November 14th, 2006

The Hoboken Master Plan identifies over six acres of land located on the westside of the City for new park land. The westside proposed park 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. Several years ago the City designated a 13 block (35 acre) redevelopment area adjacent to the westside known as the Northwest Redevelopment Area (NWRA). The NWRA has brought thousands of new residential units to the west side, along with thousands of new residents of all ages. Unfortunately, when the City designated developers to build out this NWRA, 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 SUCCEEDS IN COURT CHALLENGING 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. 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 unsuccessful appeal of the zoning board decision for 900 Monroe to save the Westside park.

In February 2005, the City also entered into an illegal redevelopment deal with Taragaon/ URSA to expand their high-rise condo development to include not only 900 Monroe but also seven adjacent city blocks in the area. The plan (dubbed “NW Green” in the 2005 Robert’s Mayoral campaign) would have created a new redevelopment zone on land that is identified for parks in the Hoboken Master Plan. Tarragon proposed a series of residential towers with grass on roof tops instead of parks.

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”). On May 30, 2008 after three years of litigation, HPO was victorious in both the lower and appellate courts which declared the NW Green deal void for violating the NJ Redevelopment Law and being arbitrary and capricious (See both court decisions).

Link to upper court decision: Upper Court Decision

CITY COUNCIL TRIES AGAIN TO CREATE REDEVELOPMENT ZONE ON WESTSIDE

Knowing it might lose the lawsuit and not wanting to disappoint Tarragon, the City decided to redo the process to declare the westside a redevelopment area. On July 18, 2007, only days after meeting privately with Tarragon/URSA, the City Council voted to designate eight blocks (11 acres) of property on the west side (48% owned by Tarragon/URSA) as a redevelopment area (“Western Edge Redevelopment Area”). The City hired a planner to create a redevelopment plan for the area. The proposed Western Edge Plan was presented to the public and generated much criticism. The Plan calls for highrise residential development (over 1.4 million square feet of development with only 25,000 s/f (2%) devoted to non-residential development). The plan proposes 1000+ high-rise residential units in 3 buildings with heights of 12, 14 and 16 stories. The plan fails to provide the park land called for in the Master Plan for this area and does not provide appropriate language to assure the proposed community benefits. The Plan is contrary to the Master Plan which calls for office and commercial development and park land. Major flaws in the plan include a lack of specificty on park land and community benefits. The proposed plan has not been adopted by the City Council due to the mayoral election.

COMMUNITY MEETS TO DISCUSS PLAN AFTER BEING IGNORED IN PLAN HEARINGS

On March 19, 2009, Fifth Ward Councilperson Peter Cunningham hosted a community meeting to discuss the proposed Western Edge Redevelopment Plan. The meeting was held in the 1200 Grand’s Community Room, one of the new buildings developed in the NWRA.

The Westside Plan has energized a new community group on the westside to fight for a better plan- for more information see their web site at hobokenwesternedge.com. 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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