NPP Coordinator Meeting: January 2025

NPP Quarterly Meeting Slides – January 2025 [pdf]

NPP Quarterly Meeting: October 2024

NPP Quarterly Meeting Slides – October 2024 [pdf]

NPP Grantee Meeting: November 2023

NPP Grantee Meeting Slides - November 2023 [pdf]

Guidelines

• About Advances
• About Grant Agreement Changes

Forms

• Advance Request Form [pdf]
• CCN Progress Report Submission Form [pdf]
• FSR Summary Upload Form [pdf]
• Grant Agreement Change Request Form [pdf]
• Insider Submission Form [pdf]
• NPP Boundary Change Request [doc]

The Neighborhood Preservation Program (NPP) began with the passage of the “Maintenance of Viable Neighborhoods Act” in 1975. This legislation established a program of grants to encourage and promote the social and economic strengthening and development of principally residential neighborhoods. It was envisioned that this would be achieved through the cooperative, concentrated efforts of residents, local lending institutions, businesses, municipal governments, and the State of New Jersey.  In 2019, after a hiatus of several years, NPP restarted anew with a focus on revitalizing mixed-use districts, commercial corridor neighborhoods and downtowns.

The Neighborhood Preservation Program takes a comprehensive approach to neighborhood development, which affords municipalities flexible and creative options for fostering visible and tangible change in their NPP districts by increasing their place value, economic value, social value, and civic value. While the NPP designation and 5-year grant is competitively awarded to municipalities for work in specific NPP Districts (see parcel maps of NPP Districts here), local governments may choose to partner with an official non-profit partner to implement all or some of their program.

The Neighborhood Preservation Program (NPP) directly serves targeted neighborhoods/districts throughout the state and provides $125,000 annual grants, ongoing technical assistance, and training to support the revitalize designated areas that fall fully or partially in low- and moderate-income census tracts and that have met other documented criteria as defined by the DCA. (See NPP-Eligible Municipalities and NPP-Eligible Census Tracts.)  NPP requires the creation and annual updating of a 5-year NPP Implementation Plan that is adopted by each municipality. NPP grant funding, along with a municipal match is used for approved projects in each Implementation Plan.

The annual grant is made to designated NPP municipalities as State budgetary resources permit during the 5-year designation timeframe.  Due to impacts of the COVID pandemic crisis, the term of NPP designation has been adapted to allow for more flexibility in local program implementation. Currently, there are 20 designated NPP municipalities in their third funding year of program work and another 20 entering their second year.

All municipalities in New Jersey that wish to participate in an open competitive application process and demonstrate municipal resolve to form partnerships which are willing to work toward revitalizing a local residential area that meets the “Threatened, but Viable” criteria.

Threatened, but viable neighborhoods are:
Neighborhoods that are beginning to decline but can be rehabilitated and restored by cultivating existing social, economic, financial, and technical resources toward the development and implementation of planned activities that sustain neighborhood vitality.

The Department of Community Affairs notifies New Jersey municipalities when grant funds are available and applications can be submitted online (SAGE).

The following criteria are used in evaluating applications for the Neighborhood Preservation Program:

• Has the municipality demonstrated an understanding of local needs and how the NPP would enable them to address those needs.
• The neighborhood income mix, especially the proportion of low- and moderate-income residents.
• The neighborhood size and extent of problems: Can the area be effectively turned around in a one- to five-year period with the resources available?
• A demonstrated commitment to neighborhood preservation by the public and private partnership fostered by the municipality.

The Neighborhood Preservation Program strives to be flexible in terms of how funds can be applied. The municipality may use NPP grants for any purpose that will lead to the restoration and rehabilitation of threatened, but still viable neighborhoods. Eligible activities include:

• Administrative Costs
• Community Planning
• Housing rehabilitation, code enforcement, related commercial rehabilitation/revitalization
• Educational, self-help activities, neighborhood organization
• Demolition, site clearance, property acquisition and disposition
• Limited infrastructure and public facility improvements in conjunction with neighborhood rehabilitation activities