HUD's Director of Economic Resilience to speak at Essex County Forum

Rendering of Freeman Street Gateway Concept Plan.

Harriet Tregonning, Director of HUD's Office of Economic Resilience will deliver remarks at the Urban Essex Coalition for Smart Growth forum 'Creating Great Places in Essex County's Urban Transit Corridor,' scheduled on January 20 from 10:00am to 12:00pm. The Urban Essex Coalition emerged from a pilot project funded through Together North Jersey, a HUD Sustainable Communities grantee awarded a $5 million Regional Planning Grant in 2011. The forum will explore the potential to build mixed-use residential and commercial buildings near five Essex County train stations in Newark, East Orange, and Orange. The areas include the neighborhoods surrounding Highland Avenue, Orange, Brick Church, East Orange, and Newark Broad Street train stations on the NJ Transit Morris and Essex Lines.

Mayors of each of the three municipalities, Ras Baraka of Newark, Lester Taylor of East Orange, and Dwayne Warren of Orange, will speak at the forum. Other speakers include Patrick Morrissy of non-profit revitalization group Hands, Inc., and Jim Kennedy, the former mayor of Rahway, Union County. Several mixed-use developments have been completed near Rahway's train station within the past decade.

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