Establish a balance between commercial development while protecting and preserving adjoining established residential neighborhoods.

Promote safe and convenient pedestrian and bicycle circulation, as well as access to public transportation.

Promote the continuous greening of this corridor, with street trees, plantings, rain gardens and other vegetative treatments that soften the streetscape, constitute pedestrian and visual amenities, and provide stormwater management benefits.

Promote the retrofitting, over time, of existing single-story suburban-style building types and site layouts with more appropriate building types, and pedestrian-friendly site layouts.

Protect the privacy of the residential neighbors in the rear portion of these blocks, while offering a wider variety of goods and services within a short walking distance from their homes.

Retail, including grocery stores.

Office, including medical and shared office suites.

Personal, professional and business services.

Art galleries, artist studios and art-related enterprises.

Hotel and hospitality, including extended-stay facilities, inns, bed-and-breakfasts, and conference centers.

Civic and governmental uses.

Educational uses.

Houses of worship.

Recreational, health and fitness uses.

Movie theaters, live performance theaters and performing arts facilities.

Green building certification. New building construction shall seek to approximate LEED Gold standards or equivalent. Actual commissioning and certification are not required. The applicant shall explain whether the project satisfies the requirements for certification, and if not, where it falls short and for what reasons.

Building facade modulation. In buildings over two stories in height, building facades longer than 40 linear feet must be vertically divided into bays that reflect the building's vertical structure. The vertical separation into bays does not require a building facade offset and can be accomplished through the use of pilasters, change of surface building material, change in color, vertical planting treatment (espaliers) or other vertical design expressions. Vertical separations (as defined above) greater than 40 linear feet may be acceptable if the applicant can convincingly demonstrate that this expanded rhythm is structurally based and that there are strong design considerations to justify it.

Cornices. Cornices are required to emphasize a building elevation's horizontal expression. At each step-back in the building's elevation a decorative cornice is required. Decorative cornices may be combined with building parapets. Cornices may be dispensed with if the applicant can convincingly demonstrate to the Land Use Board that this horizontal design element is not integral to the building facade design and is therefore not necessary and that there are strong design considerations to justify eliminating it.

Glazing. The percentage of void areas (windows and other openings) in a primary building facade shall be no less than 40% at ground floor level in mixed-use buildings and no less that 30% in residential buildings. All buildings must have no less than 30% in upper levels. Lower percentages of glazing are permitted if the applicant can convincingly demonstrate that the reduced percentage of building facade dedicated to glazing is appropriate to the building type and design intention, that the overall effect is not visually overwhelming and that there are strong design or other considerations to justify it.

Blank walls. Blank walls (walls without openings or glazing) that extend for 50-plus linear feet are not permitted. Exceptions are permitted for green walls (with live vegetation), walls with permanent or temporary decorative wall art (mosaics, frescos, other two- or three-dimensional artistic expressions and retail displays), decorative patterns or large format panels displaying graphics.

Building attachments. Awnings, building overhangs, canopies, projected windows, French balconies, wall-mounted signs and roof overhangs may encroach up to a maximum of two feet on the minimum front yard setback as well as the public right-of-way.

Elevations. All building elevations visible from the public realm shall receive a unified treatment. This does not mean that all elevations must be clad in the same material, but it does mean that if different materials are used on different elevations, they must be of equivalent quality. It is not permissible to use quality cladding on the front (or primary) elevation and cladding of a lesser quality on the others.

Elevations - parking structures. The elevations of a parking structure facing a public street, public space or public right-of-way shall be attractive. Brutalist, prefabricated, concrete structures with continuous openings are not permitted. Openings in the facade for ventilation shall be covered with decorative metal grilles, metal screens, high-quality architectural fabric or other decorative treatments. Climbing vegetation or other similar treatments are encouraged to soften parking structure facades.

Green roofs and white roofs. Green roofs are encouraged. They shall be easily accessible to the building's tenants and users and shall be designed as an amenity. In residential buildings, green roofs may function as community gardens, unless an appropriate amount of land is allocated for this purpose elsewhere on site. If a green roof is not considered appropriate, a white roof will be used instead.

Building entrances. Primary and secondary building entrances shall be easily identifiable with prominent architectural features and shall not occur simply as voids between buildings or undistinguished openings in the building facade.

Rooftop appurtenances. HVAC, elevator shafts and other mechanical rooftop appurtenances shall either be designed to complement the building's architecture or shielded from view from the street and surrounding buildings. If screening is used, it shall be consistent with the architectural design and materials of the building or achieved through appropriate landscape treatments.

Utility boxes. Ground-mounted electrical, signalization or other utility boxes are not permitted in prominent locations in the front yard area unless they are incorporated into the design of the building and/or its landscaping plan. All ground-mounted utility boxes shall be thoroughly screened from view wherever they are located. Alternatively, they may be treated as an arts display and graphically decorated, subject to Arts Council oversight.

Street trees. Shade tree plantings shall comply with the Borough's landscaping standards. Ideally, shade trees should be a minimum of three inches in caliper and 10 feet high at the time of planting, and planted no more than 30 feet on center along the front of any building, next to the curb. This standard shall be adjusted as needed to reflect conditions where existing utility poles and overhead wires occupy the sidewalk area next to the curb. Street trees shall be planted in appropriately sized tree wells, with appropriate watering and feeding techniques. The area around the tree can be planted with groundcover, covered with a decorative metal grate, or paved with granite blocks, provided the tree roots receive adequate moisture. Street tree species and minimum sizes shall be recommended by a certified landscape architect or local arborist and conform to Section 24-9.15d of the Borough's Land Use Regulations. All street trees and landscaping shall have a two-year maintenance guarantee.

Ground cover. Nonpaved ground areas shall be landscaped with hardy grass species, shade trees, flowering trees, evergreen and deciduous shrubs, perennials and bulbs. Only plant materials with proven resistance to the urban environment and to local soil and weather conditions shall be utilized. Suitable plant lists are found in Section 21-9.15 of the Borough's Land Use Regulations, and are also available through the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry - Community Forestry Council and the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association.

Foundation plantings. Where feasible, the areas along the base of the building wall, not including the entrances, shall be planted with appropriate foundation plantings, shrubs and ground cover. Vegetation in large planters may also be acceptable in certain circumstances.

Streetlights. The PSEG "Bound Brook" post and lighting fixtures, or another post and lighting fixture considered acceptable by the Planning Board, shall be used along all public street frontages. Sconces and other wall-mounted lights on building walls may be placed to reinforce streetlights or, as an alternative to streetlights, if it can be demonstrated that the overall lighting environment will be equivalent to what would be achieved through streetlights. Contemporary lighting fixtures are encouraged for illumination of open areas within each site. Building-mounted lights are also admissible. All pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular circulation areas, as well as public and semipublic spaces, shall be appropriately lighted. Site lighting shall be shielded to minimize night sky and prevent direct glare into adjacent residential windows.

Sidewalks. Sidewalks shall be provided along all streets to facilitate pedestrian circulation. Sidewalks in the public right-of-way shall have a minimum, unobstructed width of six feet, measured in from the curb, unless the applicant or the Land Use Board determines that they should be wider, based on projections of anticipated pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Other sidewalks and/or walkways shall be provided as needed to connect pedestrian origins and destinations internal to the site and shall have a minimum, unobstructed width of four feet, depending upon anticipated pedestrian volumes. The sidewalk system shall be designed to provide access to public and private open space and other destinations and ensure uninterrupted connectivity with pedestrian and bicycle trails.

Paths. Paths may be used as an alternative to sidewalks in the interior of sites for connections where lower intensities of pedestrian and bicycle traffic are anticipated. Paths may be built of gravel, macadam or pervious pavers and shall have a minimum, unobstructed width of four feet.

Pervious pavement. The use of pervious pavers and other forms of low-maintenance pervious pavement is encouraged in surface parking lots and in paved public and semipublic spaces.

Public realm obstructions. Trash receptacles, mailboxes, bicycle parking, vending racks, newspaper boxes and other obstructions to the public realm shall be placed in locations where they are least intrusive, most convenient to their users and least disruptive to pedestrian circulation. Benches shall be placed at the edge of the sidewalk. Planter boxes are permitted in the public right-of-way along the base of buildings.