An Update from the NJ MAP Team

About the NJ MAP Platform

Launched in 2012, NJ MAP began with a focus to provide free maps and information to municipalities and concerned citizens. This mission aimed to take data that is often not easily understood without a professional planner or engineer and make it usable for everyday citizens. Municipalities often lean on the expertise of planners to understand the intricacies of their built and natural environments. However, this professional service is often costly and complex for rural, sparsely populated areas and urban townships alike. NJ MAP provides information tools that function across all 563 municipalities, supporting a comprehensive approach to land management. Free, real-time access to planning information for all stakeholders results in a better informed and more equitable decision-making process. NJ MAP is made possible by a team of eleven talented individuals, including graduate and undergraduate students.

NJ MAP aims to democratize data for planning that would typically require special expertise and financial resources not always equitably available to all communities and stakeholders. Equipped with this knowledge, community stakeholders are better able to explore and understand both the positive and negative impacts of different environmental planning decisions in real-time.

Project Spotlight Fall 2023

The NJ MAP team is proud to announce the release of Conservation Blueprint Plus+. Blueprint Plus is a more robust, data-driven, and interactive version of our traditional site. It uses the same Conservation Blueprint Models that were developed in the original tool for identifying priority lands for preservation. What’s new in Blueprint Plus is how those models are used.  In Blueprint Plus, the Conservation Blueprint models are normalized by tax parcels. Prior to Blueprint Plus, Conservation Blueprint model rankings were calculated for a continuous grid of ¼ acre patches of land, without reference to parcel boundaries. Calculating model rankings for parcels makes it easier to do ranking-based, parcel-to-parcel comparisons, which is useful because land conservation is often done at the parcel level.

Coming Online in Spring 2024

State Plan & Redevelopment Plan Update

NJ MAP is thrilled to be the  mapping team to support the Office of Planning Advocacy on the update of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP). This effort will bring about much needed policy and changes along with state agency coordination. The NJ MAP team will develop an interactive map platform that provides visual support and decision-making tools throughout the update process including outreach to county stakeholders and interagency work groups through cross-acceptance and adoption. The purpose of the beta SDRP Map Viewer is to provide a visual presentation of on-the-ground conditions for municipalities to better understand and engage with the state plan.

-

By Makenzie Franco, Katrina McCarthy, and John Hasse, PhD.