North Trenton/Battle Monument Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Plan

What is the Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program?

The Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program (NRTC) provides business entities a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for funds provided to nonprofit entities carrying out comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plans. Administered by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, NRTC is designed to revitalize New Jersey’s neighborhoods and incentivize businesses to invest in low and middle income communities.

Nonprofit entities must use at least 60% of the tax credit funds for housing and economic development; the remaining funds may be used for supportive services and other activities that promote neighborhood revitalization.

Trenton Health Team will develop a Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit (NRTC) Plan for the North Trenton/Battle Monument area – the same area covered by the North Trenton/Battle Monument Choice Neighborhood Plan and certain projects of the Trenton Neighborhood Initiative.

What is the North Trenton/Battle Monument Choice Neighborhood Plan?

In 2019-2021, Trenton Housing Authority, along with the City of Trenton, Isles, WRT, and numerous other partners, led a community-wide planning process focused on Donnelly Homes and the surrounding area. The resulting plan envisions a North Trenton / Battle Monument Choice Neighborhood that will be a safe, thriving, family friendly, mixed-income neighborhood that fully leverages its unique assets— commercial corridors, opportunity sites, schools, parks, churches, service providers; proximity to adjacent assets – Downtown Trenton, Capital Health, Ewing Township; and its human capital— youth, resident leaders, entrepreneurs, and business owners.

The North Trenton / Battle Monument Choice Neighborhood Plan includes the following elements:

    Housing

• Reversing the decline of North Trenton via targeted demolition, stabilization and infill investment.
• Reimagining the future of Donnelly Homes.
• Rebuilding wealth among North Trentonians.

    People

• Access to high-quality, affordable education from early childhood to college
• Job training and support for small business owners
• Access to healthcare and healthy food

    Neighborhood

• Redesigning MLK Boulevard as a lively main street that exemplifies the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. 
• Stemming the spread of neighborhood blight. 
• Distinguishing the area’s identity and character by celebrating the neighborhood’s layered history and deep sense of community. 
• Strengthening and improving physical connections to major assets and amenities. 
• Creating the physical environment for healthy living.
• Increasing public safety through a coordinated approach based on trust, transparency, collaboration, and physical investments.

For more information, visit THA’s Choice Neighborhoods Planning Initiative page.

What is the Trenton Neighborhood Initiative?

The Trenton Neighborhood Initiative (TNI), a project of Capital Health, is committed to addressing the social determinants that impact the health of Trenton residents, delivering solutions that complement the health care services Capital Health provides. Specifically, TNI focuses on programs supporting home ownership and rehabilitation, job training and employment, digital equity, and healthy beginnings to support the needs of new parents and families, as well as citywide strategies to improve the housing system and reduce lead poisoning. Many of TNI’s programs overlap or align with the goals of the North Trenton/Battle Monument Choice Neighborhood plan. Trenton Health Team is proud to be Capital Health’s implementation partner for TNI. To learn more, visit tnitrenton.org.

Why NRTC?

THT believes the establishment of a NRTC Plan for North Trenton/Battle Monument will foster sustainable investment and development in the neighborhood and its residents, building on years of work already underway through Choice and TNI. Our goal is to adapt the Choice plan and other pre-existing community-driven plans, including elements of TNI, to the NRTC framework. THT and our partners are working to sustain attention and investment in this important part of Trenton, attract as many resources as possible to foster redevelopment, ensure that planning is done on multiple levels to quickly get from study to action, and, importantly, to ensure robust community engagement.

What’s next?

We need your help! Over the coming months, we’ll be hosting several community conversations to make sure that the plan reflects the current priorities of neighborhood residents. Check back here for information on upcoming conversations and, later this summer, a draft of the plan.

Have questions? Want to get involved?  Please contact Alix Fellman at 609-322-8302 or [email protected].