City Council approves revised Monticello plan

Monday, April 30, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

After languishing on the drawing board for at least two years, the Monticello Redevelopment Plan has finally been approved by the Jersey City City Council.

The revised plan, which was approved without a list of properties to be taken, covers Monticello Avenue between Communipaw Avenue and Montgomery Street.

"We're happy," said Carol Harrison-Arnold, president of the Monticello Community Development Corp., the prime mover behind the revised plan, after the council's vote at Wednesday's meeting.

"The most important thing for us was to stop the inappropriate building of more residential properties on the avenue," Harrison-Arnold said. "Before this (vote) we had no leverage. We've been waiting two years."

Written in 1987, the original redevelopment plan was aimed at promoting residential development along the strip, officials said. But more recently, local groups helped to substantially rewrite the plan to promote commercial development.

But the revised plan ran into trouble when it came to the list of properties slated to be taken, possibly by eminent domain.

At least two local property owners, newly added to the list, claimed they were never formally notified about the meeting.

City Planner Claire Davis explained that since the council was considering a revision to the original plan, the council was under no obligation to notify property owners.

But City Council members then decided to remove the list of properties that might be taken from the adopted ordinance and to notify all the property owners.