After years of neglect, the Historic Town of Smithville is back.  A Najarian Associates project team, a developer, and attorneys revised the dormant Smithville Planned Unit Development located in Galloway Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey.

Smithville was established in 1787 when a two-room inn was built to serve as a primary stagecoach stop en route from Camden to Leed’s Point.  The town of Smithville grew around the Inn and thrived until the days of the railroad. With the advance of rail lines, stagecoach usage dwindled and everything changed for the formerly thriving settlement.  The Historic Town of Smithville re-opened in the early 1950’s when local historians fully restored the Inn.  Residential development began in the late 1970’s when the Galloway Township Planning Board approved the Smithville Planned Unit Development (PUD). 

Najarian Associates was first associated with Historic Smithville in the late 1970’s. NA’s water quality studies were instrumental in gaining final CAFRA approval after numerous public hearings and court proceedings.  The originally conceived master plan considered 2,375 acres with a development potential of over 6,000 residential units.  During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, several major residential developers constructed different villages within the PUD.  The economic downturn, which occurred in the late 1980’s, stalled construction and left several villages partially constructed and vacant.  Over time, some areas fell into a state of disrepair.

In 1994, a team of engineers and scientists of Najarian Associates were given the task of reviving the Historic Town of Smithville PUD.  One of the first tasks that the Najarian team tackled was to analyze the status of all existing local, county, and state permits in order to extend and modify these permits.  After a year of public hearings -- which were televised by a local cable network -- the Galloway Township Planning Board granted approval of the amended Smithville PUD.  The amended PUD consists of 14 residential villages with a total of 2,400 homes in the Smithville Community.  The amended approval involved local, county, and state regulatory agencies as well as the existing Smithville Community Association and a coalition of environmental groups.

Amending the Smithville PUD required all of the diverse expertise of Najarian Associates.  Some of the unique design elements of the PUD included:

·        delineating and mapping of approximately 305 acres of wetlands;

·        preparing and implementing a surface water and ground water quality monitoring program;

·       design of an innovative stormwater management system which incorporates a pond/lake system in the residential villages;

·        preparing and implementing a Fishers Management Plan for the individual ponds and lakes to provide a source of recreation for the community residents;

·        coordination of threatened and endangered species studies within the PUD boundaries;

·        coordination of Archaeology studies within the PUD boundaries; and

·        extensive regulatory permit applications for local, county and state agencies.

After the planning board granted the PUD approval, Najarian Associates went to work designing the necessary infrastructure required to begin construction.  Currently, one village has been constructed and is completely occupied; two additional villages are under construction.  The design and permitting for a fourth village is currently underway.  This initial phase has a combined total of nearly 800 single-family homes.  The off-site infrastructure required to support a residential development of this size requires proper planning, design and coordination with the local municipality.  Some of the major off-site improvements which Najarian Associates successfully designed include a major township drainage system and over a mile of Atlantic County roadway.

The project has been a great sales success.  Galloway Township officials and the residents of the earlier homes are delighted with the high quality design, recreational amenities and upgraded township infrastructure provided by the project team.