasing properties. I’m concerned about allowing 10 units on a lot in the R-3, which now is the 3-Family Residential Zone. This change seems to make it more likely that landlords or new developers will subdivide and flip properties to make more money.

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I think some, maybe many, property owners will take advantage of this change in the zoning rules. I’ve seen how some property owners only care about their bottom line with illegal conversions, code violations, just ugly stuff. So I that’s why I expect that the changes proposed in this Replacement Ordinance will cause harm and undermine the hard-working people and families in our community. I don’t think this fits with my understanding of Mayor Baraka’s vision.”

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2023 Proposed Replacement Ordinance Calendar To Date

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3/15/23 Municipal Council adopt resolution referring Replacement Ordinance to Central Planning Board

3/23/23 City of Newark Released 386-Page PDF of Replacement Ordinance without tracked changes, to repeal existing NZLUR and replace with new ordinance and provides overview presentation at Central High School

3/29/23 Overview Presentation by City of Newark at Our Lady of Mt Carmel

4/3/23 Overview Presentation by City of Newark on Zoom

4/24/23 Central Planning Board Hearing on Replacement Ordinance. Board resolved that Replacement Ordinance is consistent with the Newark360 Master Plan and referred it to Municipal Council for adoption with no suggested revisions

4/26/23 City of Newark Released Tracked Changes Text of Replacement Ordinance, though our analysis found it does not include any proposed changes to Use Tables and Bulk and Design Standards Tables, including only new tables

8/8/23 City of Newark Released 400-page Revised Replacement Ordinance with minimal changes and Municipal Council adopts resolution referring it to Central Planning Board

8/17/23 City of Newark zoom info session on revised proposal

8/21/23 Central Planning Board Hearing on Revised Replacement Ordinance

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August 2023 Revisions

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In addition to many technical corrections and omissions pointed out though the public review process, nine changes were made in response to public comments from over 300 Newarkers

• Accessory Dwelling Units removed from R-2 and R-3 zones
• Convenience Retail and Museums not permitted in Parks
• Hotels within neighborhoods limited to 50 rooms
• Veterinary clinics limited to 3500 square feet and will not keep animals overnight
• Restores some back yard requirements for apartments buildings, but still allows loophole with new percentage requirement instead of straight dimension

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• Lower maximum permitted building height in MX-1 from 6 to 5 stories
• Some conditions places on new warehouses
• Dry cleaning removed from residential areas
• Restores some existing rules for Shelters Massage Parlors, Nightclubs, Wholesale Bakeries, Cigar/Tobacco/Vape Stores, Bail Bond Agencies, Gasoline Stations, Light Manufacturing, Wholesale Trade, Live Animal Markets, Animal Daycare/Grooming, Museums, Small Wind Energy Installations

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