HOBOKEN—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a notice in the U.S. Federal Register on Thursday officially allocating $230 million to the state of New Jersey for the Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge project for Hoboken, Weehawken, and Jersey City. The flood prevention proposal, produced by a team for firms led by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, was one of seven to win funding through the Rebuild by Design competition.
The award for Hoboken was first announced by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in June. A grant notice is the first key step in the multi-governmental bureaucratic process through which the $230 million will make its way to Hudson County. The next step is for New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to produce an action plan detailing how it will use the funds.
Once the state’s action plan has gone through a mandatory public comment period and been approved by HUD, the money will be disbursed to the state in a smaller phase for planning, with shovel ready projects only receiving money once the design is complete. Grantees have only two years to spend HUD funds once they have been allocated, though they can request a waiver to extend the deadline.
The full federal notice can be found here.
Also this past week, the Rebuild by Design competition won the 2014 Community Development Award from the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, according to an ArchDaily report.
“The unprecedented scale of the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy was a wakeup call for Hoboken,” wrote Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer in a letter nominating Rebuild by Design for the award. “It became increasingly clear that the city’s future depended on urgently addressing our risk to flooding. For a relatively small city like Hoboken, the Rebuild by Design competition presented a unique opportunity to undertake a challenge of this magnitude.”
HUD grant notice makes $230 million for Hoboken flood-proofing official; ball in state’s court
