45k = northwest hoboken transformed into heaven on earth!

Our City Council recently voted to pay 45K for the creation of a new northwest Hoboken redevelopment plan. The article from The Jersey Journal is below. HH would have done it for 10K. Then we could have then used that extra 35K to buy trees for our new 4 acre park. Or something.

* * * * * * * * * *

Friday, October 05, 2007

By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

HOBOKEN - The City Council has approved a $45,000 contract to create a plan to develop 10 acres at the western edge of the Mile Square City.

The City Council, which passed the resolution by a 5-3 vote at Wednesday's meeting, awarded a contract to create the West Side Redevelopment Area study to Manhattan-based planners, Phillip Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc.

Once complete, the plan will detail how a developer for the area will have to deliver mixed-use residential and retail buildings with a new recreation center, swimming pool and a four-acre park running alongside the Light Rail tracks, Community Development Director Fred Bado said.

As envisioned, the park will include playground equipment, a dog run and a bike-and-pedestrian path. The city's Master Plan calls for the path to one day circle the entire city.

On July 18, a council resolution designated the area - roughly bounded by the railway tracks between Ninth and 14th streets - as the Western Edge Redevelopment Area, based on a study authored by the same consultants.

The area includes the west side of Monroe Street from Ninth to 12th streets, the west side of Madison Street from 12th to 14th streets and the west side of Jefferson Street between 12th and 13th streets.

Apart from a new 12-story condominium development at 900 Monroe St., the area is comprised mostly of vacated industrial buildings, with one trucking company still operating there.

The designated developer will build and then convey the completed pool, recreation center, and possibly the park, to the city, officials said. And the project will also follow the state requirement of making 10 percent of the new housing as affordable housing units.

The planning process will take up to six months before an ordinance goes before the City Council for a first reading.