The Union City Planning Board added another property to its short but growing list of redevelopment areas at their meeting last month.
A parking lot on the corner of Palisade Avenue and Ninth Street was designated an area in need of redevelopment after officials reviewed a study done by Community Housing and Planning Associates, the city’s planning consultant firm based in Fort Lee. This study determined that the area meets the criteria set to qualify as a redevelopment area.
This parking lot, which has been owned by the Union City Housing Authority since 1979, leases spaces on a monthly basis to area residents and is surrounded by three-family homes and apartment buildings.
Although another study is being done to decide what the best development plan would be for the area, Union City Mayor Brian Stack, who sits on the Planning Board, is favoring the idea of a senior citizen building on that site. The property is zoned for mixed residential use, which could include recreational uses, educational uses, places of worship, municipal buildings or residential buildings.
According to Stack, the city’s Housing Authority only owns one senior citizen building. It’s located at 3700 Palisade Ave., which includes 104 units.
"We want to keep our seniors in Union City," said Stack, adding that there is a park across the street from the parking lot that the seniors living there would be able to use.
Stack added that he would include the parking lot in the development plans for this site.
This parking lot is the third redevelopment area named since a Redevelopment Agency was formed in Union City two years ago. The two other areas include the area known as the Yardley Property and the area known as the Swiss Townhouse Property.
The Redevelopment Agency will perform studies to determine the best way to utilize the space in each area. Any plans to develop these areas will then have to be approved by the agency before any developer can move on those plans.
"By making these areas redevelopment areas, we are giving the municipality and the people living in that area more control over what goes up on that property," said Stack.
The Yardley Property covers Palisade Avenue from Fourth to Sixth streets, including the Yardley building, Our Lady of Deliverance Church, an apartment building and a structure known as the Conforti property, which has been vacant for more than 15 years. The redevelopment of that area will not affect Our Lady of Deliverance Church or the apartment building in the area.
The redevelopment area of the Swiss Townhouse Property is a squared-off region on 33rd Street and Hudson Avenue. The city originally intended for that redevelopment area to also include the veteran’s housing complex on Cantello Street, the American Storage Building, and the Italian Community Center across the street from it, but now it just encompasses the Swiss Townhouse Property and its immediate surroundings.
No plans have been approved for development of either of these properties yet.