Trenton can’t build a stronger future without stronger inspection services (part II)

Part 1 made the case that strong inspection services are a foundation of economic development. There are more reasons this is urgent.

Development Is Already Happening

Trenton is not waiting for development to begin. Development is already happening. Across downtown and Trenton’s neighborhoods, owners, developers, nonprofits, businesses, and partners — supported partly by the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation and Mercer County — are rehabilitating historic properties, bringing vacant buildings into use, planning new housing, and renovating storefronts and offices. Each project is capital put at risk in the belief that Trenton has a future. And each eventually reaches the same point:

The work has to be inspected.

A project can have financing, an architect, a contractor, a permit, even tenants waiting — but if required inspections can’t be scheduled promptly, it stalls. A small owner carries an empty building longer; a small business pays rent and payroll while waiting to open; a developer absorbs added loan interest, insurance, and taxes; a nonprofit loses resources meant for its mission; a larger development compounds delays across units and millions of dollars.

Time is money in construction, and unnecessary delay raises redevelopment costs — especially for older buildings that already require complicated rehabilitation. We shouldn’t add avoidable governmental delay on top of that. The City needs to ask honestly: do we have sufficient certified capacity to handle projects underway, let alone the investment we’re trying to attract? If not, increasing capacity isn’t a future expense — it is an immediate economic-development priority.

Prepare for Success, Don’t Wait for Failure

Municipalities often wait for a problem to become a crisis before addressing capacity. Trenton shouldn’t wait until a project is delayed, a developer complains, or an inspector retires. Development is occurring, more investment is sought, thousands of properties require oversight, and every successful rehabilitation creates more workload. Success itself creates workload — a good problem, but only if prepared. The Council and Administration should immediately assess the pipeline and projected workload: major residential and mixed-use projects, historic rehabilitations, nonprofit projects, anticipated certificates of occupancy, expected inspection volumes, and the personnel and certifications needed. The objective: no viable Trenton project should be delayed because City government lacks capacity to inspect it. That is not a request to compromise safety — it’s a request to give the people enforcing standards the resources to do their jobs.

The Moment Is Now

Trenton has spent years talking about revitalization. Today there are tangible projects and investors putting money and futures into the City. We should meet that investment with equally serious investment in our own capacity: properly funding inspection, recruiting and retaining certified personnel, aligning fees with neighbors, reinvesting revenue into people and technology, and measuring performance so everyone can see the system work.

The worst time to discover Trenton lacks sufficient capacity is after someone has invested millions and is waiting for the City to finish the final steps. The goal shouldn’t be enough inspectors for today’s workload — it should be enough capacity for the Trenton we’re building. That Trenton is emerging already.

Recent Fires Remind Us What Is at Stake

There is a more fundamental reason for this investment: public safety. Recent house fires in Trenton — including one that killed two children — have brought home the importance of safe housing and effective code enforcement. No one should suggest a fire was caused by an inspection failure. But these tragedies remind us why building and housing codes exist: because lives depend on them. Electrical systems, heating, structural conditions, smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors, egress, fire separations, and occupancy requirements aren’t bureaucratic technicalities — they prevent tragedy and, when prevention fails, give occupants their best chance to escape safely. That is why certified inspectors matter, and why Trenton should have enough of them.

The State Has a Role, Too

The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) is not a distant observer. Its Division of Codes and Standards establishes and enforces building codes with municipalities and oversees Uniform Construction Code licensing, and its Bureau of State and Local Code Inspections can assume enforcement where requested.

If Trenton struggles to maintain enough certified personnel, the answer isn’t to let capacity deteriorate — the City should work with DCA to identify needed positions, existing certifications and gaps, available training, and whether DCA can help with recruitment or temporary staffing. DCA is itself actively recruiting subcode officials, underscoring how specialized this work is. Trenton should use every available State resource — but State help should supplement, not substitute for, a funded local operation.

Safety and Development Are Not Competing Goals

There is sometimes a false choice between rigorous code enforcement and economic development. There shouldn’t be one. The system that certifies an apartment as safe is what lets it receive a certificate of occupancy. The inspector who flags an unsafe electrical condition protects both the future tenant and the owner investing in the building — and gives developers predictable rules to invest under.

Safety is not an obstacle to development. Safety is a prerequisite for sustainable development. Recent tragedies remind us the stakes aren’t theoretical. Adding certified inspectors and modernizing operations isn’t just about efficient government — it’s about ensuring Trenton can catch dangerous conditions before they become tragedies. That is perhaps the strongest argument of all for giving Trenton’s inspection divisions the resources they need. We owe it to the people who live here.

Willard Alonzo Stanback is a practicing attorney who opened his solo practice in Trenton in 2011. During the first half of 2023, he was the Acting Director of Housing and Economic Development for the City of Trenton.  He is also a former chair of the Trenton Downtown Association (TDA) board and a former board member of Isles and the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation (CCRC). Currently, Stanback is on the board of the Thomas Edison State University Foundation and a member of the Trenton Breakfast Series committee for the Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce (PMRCC).