John E. Rahenkamp, FASLA, AICP, son of Willaim Edward and Mildred (Swanson), passed in April at the age of 89.
John Studied under Ian McHarg at Penn and combined “Design with Nature” with a strong moral commitment to provide housing variety and choice to a growing and changing population. He was an innovate land planner, dubbed the Pied Piper of PUD’s by Max Huntooon of House & Home; coined and developed Impact Zoning, which is a model for managing zoning in rapid growth areas, which spawned both Performance Zoning by Lane Kendig and Impact Fees, which John was never comfortable with as his legacy. He was a frequent instructor/speaker for the US Savings & Loan League, Urban Land Institute and the National Association of Homebuilders and taught courses at Penn, Drexel & Rowan Universities over his career.
John’s innovative talents led to the pioneering of a new management organization to support his aggressively multidisciplinary approach to design. Having started RSWA with Walter (Skip) Sachs and Roger Wells, the team implemented a matrix format with design professionals, planners, and fiscal/economic experts organized in professional silos led by a Group Leader responsible for professional development and quality control. Project Managers were the client facing leaders that assembled project teams from the groups. This contrasted with the studio model that was dominant in other design firms.
John was an early resident of Mount Laurel Township and had become the Chair of the Planning Board, and in that role convinced a single family, golf course developer to add multifamily, approved a PUD and a TOD (before they were called that!) of 6,000 units on what was supposed to be a train station, but the train line was ultimately killed by an adjoining municipality. He was also Chair at the time the Ethel Lawrence application was denied, leading to the eventual development of the Mount Laurel doctrine. John gets pilloried in the histories of that era as a “technocrat”, but the reality is that the development was never built even after the judicial creation of the doctrine as it was located in what became regulated wetlands. The irony is that at the same time, John was the expert witness supporting large scale development in several of the cases that had been consolidated in and decided by Mount Laurel II, including Allan Deane (the Hills) and Round Valley (Beaver Brook). His work in subsequent litigation in Mahwah Township led to the 1983 decision that brought the doctrine into the realm of design standards and restrictions, ensuring that compliance sites were actually feasible and provided a reasonable opportunity and not just the illusion of compliance.
After closing the firm in 1995, John became a developer himself and created the Fairview Shopping Center in Delran, and Newton’s Landing in Delanco among other projects.
John was an avid sailor and enjoyed sailing with his family on our GP-14 at the Cooper River Yacht Club and annual vacations to Lewis Bay in Cape Cod. As a former star athlete in High School, John coached baseball teams for Greentree in Mount Laurel, and was the organization’s first soccer commissioner. He was also an enthusiastic model railroader, a member of the New Jersey Division of the National Model Railroad Association. He built, with a crew of good friends, a modest layout in our home in Ramblewood, Mount Laurel, and after moving to his riverfront home in Delanco with an enormous basement, a very large and complex layout that could easily accommodate 20 or more operators for a session. The Clairmont, Lewiston and Western Railroad hosted many open houses and was the basis for numerous articles and clinics over the years. John was also an active operator on many of the local and regional layouts.
John was blessed by a long and happy marriage to Suzanne (Charles), a friend from 2nd grade on. She joined him in marriage while he was a student at Michigan State and was his chief supporter, cheerleader and champion the rest of their 67-year life together. They were blessed by a son, Creigh and his wife Vicki (Gullo) and later by grandchildren, Karl, Gretchen (Penn) and Morgan and great grandchildren, Wyatt, Emmitt, Amato and Ami. They also helped raise his nephew Eric from high school into adulthood. He is also survived his loving and supportive nieces Cindy Herman and Wendy Moyers.
Come celebrate 89 great years Saturday May 30th, from 2pm to 4pm at Sweeney Funeral Home, Riverside. Remembrances to start at 2:30pm.
Interment to follow at First Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Springfield NJ on Monday, June 1, 2026 at 1pm.
