HPO Alert

SOUTHWEST PARK AREA –   MAY 2, 2007 CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON SW REDEVELOPMENT PLAN – 12+ STORY BUILDINGS + 3000 NEW PEOPLE !!!!   
 
Only 24 hours after the City Council receives the Planning Board recommendations on the SW Redevelopment Plan, the City Council intends to adopt the Plan. Come to this meeting May 2, 2007 at 7pm City Hall!!!
 
HPO has very serious concerns about the SW Redevelopment Plan and doubts it will ever produce parks.  While the Master Plan calls for over 7 acres of contiguous park land in the southwest (see facts below), the SW Redevelopment Plan may not produce more than 1 acre at street level.  We will be lucky to get 3 acres total and that is only if we allow 12 story buildings. By the way, most of the 3 acres it would be on top of parking structures and buildings.
 
Let’s get our facts straight about what the Master Plan says about parks for all of Hoboken, including the Southwest:
 

* Page 28, Table III.   Identifies 30 acres of existing parkland in Hoboken as of  2004.

* Page 30, Table III-2.  Identifies 10 acres of open space /parks that was “currently planned” and “proposed for the near future” (among this list was Pier C, Shop Rite, Southern Waterfront walkway and Maxwell)

* Pages 30 – 31.  States that even with the above 40 acres,

 
“Hoboken has a severe shortage of open space and recreational facilities”
 
Hoboken is “well short of open space adequacy standards” which require “2.5 acres per 1000 residents.”
 
“The City should aggressively pursue the creation of new parks, open space and recreational facilities… shown on the Open Space Concept Map… including a series of properties in the southwest corner”
 

* Page 34, Table 111-3.   The Open Space Concept Map identifies 31 new acres of land around the City for parks.  Seven of those 31 acres is to be in the southwest according to the Southwest Concept Plan in the Master Plan.  

* Page 127.   The Southwest Concept Plan identifies all of Block 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14 for park. This is 6 acres located between Paterson Plank and Observer. It is 7 if you include Paterson Plank Road and Marshall Street.