After eight meetings and many hours of public input, the consultants hired to help the Planning Board re-write the city’s master plan are ready to put what they have heard over the past six months onto paper.Last year the city hired the planning firm of Abeles Phillips & Shapiro Associates, Inc. (APPS), to guide the board through the process of creating the master plan. According to APPS Project Manager Paul Grygiel, generally, a master plan guides the growth, redevelopment, and enhancement of a community. It represents a community’s vision for what type of a place it wants to be, and includes various topical elements.
According to Grygiel, the Hoboken Master Plan will include elements addressing issues such as economic development, transportation, affordable housing, community facilities, open space, land use, and historic preservation.
A reason APPS was chosen was that it pledged to have significant public input, which it has done. The public meetings have been well attended, some drawing over a hundred people. There have been workshops covering issues such as economic development, building and design, and transportation. Also, there have been focused workshops where the consultants met with community groups, such as seniors and business people.
The last workshop was held Saturday, Feb. 1 to discuss geographic area-specific issues. For eight hours dozens of Hoboken residents broke into groups to talk about the issues, challenges, and opportunities that face their own part of town.
Following that meeting, APPS officials said they are prepared to write draft versions of the master plan. "We are at a turning point," said John Shapiro, a partner of APPS, at the meeting on Feb. 1. "We’re now ready to wrap up the initial public comment portion and begin to come up with some concrete ideas."
According to Grygiel, the first draft should be ready by late spring, likely by late May or early June. The draft of the plan will be presented at a public meeting, and the community will be able to comment verbally or in writing at one or more public hearings.
Grygiel added that it has been nearly two decades since Hoboken has re-written its master plan, and because of the evolving character of the mile-square city, it is a process that is well overdue. "Hoboken is a great place to live, but it is becoming a victim of its own success," said Grygiel in an APPS release about the master plan process.
The release refers to the 2000 census stating that Hoboken gained over 5,000 residents and 2,500 new dwelling units between 1990 and 2000, both increases of around 15 percent. "New development is transforming neighborhoods, complaints about traffic and parking abound, and open space is at a premium. Yet the city’s last full master plan was prepared over 20 years ago, and its mapping system is antiquated," Grygiel said.
Last Wednesday Mayor David Roberts said that he is pleased with how the master plan process is proceeding. One of Roberts’ biggest campaign platforms was his pledge to re-write the city’s master plan. "So far it’s been an incredibly successful process that has generated a great deal of interaction with the public," said Roberts. "This meeting [Feb. 1] was really the culmination of the public input portion, and now it is time to tie all of this commentary together and develop the first draft of Hoboken’s new master plan."
Feb. 1 meeting
Another reason that APPS was chosen to head the process was that the firm assembled a respected group of sub-consultants it promised to bring on board. At the Feb. 1 meeting, the interested citizens divided into three breakout groups.
In these groups, sub-consultants feverishly wrote down the residents’ ideas as a healthy debate ensued about how to improve Hoboken as a community.
The first was the center city/Washington Street group, moderated by Mary Krugman and Norman Mintz. This group discussed economic development of the city’s historic corridor and how to improve the attractiveness and economic success of that area of town, including extensive discussion about the preservation of the city’s historic buildings. Mintz is nationally known as an expert in downtown rejuvenation. He is the co-author of the highly respected book Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown.
Krugman, who heads the historic preservation aspects of the master plan, has been involved in projects throughout New Jersey and is the former director of Preservation New Jersey.
The second group discussed the waterfront/terminal area, and the third discussed the west side/northwest area. Both of these groups were moderated by Fox & Fowle Architects and Project for Public Spaces, Inc. (PPS). The waterfront/terminal group talked about how to regulate waterfront development and optimize open space along the waterfront, while the west side/northwest area group conversed about the scale and character of development residents would like to see on the city’s west side.
Fox and Fowle are experts in architecture, urban design, and waterfront issues. The company is one of the nation’s top design firms, and specializes in "green," or environmentally conscious, building techniques and regulations.
PPS is a nationally-renowned, non-profit technical assistance, research, and educational organization that has worked in over 1,000 communities within the U.S and abroad since its founding in 1975, helping cities to grow their public spaces in vital areas. Local projects have included Bryant Park, transit-friendly development for NJ Transit, and traffic calming in Manhattan.
As the meeting concluded, Grygiel said that while the initial public comment portion was over, APPS is still receptive to ideas residents might have about development and quality-of-life issues in Hoboken. Those interested can send an e-mail message to hoboken@appsplanning.com or call Grygiel of Abeles Preiss & Shapiro at (212) 475-3030.