An attempt to pass amendments to the Newport Redevelopment Plan came to a halt last week after Newport residents, downtown neighborhood associations and the City Council struggled for guarantees from the developers.
The redevelopment plan is a master plan that determines how the property in the Newport redevelopment area, on the city’s waterfront, can be used. Created in 1985, it underwent amendments twice during 1988.
The Planning Board had approved of the new amendments and sent it to the council last month. But after hearing the residents’ litany of protests, coupled with Mayor Glenn Cunningham’s request to table the ordinance, the City Council decided not to vote on the ordinance until further discussions with the Lefrak Organization ease the residents’ concerns.
If passed, the ordinance would allow the Lefrak Organization to switch the development of two previously-approved residential buildings to office buildings. The request to switch follows the attacks on Sept. 11 that robbed New York City of seven million square feet of office space and turned Jersey City’s skyline into prime real estate. Already, one million square feet of office space have been occupied since then, and the proposed amendments would have added two million more square feet.
However, neighborhood groups like the Waterfront Association objected to the vague language used in the proposed amendments, and worried that repeated promises of building "open green space" would fail to materialize into the recreational environment residents anticipated. Monica Coe, a member of the Waterfront Association, aided a petition effort that boasted more than 800 signatures in opposition to the proposed amendment.
According to Coe, the open space Lefrak has made in the past is merely a grassy area adjacent to the building, lacking recreational amenities normally associated with open space. The areas clearly state, "Keep off the grass."
Downtown Councilman E. Junior Maldonado expressed the concerns of his constituents to Rev. Francis Schiller, an attorney for Lefrak. Schiller said that the plan guarantees that 33 percent of the land developed will include open space. According to the proposed amended plan, "there shall be a minimum of three parks." While the plan designates the area above the PATH trains for the parks, it does not give specific information as to what the parks will look like. The plan also promises to complete the walkway on the waterfront that will lead to the Hoboken train terminal by 2005.
"We don’t oppose Lefrak," Coe said. "But we want him to do a more responsible job landscaping."
Many residents pointed to the present condition of the Newport complex as an example of failed landscaping, citing narrow sidewalks, a lack of parking and limited space for leisure. Coe also criticized the present open space for failing to be public space for all Jersey City residents because it is enclosed by the buildings around it. In addition, these areas are shadowed by the towering structures they stand next to, failing to let light ever enter, residents claimed.
Heather Gibbons, another member of the Waterfront Association, suggested that the park be built on one of the piers to resemble something like Pier A Park in Hoboken. There, she said, the park would be more inviting to the public, as opposed to the proposed plan that would place it in between several Newport buildings.
Similarly, the Newport Waterfront Association – a separate neighborhood association – expressed its disapproval of the vague language in the plan. A prepared statement by Sonia Maldonado requested that the plans state "the exact dimensions of open green ground, and the exact location of all three parks." The NWA also requested that "true architect renditions" be provided as well.
The complaints won the attention of the mayor and the City Council, as the council unanimously agreed to table the ordinance and schedule meetings with the Lefrak Organization that would include community input for the project.
"My intent was to try to get it tabled after discussing it with the mayor," Maldonado said. "There was enough concern that we should slow it down a bit."
More meetings scheduled
While Cunningham sat down with neighborhood groups on Thursday, an official meeting with the Lefrak Organization is scheduled for Monday, Maldonado said.
Maldonado said he was firmly committed to open green space.
"Will it be like Pier A [a grassy recreational pier in Hoboken]?" he said. "I’d like it to be the goal," he said. "We’ll shoot for the stars and see where we get."
Cunningham agreed that his administration is committed to open green space. "I want to make it clear that I’m talking about a park environment as opposed to a space with no building on it," he said. Cunningham added that the park should be accessible from a main street so that it can be used by all residents. "We want the waterfront community to be interactive with other neighborhoods."
Following up on his campaign theme of creating "golden neighborhoods," Cunningham said that he plans to release his "enhancement policy" next week that will detail the city’s demands from corporations requesting tax abatements.
Cunningham said that the enhancement policy is designed so "all of Jersey City benefits from the waterfront." He intends to address these needs to Lefrak as well in reference to these proposed plans.
Depending on the upcoming negotiations, the proposed plan could be further amended or it could be scrapped and begin from the original redevelopment plan once again.