To kick off the two cities' participation in the program, NJ DOT commissioner Jack Lettiere has conveyed $100,000 checks to officials of both communities, to be used for transportation improvements around their transit hubs. The transit village designation, however, opens up a wide range of state planning assistance and grants for the cities and for private sector developers involved in projects there.

The state's aim with the program is to get more people living and working near mass transit as a means of easing highway congestion. The program was launched during the administration of Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and expanded during the tenure of Gov. James McGreevey.

For New Brunswick, the focus is the city's downtown train station, which serves as both an NJ Transit commuter hub and an Amtrak stop. City officials say they hope to spin new development off from a 23-story residential building already under construction just across the street from the station.

In Jersey City, the focus is Journal Square, which includes a major bus terminal and one of the busiest stops on the PATH light rail system. The site already has a 130-unit residential building under construction, and new Mayor Jeremiah Healey has already given priority to getting the vacant Hotel on the Square redeveloped. The 14 previous designations have gone to Pleasantville, Morristown, Rutherford, South Amboy, Riverside, Rahway, Metuchen, Belmar, Bloomfield, Bound Brook, Collingswood, Cranford and Matawan.