WEST SIDE STORYBOARD
Plan aimed at revitalizing area with housing, schools, 'university village'

Originally appeared in the Jersey Journal on Tuesday, April 29, 2003
By Jason Fink
Journal staff writer

Tree-lined boulevards, an expanded light rail, a "university village" where parking lots and a vacant warehouse now stand; new residents, attracted by a housing boom and up to half a dozen new schools, strolling along the waterfront walkway on sunny afternoons.

Such are the dreams now being conjured by planners, developers, Board of Education officials and New Jersey City University for one of the widest-ranging and ambitious redevelopment projects that Jersey City has seen in years.

Emboldened by the dramatic changes evident on the city's Hudson River waterfront, which during the 1990s saw glass-plated high-rises replace the rusted hulks of old railroad tracks and industrial buildings, officials are pulling out all the stops to create a redevelopment plan for the city's West Side.

"There's going to be a whole new neighborhood developed around that part of town," said Robert Cotter, the city planning director. "This whole thing is really good and it's about time."

The West Side Development Project, as it is informally known, exists now only on paper. But the affected area, color-coded on city planning maps according to relative levels of "susceptibility to change," runs roughly from Bergen Avenue west to Newark Bay and from Danforth Avenue north to Communipaw Avenue.

Plans include building six more schools, housing, retail, an entertainment complex centered around an existing bowling alley on Route 440 and the development of a "west campus" for NJCU where its parking lot and baseball field now stand. The old Baldwin Steel building on the property would be the new home for a charter school and business incubator.

"It could dramatically alter the perception of this part of the city," said Carlos Hernandez, the president of NJCU, one of the area's largest property owners and a driving force behind the design study. "The development going on on the east side of the city should go on on the west side."

The fact that these plans - which also allow for the possibility of extending the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, which now stops on West Side Avenue, across the bay and into Newark Liberty International Airport - are no less than 40 or 50 years from actually being realized has not stopped the push to get the beginning stages of the project off the ground.

On June 18, the city Planning Division will receive urban design plans from an outside consultant it hired, showing, in Cotter's words, "how it might look in 2050."

NJCU will likely be among the first to actually break ground on development directly related to the design study.

The university, which owns not only the 13-acre west campus - where it hopes to build classrooms, dormitories and a parking deck - but several other parcels in the area, hosted a design workshop earlier this month in order to start a conversation about the area's future among elected officials, planners and residents.

Students from NJCU, Rutgers and New Jersey Institute of Technology have already mapped out water and sewerage systems, as well as functions like fire hydrants and lampposts for when development plans become more specific. But even a general redevelopment plan, as well as any kind of zoning changes being contemplated, are at least six months to a year away, said Cotter.

Officials say that by putting together a long-range plan, such as was done with the city's Newport section more than 20 years ago, private developers will be encouraged to invest money in the area, an idea that doesn't always sit well with those who live there now.

"People come in and buy up property and then raise the rent," said Jack Murphy, of Clarke Avenue, a retired employee of a trucking company on Route 440 that closed several years ago. "If they bring in all this development, we won't be able to afford it."

Murphy, like several others interviewed recently near the commercial section of West Side just north of Claremont Avenue, said he had heard nothing of the city's plans.

Despite fears of being "priced out" of their neighborhoods, many seem to agree that something should be done with the large swaths of land, particularly around Mallory Avenue and farther west, where disused industrial buildings are interspersed with vacant lots.

"I certainly feel we have to develop the area," said Councilwoman Mary Donnelly, who represents the West Side. "We have land down there being wasted."

City officials are also well aware that redevelopment plans in the past have often produced friction among long-time homeowners and developers who want to clear existing buildings and put up new ones.

Donnelly, as well as Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, said plans should avoid calling for the city to use its powers of eminent domain to displace any of the thousands of people already living in the area.

"Nobody is in favor of that," said Donnelly.

Cunningham said he has "concerns" about uprooting people but generally praised the overall plan and NJCU for helping develop design ideas.

"The college is stepping into an area that colleges don't usually step into and that's good in this case," said Cunningham.

Hernandez also conceded that the university was moving into uncharted territory but he said development in the school's neighborhood was long overdue and that, as long as it is likely to happen, he wants to have input.

"Wouldn't it be interesting if the West Side corridor, from the light rail to the west campus, could be a kind of 'university corridor,'" Hernandez said.

The 125-student University Charter High School, which now uses NJCU's main campus, will move into the Baldwin Steel building along with the planned business incubator.

Hernandez said the university has some capital improvement funds available and may also bond for money. He also suggested partnering with private corporations to build on the school's property.

Hernandez and city officials eagerly talk about a whole new neighborhood, complete with schools, as well as a waterfront walkway along the bay, near where the luxury Society Hill development now stands.

Christina Rubino, who owns a salon on the West Side, said new housing would be good for business but suggested the city pay more attention to the area immediately, even as planners dream of what will be in the next half-century.

"I would love to see them clean up this area," she said, pointing to litter that had collected on the sidewalk. "My biggest concern is just that they keep it nice."