DCA Introduces No-Cost Tool to Help Municipalities Map Vacant Land
DCA put out a press release on October 2, 2026 announcing NJHOMES Atlas, the vacant land mapping tool built in house by the Data Center team I lead. It went out eight days after Lucas Doell, our software engineering team lead, and I demoed Atlas live for mayors and legislators in the Mayors and Legislators Resource Series. Any New Jersey municipality can use it, and DCA doesn’t charge for it.
My quote in the release
“The Department developed this tool to help municipalities across New Jersey comply with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act efficiently and consistently, at no cost to local government,” said Rozzi. “It reflects DCA’s broader commitment to pairing solutions-focused resources with hands-on technical assistance, so that local officials have the support they need while retaining full authority over their own data.”
The last few words are the design decision I’d point to first. The State’s list is a starting point. Each town decides what ends up in the version it publishes.
What the release covers
The federal 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act requires Community Development Block Grant grantees to keep a searchable list of every undeveloped parcel they own on a public website. Atlas builds that list from statewide property tax records and official parcel data, using the same criteria for all 564 municipalities. The provisional inventory comes to about 42,000 parcels and roughly 110,000 acres.
Town staff go through their own list and flag anything that should change or come off it, with a reason logged for each edit. The corrected list can be published on DCA’s site and embedded on the town’s own. The tool can also group adjacent parcels into larger sites and compare results across municipalities and legislative districts.
Commissioner Jacquelyn A. Suárez made the cost argument in the release: “Local governments should not have to pay a vendor to meet a new federal rule using public records the State already holds.” Stafford Township’s administrator, Matt von der Hayden, said the township plans to take part. DCA is looking for municipalities to join the pilot.
Related
- NJHOMES Atlas, the tool itself
- NJHOMES Choice Tool, the platform Atlas is built into
- NJHOMES Atlas webinar recording
- The Real Cost of NIMBY at the Governor’s Conference on Housing
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