HOBOKEN – Share your thoughts about how Hoboken, and neighboring coastal cities, should protect themselves from future storm surges and flooding at a public meeting on Thursday, Dec. 10 from 6 to 9 p.m.
The meeting, hosted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), aims to solicit input on potential concepts for the Rebuild by Design Hudson River: Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge project. In September, a public meeting was held to discuss the scoping portion of same very project (updates of which will be provided at the upcoming meeting).
“I hope everyone will come and join this important discussion about how to best protect our City from future severe storms while also preserving access to our treasured waterfront,” Mayor Dawn Zimmer said in a press release.
The meeting will be held at the Wallace Elementary School gymnasium at 1100 Willow Ave.
Over a hundred people attended the first meeting at the Multi Service Center to discuss the beginning stages of the $230 million project, including Mayor Zimmer, City Council members, and residents. The plan is designed to avoid the kind of disaster that Superstorm Sandy caused in October 2012 when flooding and power outages were fervent throughout Hoboken.
A year after the storm, which exposed many of the mile square city’s weak spots in regard to flooding, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Rebuild by Design competition to spur innovative ways to fend off future storm surges and heavy rainfall.
After gaining the $230 million for the first phase of the “Hudson River Project: Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge,” the meeting was a way for the city, contractor Dewberry whose experts were on hand, and the state DEP to gauge the public’s perception of the project’s scoping portion: the feasibility, design, and environmental analysis of the project as a whole.
Though the $230 million was provided to the state, it is Hoboken’s prize for winning the “Rebuild by Design” competition with the inclusive anti-flooding strategy it developed. The concept also encompasses southern Weehawken, and northeastern Jersey City in the event of a Superstorm Sandy-level storm event.
At the upcoming meeting, the Rebuild by Design team will introduce five concepts to the community to provide feedback on. Ahead of the meeting, residents can look over project updates and documents at www.rbd-hudsonriver.nj.gov. Read our story “Turning back the tide” on the first meeting at www.hudsonreporter.com.
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