Dear Editor:
In spite of a sorely needed vision and plan for the future of Journal Square, the latest version of the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan remains deficient.
The plan is for our true downtown and the heart of the city, but it fails to reconcile its goal of pedestrian-friendly street life and building heights of 60 stories, combined with 800 parking spaces on the Hotel on the Square site.
There are no infrastructure plans to serve the increased population: no water, sewage, or traffic plans. Not one school is in the plan, and the only new open/park space is the site of the current Hudson County Administration building.
The plan does not address how bicycles can safely access Journal Square. Instead, it creates a “bike island” without sufficient support for the surrounding area.
The plan does not mandate energy-efficient central heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), instead allowing inefficient, individual, through-the-wall HVAC units. For a city attempting to go “green,” this lack is inexcusable. In addition, requiring screening of these units further reduces energy efficiency, and is a feeble solution for the ugliness of facades pockmarked with these units; even with screening, these units compromise building design aesthetics.
The redevelopment plan continues the city’s practice of relying on residential development for tax ratables, when decades of doing so has simply raised taxes for all but tax-abated property owners. Meanwhile, we fall short on creating the living-wage jobs our city desperately needs.
Everyone agrees Journal Square needs a plan. This one should be improved, however, to allow lower heights, include schools and more open space, improve infrastructure, promote higher quality design, and make safe pedestrian and bicycle access a priority.
We must require development to be energy-efficient if we don’t want gas pipelines like the one Spectra wants to build threaded through the City. And we must rethink our overreliance on development for ratables and jobs.
Daniel Levin
onejerseycity.org