The Newark Experience

The Office of Planning and Zoning. "The Office of Planning and Zoning in the Department of Economic and Housing Development is responsible for all planning and zoning board approvals."

Under authority of the act of March 30, 1911, enabling cities of the first class to appoint City Plan Commissions, on June 1, 1911 Mayor Haussling appointed the following citizens as members of the Newark City Plan Commission to serve for a term of one year: Frederic Bigelow, John Cotton Dana, Christian W. Feigenspan, David Grotta, Frederick J. Keer, John H. Kehoe, Austen H. McGregor, Samuel E. Robertson, and Gustavus Staehlin.

Public Land Revisited: Municipalization and Privatization in Newark and New York City

Samuel Stein and Oksana Mironova. International Planning Studies 25(3), 2018, pp. 247-260.

"Public land plays a central role in contemporary urban planning struggles. Using a comparative case study approach focused on the north-eastern US cities of Newark and New York City, we uncover patterns of land acquisition and dispossession that fit five broad and often overlapping periods in planning history: City Beautiful, metropolitan reorganization, deindustrialization, and devaluation, followed by hyper-commodification in New York City and redevelopment amidst disinvestment in Newark.

In 1914 Newark hired Harland Bartholomew, who had studied civil engineering at Rutgers College, as the first full-time municipally employed city planner in the United States. He was responsible for the first comprehensive Newark city plan (completed 1915); the 1947 Newark plan was also prepared by his firm, Harland Bartholomew & Associates.

Harland Bartholomew: His Contributions to American Urban Planning.

Eldridge Lovelace. University of Illinois, 1993.

Harland Bartholomew: His Comprehensive Plans and Science of Planning Rutgers-restricted access

Norman John Johnston. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1964. Available?

City Planning and its Relation to the American Municipality.

Harland Bartholomew. 1915? 8pp. Available?

Harland Bartholomew and Associates Collection

Guide to the Harland Bartholomew and Associates papers at Washington University in St. Louis.

• 1915 Comprehensive Plan
• 1947 Master Plan
• 1964 Master Plan
• 1978 Master Plan
• 1990 Master Plan
• 2004 Master Plan
• 2009 Master Plan Re-Examination Report
• 2012 Master Plan
• 2022 Master Plan

Comprehensive Plan of Newark.

Newark, N.J. City Plan Commission, 1915.

Streets and transportation; Recreation and civic beauty; Housing and public control of private development; and Planning the greater city and a program for future work. Available?

Related Materials

A Four-fold Word for Trees

Carl Bannwart. Newark Shade Tree Commission, 1909.

"In this day of aesthetic awakening, much is being done to bring about the 'City Beautiful..." It is encouraging to the planter of trees to note that all such organizations declare trees to be indispensable elements in the construction of the city beautiful."

Newark City Plan Commission: Minutes (1911-1913)

Handwritten minutes of the Commission. Collection in the Newark Archives and Records Management Center. More...

Report on Public Markets

Newark, N.J., City Plan Commission, 1912. With "Supplementary Suggestions," January, 1913.

Trolley Transportation, City of Newark, N.J.

Harland Bartholomew. Report to the City Plan Commission. Newark, 1913. Available?

Housing Report to The City Plan Commission of Newark, N.J..

E.P. Goodrich and George B. Ford. Newark N.J., Press of Matthew Plum, 1913.

City Planning for Newark.

Newark City Plan Commission. Newark, N.J., L.J. Hardham Printing Co., 1913.

Summarizes the work of the City Plan Commission over two and one-half years. Available?

"Publicity and the City Plan,"

Harland Bartholomew. The American City 11, November 1914, 380-382. Available?

Conference on Inter-Urban Improvement in Newark and Adjacent Municipalities, Newark, New Jersey: Report of the Real Estate Committee, October 14, 1914

Newark, 1914.

A Public Recreation System for Newark: Suggestions and Recommendations by the City Plan Commission.

Newark, N.J., City Plan Commission, 1915.

"A brief review, from the city-planning standpoint, of the value of a comprehensive system of public recreation." Includes tables: Table 1: Public Baths, 1914; Table 2: Public Recreation by Wards, 1914; Table 3: Public Playgrounds, 1914. Available?

The Master Plan for the Physical Development of the City of Newark.

Harland Bartholomew Associates. Prepared for the Newark (N.J.) Central Planning Board. Newark, 1947. Available?

Related Materials

A Preliminary Report on the Scope of the City Plan. No.1 of a Series.

Newark, N.J., Central Planning Board, 1944. Available?

A Preliminary Report on Past, Present and Probable Future Population for Newark, New Jersey

Newark, Central Planning Board. 1944. Available?

Preliminary Report on the Background and Character of the City.

Newark, Central Planning Board. 1944. Available?

A Preliminary Report on Parks, Playgrounds, Recreational Facilities and Schools for Newark, New Jersey.

Harland Bartholomew & Associates. Prepared for the Newark Central Planning Board. Newark, 1946. Available?

A Preliminary Report on the Proposed Military Park Garage for Newark, New Jersey.

Newark, Central Planning Board. 1946. Available?

"A Mayor's Committee,"

Vincent J. Murphy. American Planning and Civic Annual 17, 1946/47, 169-172.

The role of the Citizen's Advisory Committee in the development of the Newark Master Plan.

"The Newark Plan,"

American Planning and Civic Annual 18, 1947/48, 128-152.

Transcript of a National Citizens' Conference on Planning session held in Newark in May 1948. "Introduction," Mayor Vincent J. Murphy, pp.128-130; "The Central Planning Board," Commissioner Peter A. Cavicchia, pp. 131-132; "The Master Plan of Newark, New Jersey," Harry W. Alexander (Harland Bartholomew & Associates), pp. 132-144; "Discussion," J. Anton Hagios (Citizens' Advisory Committee), pp.144-150; "General Discussion," Robert F. Foeller (Planner), pp.150-152.

"Newark Citizens Study the Plan,"

John R. Burnett. American Planning and Civic Annual 18, 1947/48, 170-172.

On Newark's program to generate citizen interest in the implementation of the Master Plan. Burnett was the Executive Secretary of Newark's Central Planning Board.

 Master Plan, 1964, City of Newark, N.J.

Prepared for the Division of City Planning by Candeub, Fleissig, Adley and Associates. Newark, Central Planning Board, 1965. Available?

Re:new Newark: A Demonstration Grant Project

Newark, Central Planning Board, 1961.

"Deliniates the city-wide renewal needs for the City of Newark, N.J. for the ten year period starting 1961."

Land Use Plan - City of Newark - Master Plan 1964

Map from the Newark Public Library Digital Collection.

Newark Master Plan.

Newark (N.J.). Mayor's Policy and Development Office. Consultants, Coopers & Lybrand, Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc., 1978. Available?

Newark's Master Plan: Policies and Strategies for the Future.

Newark, N.J. Division of City Planning, 1990. Available?

Reexamination Report on Newark's 1990 Master Plan

Newark, Plann>ing Board, November, 1999.

Land Use Element of the Master Plan for the City of Newark.

Prepared by the City of Newark Department of Economic and Housing Development and Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. for the Central Planning Board. Newark, 2004.
"The Land Use Element is the only element mandated by the State's Municipal Land Use law to appear in a Master Plan...While the Land Use Element is ultimately about the long term physical development of the City, this plan recognizes that there are many other issues facing Newark, ranging from schools, to parks, to housing. This plan has been specifically crafted so that the City has both the framework and flexibility necessary to address these and other issues." Chapter 4, Land Use Trends and Initiatives, is primarily devoted to synopses of recent major studies and proposals relating to Newark and their implications for the Master Plan and for zoning.

Related Materials

Urban Revitalization and Participatory Governance: A Discursive Analysis of Policy Deliberation in Newark Rutgers-restricted access

Navdeep Mathur. Ph.D. Thesis, Rutgers University, Newark, 2005.

"This study situates the Newark experience within a competing set of policy discourses i.e. policy institutions, developmental processes and political practices to analyze how powerful public and private actors play a dominant role in this 'Revitalization', while effectively excluding the voices and involvement of communities of residents impacted by it." Available?

Shifting | Forward 2025: Newark Master Plan Re-Examination Report.

Submitted to the Newark Central Planning Board February 17, 2009.

Volume 1 Volume 2

Newark's Master Plan: Our City, Our Future

September 2012. Volume 1 Volume 2

"Newark’s new Master Plan will serve as a comprehensive regulatory document that guides the city’s land use, development, preservation, sustainability, and neighborhood revitalization activities through the year 2025."

Newark Master Plan: Mobility Element

Prepared by Sam Schwartz Engineering. June 2012.

"This Mobility Element was prepared for the 2012 revision to the Newark Master Plan...The Mobility Element describes the City's existing Transportation system, issues and needs and prepares the city for growth through 2035."

Newark360: Newark Citywide Master Plan

September 2022