Hi All,

I'm looking for information on the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan. It was approved by the City Council this summer (Aug 2010). I am looking to see when the development is going to start.
If anyone has any information or any websites they can suggest I would appreciate it.

Thanks for your help!

Someone please wake up my great-grandchildren when JS is complete.

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They definitely ARE. They have paid a consulting company owned by Healy's niece $200,000 to set up a study designed to analyze various competing methods of DOING SOMETHING.
When her work is completed, the results will be handed to a relative of Gaughin's to field test the possibility of DOING SOMETHING. Cost of this much more expensive field testing is yet to be determined.

A flowsheet of methodologies to implement DOING SOMETHING is expected around 2014 when it will be submitted to the full City Council for evaluation and a decision about implementation costs; this of course will be subject to feasibility studies to be arranged.
Several relatives are interested in the contract.

If this all fails, Healy's niece is planning on a study of REALLY DOING SOMETHING.

Of course, since all these studies are expensive, a real estate tax hike is expected. Vega's cousin will draw up the needed feasibility study for the tax increase....$120,000.

Next up: Planning to make plans to revitalize jsq!
How about actually doing something

Jersey City Planning Board unanimously approves plan that breaks Journal Square redevelopment area into 9 zones

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The Jersey City Planning Board unanimously approved a plan last night that maps out the redevelopment of Journal Square for the next 50 years.

The plan now goes to the City Council for final approval.

About 100 people, mostly construction workers, developers and Journal Square property owners, attended the meeting at City Hall.

"The heart of the city has been neglected for a long, long time," Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, a board member, said before voting for the plan.

The "Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan" covers the 211-acre Journal Square redevelopment zone that includes 57 blocks.

The goal of the plan is to concentrate dense, tall development in the heart of Journal Square near the PATH station.

The redevelopment area is broken into nine zones.

The heart of Journal Square, bounded by John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Sip, Summit and Pavonia Avenues makes up one zone, which calls for any new buildings to have a minimum height of 65 feet, which is about six stories.

A $500 million project next to the Journal Square Transportation Center calling for two towers - one 68 stories, the other 50 - has been delayed well over a year due to the economic slump.

Scott Harwood, a partner in the stalled project whose family owns a parking garage behind the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, applauded the plan.

"We have always been at Journal Square and we've seen its ups and most recently during the last 30 years, its downs," he said. "Finally Journal Square is getting the attention it deserves. It will bring more commerce, create more jobs."

Members of local trade unions spoke about how the development would put them to work to help revitalize the center of the city.

"We have people losing their homes, on unemployment, without health benefits," said Patrick Kelleher, president of Hudson County Building Trades. "We need this to be moved ahead."

But some residents, mostly notably members of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association, remained concern that tall towers would dwarf their neighborhoods.

City Planning Director Bob Cotter said residents in the city's Hilltop section don't realize their community is currently zoned for 11-story buildings. Under the new plan, the maximum allowable height would be more in line with one- and two-family homes, he said.

Lincoln Park is not anywhere near JSQ.

JSQ has no park. We have little kids playing in the street and at the JSQ PATH station on that little patch of grass by the Jackie Robinson statue. And yet, none of the plans I have seen ever refer to a park.

For that matter, why don't they open up the EMPTY LOT as a park for the summer? We couldn't get stimulus money to make a temporary park until construction starts? The existing fence could be locked at night.

My fave is to find a listing for "Hoboken vicinity" only to find out later they are talking about UNION CITY.

First off, you must be a realtor to really take offense at that. Second, anyone who has ever gone through the apt renting or house buying process knows that a majority of the ads you see are not completely honest. How many places say "close to transportation" when there's nothing more than a city bus stop down the block? How about the the relabeling of neighborhoods which we were originally discussing? Obviously there are some honest realtors out there, and I have dealt with a couple myself, but many are shady enough to warrant caution whenever dealing with them. Trust is something that needs to be earned. And I'm glad that you brought up car salesmen, because they have a much deserved reputation for the exact same reason!

Really FDS, how abouT
1. NEVER TRUST A LAWYER
2. NEVER TRUST A BANKER
3. NEVER TRUST A CAR SALESMAN
4. NEVER TRUST YOUR WAITER AT A RESTAURANT.
5. NEVER TRUST A COP
6. NEVER TRUST FDS_JC ????

Seriously, to say never trust a realtor is moronic!

Never trust a realtor! when I lived in Brooklyn I used to see ads all the time for apts in "East Williamsburg", which is just a nice way to say Bushwick, I think by now Bushwick has been hippersterized enough that its no longer such a bad word!

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Realtors would have you believe otherwise. I can't tell you how many ads I've seen for apartments and houses claiming to be in Journal Square, only to find out they're on streets like Belmont, Harrison, or even south of Communipaw.

Yeah, except lincoln park is not in jsq, you might a well suggest any other JC park

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Check out lincoln park, it is huge!

So when are we getting a public park? Sine JSQ has none, and the children here have to play on that small patch of grass near PSE&G ....

It's great they want to add more amenities, but when will the actual needs of our community be addressed? We have no open recreation space in this area. No playground. Has this ever been addressed in any of the plans for the area?

Large housing projects and walled low income communities do have a lot of issues. A better solution is to require developers to set aside a certain percentage of units for low income in every building.

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But when we hear about PROJECTS housing the poor, just the opposite pertains "We CANNOT keep housing the poor in these densely packed towers...we must tear them down and build low-rise apartments and town houses."
I guess the rich tend to STACK better.
(350 apartments per tower at Newport is defined as luxury, but 125 apartments per tower at Curries Woods was defined as crowded squalor.)

Moral is that developers make money BUILDING and TEARING DOWN and REBUILDING, the order is immaterial, the height is immaterial...as long as they get to gorge themselves at the public tax troughs.

Oh, how NASTY of Channel 9 to film the goings on in Council Chambers. The light of public scrutiny must feel like the first rays of dawn to a vampire.
"Quick, table this meeting...look Gaughin ran out ALREADY but he has a casket waiting for him at home. "

Regarding the big empty lot off of the JSQ path station, that would be zone 1, which would get the following treatment:

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Also, from what I can gather from the proposal, it's not allowed to be a surface parking lot, anything with a drive-thru (bank, mcdonalds, etc), or gas station/service station/anything that caters to servicing cars.

What is the time frame for this ambitious plan?

Honestly, I feel like anything would be an improvement
at this point.

I don't see Zone 7 on any of those maps, the southern boundary of which is several blocks north of Montgomery/The Beacon.

so that big empty grass and trash area right off the Path station will be what exactly?

A new plan to revitalize Journal City's Journal Square

By Melissa Hayes/The Jersey Journal
May 09, 2010, 3:29PM

Jersey City's long-term vision for Journal Square calls a mix of old and new development with tall, lean buildings concentrated around the PATH station.

The city's Planning Division released a 37-page draft of the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan Friday afternoon.

The plan, which follows a "vision" study for the area that was done in 2007, notes that the redevelopment zone -- which stretches beyond the square to encompass 211 acres of 57 blocks -- is not a blank slate.

"Some streets are quiet and narrow, while others have intensive retail uses," the plan states. "This diversity need not inhibit the City from drafting new development guidelines."

The clear goal of the plan is to push the center of development zone, and therefore the center of the city, skyward.

The redevelopment area is broken into nine zones. The heart of Journal Square, bounded by John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Sip, Summit and Pavonia Avenues makes up one zone, which calls for any new buildings to have a minimum height of 65 feet, roughly six stories.

The zone allows for an array of uses including office space, housing, art galleries, day care centers, night clubs and bars, hotels and bed and breakfasts, and schools. The plans for this zone also call for the widening of Pavonia Avenue.

Rich Boggiano, president of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association, and other members of the association, recently met with a representative from a developer who owns land in the redevelopment zone and expressed concern over the heights permitted by the plan.

Boggiano said he was concerned about eminent domain, but the redevelopment plan specifically says that is not permitted.

Nonetheless, Boggiano remained concerned about the community being "busted up and destroyed."

The exposed PATH rail tracks are another zone and the draft plan says that a deck could be constructed over the rails in future years to create additional open space in Journal Square.

The third zone includes lots along Pavonia, Central and Sip Avenues, Enos Place, Jones Street, and Kennedy Boulevard. The minimum building height in Zone 3 is three stories.

The fourth zone encompasses the majority of the redevelopment area, and is interspersed throughout Journal Square. It allows for the same uses as the first zone, but the minimum height is two stories, with more allowed on bigger lots.

The fifth zone, along portions of Newark Avenue, also sets height based on lot size with a minimum of three stories.

The sixth zone, encompasses historic structures, such as the Brennan Courthouse on Newark Avenue and calls for the current uses to remain the same.

The seventh zone, referred to in the plan as "Deco," encompasses the historic Jersey City Medical Center, now The Beacon, a mixed-use, luxury commercial and residential development.

The eighth zone takes in Bergen Square and calls for two- and three-story buildings based on lot size.

The ninth zone is the smallest and includes a park at the intersection of Sip Avenue, Van Reipen Avenue and Newkirk Street.

The planning board plans to hold public meetings on the plan, and ultimately it would come before the City Council.

Click here to view the plan in .pdf from city government site.

From the recent Jersey Journal article about J.Square development: ???developers said work would start by the year's end, Liz Opacity, as spokeswoman for the developer????

I?m sure Mrs. Opacity will adhere to a policy of strict transparency!

Jersey City promises to meet with residents on new Journal Square plan

Thursday, February 11, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City planning officials will hold a meeting with residents and community groups before moving ahead with a Journal Square redevelopment plan.

City officials agreed to meet with residents after they expressed concerns at Tuesday's Planning Board meeting.

"There's nothing in here that satisfies us," resident Richard Boggiano said. "We're pro-development, we want Journal Square to come back, but we don't want it the way the city wants it."

At issue is a 23-page "Journal Square Core Redevelopment Plan" that the city's Planning Division presented to the Planning Board Tuesday.

The plan is a scaled-down version of a 2007 "Vision Plan," which covered a 244-acre area with Journal Square at its heart. That plan stalled before the City Council in 2008.

This plan, however, only includes Journal Square itself, which is bounded by Sip, Bergen and Summit avenues and Kennedy Boulevard.

Boggiano said he is concerned because there are no limits on building heights, and he fears he could be looking down his street and see 80-story buildings in the Square.

The plan segments the Square into four different zones.

Three of the zones would maintain the current zoning allowances. The largest of those is a central portion owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Other parcels unaffected are Hudson County College and the former Hotel on the Square site, which is slated for major development.

The former hotel site, being developed by the Multi-Employer Property Trust and Harwood Properties, will include two towers - one 68 stories, the other 50 stories, with 70,000 square feet of retail space and more than 650 parking spaces.

Despite a ground-breaking ceremony last May where developers said work would start by the year's end, Liz Opacity, as spokeswoman for the developer, said the project has been delayed by the economy.

The Square's redevelopment plan would concentrate development along Sip Avenue near Summit Avenue and on Summit Avenue between Sip and Magnolia Avenues.

While there is no height restriction on buildings, the plan calls for the use of floor area ratios, which would limit square-footage and mandate that tall buildings be thinner.

"They're going to have to go with tall, slender, graceful buildings, not long slabs," City Planning Director Bob Cotter said. "We're trying to avoid that because one of the great things about Jersey City is the spectacular views."

The plan calls for mixed-use buildings with offices or residential units on top and commercial space at the street level. It also sets limitations on parking, for example allowing up to one parking space per two apartments to encourage use of public transportation.

A meeting date has not been set, but Cotter said it would be posted on the city's Web site, www.cityofjerseycity.com.

The plan sounds great when you read it, but apparently all the city is capable of is issuing these types of things, rather than effectively encouraging development. The fact that this neighborhood is so underdeveloped is absurd, it contains convenient mass transit options and is 3 miles from Manhattan. We are no farther away than Park Slope in Brooklyn but the disparities are incredible. All NY neighborhoods this close to Manhattan have gentrified and developed incredibly during the last 10-15 years, yet all journal square gets are plans.

Square Pegs! Square Pegs. Square. Pegs.
blogcityblog.com

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If there are developers that will move on developing that area in a high enough density to create revenues higher than the PILOT payments from the proposed project...then i agree with you.

If not, the PILOT payments to the city would be better for JC than the little to no money it currently receives from the land (assuming JC isn?t receiving a lot of money from an empty lot). This is an area where I have not seen a lot of new development, maybe an area that abatements could possibly help generate more revenue for the city?

Here's a link I have posted before....

the new journal square

PS ? I read that Harwood and family got stung by Bernie, don?t know how that will affect the 2-towers progress.

So, basically a YEAR has passed with nothing more than a rubble strewn lot to show for it.
But they have come up with...TADAAAHHHH, a MAP with 4 Zones colored in.
Perhaps next year we will get a papier mache MODEL and the year after that it will be a model in COLOR?

A hundred stories indeed.

(All the while people are being paid to spout this pie-in-the sky nonsense.)

BTW, I have a long memory and the "new" Port Authority Tower at the Journal Square "transportation center" was touted as the anchor hub of the NEW Journal Square...that was 35 years ago.

The Riverview Neighborhood Association has posted a pdf of the plan on their website. Thanks RNA!

PLEASE!!

MORE TAX ABATEMENTS for the WEALTHY DEVELOPERS LIKE DWEK WAS PORTRAYING!

PLEASE MAKE JOURNAL SQUARE A POLICE STATE!

PLEASE BLEED MORE OF MY TAXES TO GIVE CONDO OWNERS --FROM GOD KNOWS WHERE--A BIG FAT TAX BREAK! THEY NEED IT!

Hahahahah!