November 14th, 2006

The Hoboken Master Plan identifies over six acres of land located on the west side of the City for new park land. The site which extends from 9th to 13th Street west of Monroe and from 8th to 9th Streets west of Jackson is accessible to all of Hoboken from the new 9th Street light-rail station. It would serve one of the fastest growing residential areas in the City which is desperately underserved by park land.Several years ago the City designated numerous blocks in the central/western part of the City as the Northwest Redevelopment Area (NRA). This redevelopment initiative has brought thousands of new residential units and some retail shops to the west side, along with thousands of new residents of all ages. Unfortunately, when the City designated developers to build out this 35 acre area, it failed to negotiate any adequate new public park space to support the recreational demand of the existing and ever increasing new residents. The City negotiated a paltry .2 acre paved patch of land next to the north end of the Shop-rite parking lot as the only open space for thousand of new residents.

HPO PARK DESIGN

Recognizing the importance of park land to this area, HPO hired a landscape architect to create a park concept plan for the Westside park property identified in Hoboken’s Master Plan. The concept plan (see HPO park design above left) shows the many recreational facilities that could fit on the six acre parcel. The property is large enough to accommodate a “regulation size” soccer field and an indoor recreation center. Year round, residents on the westside would be able to walk to a park and enjoy a number of new recreational opportunities where no park land presently exists.

HPO CHALLENGES DEVELOPER DEAL WITH CITY TO BUILD CONDOS ON WESTSIDE PARK LAND

Hoboken Parks.org is aggressively fighting to make sure this 6+ plus acre park become a reality, as a publicly owned and managed park for active recreation. Unfortunately, the properties included in this Westside park site are under extreme development pressure at this time. In October 2005, a developer, Tarragon\URSA, obtained numerous variances from the Hoboken zoning board to permit it to convert the zoning for the 900 Monroe property from a 4 story industrial use to a 12 story high-rise residential use, despite the property being identified in the City’s own Master Plan as park land. The proposed 12 story residential towers would wipe out a major portion of the 6 acres identified in Master Plan park land on the west side.On November 25, 2005, HPO filed an appeal of the zoning board decision for 900 Monroe to save the Westside park. But even if the zoning board’s variances are invalidated by a judge, Tarragon\URSA has made another deal directly with the City to try to secure their desire for high-rise condo development. Their plan (dubbed “NW Green” in the last Mayoral campaign) would create a new redevelopment zone which would allow residential high rise development not only on the 900 Monroe property but also on seven other adjacent city blocks in the area. To save the Westside parkland, in March, 2005 HPO filed another law suit to challenge the legality of NW Green deal (see “Northwest Green” discussion in the “Review of Mayor Roberts’ Open Space Initiative”). HPO was victorious in January, 2006 when Superior Court Judge Curran voided the NW Green deal as violating the NJ Redevelopment Law and being arbitrary and capricious (See Judge Curran’s Court Order). Nevertheless, the City has publicly stated it will find a way to move ahead to develop the area with condos, as it intended, with Tarragon\URSA.

It is unfortunate that Hoboken residents, through community groups like HPO, have to go so far as and incur the cost of suing our own City government for not following the Master Plan’s recommendations or NJ redevelopment law. The City should devote its efforts to devising a plan to acquire the property for a park.

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