Developer Steve Hyman, who is currently under contract to buy the land for $3 million from Conrail, wasn't invited to the meeting. Mayor Glenn Cunningham said he did not want the Sixth Street Embankment project to be tied into other projects that Hyman has on his plate, notably the Flintkote property. Hyman's sale of that property was contingent upon a tax abatement which was voted down by the city council last week.
"I hope that Mr. Hyman would pull out of the embankment by realizing the contribution he would make to the residents of the city," said Cunningham.
Mayor Glenn Cunningham, members of the Embankment Coalition, Conrail and other city officials attended the meeting.
A little history
The embankment, a remnant of the Pennsylvania Railroad that was the premier railway system in America in the early 1900s, is an enormous stone wall constructed of sandstone and granite blocks 400 feet long and 100 feet wide. The embankment reaches a height of 27 feet at its western end near Brunswick Street but is accessible on its other end near Marin Boulevard. Steel girder bridges connected each segment but were dismantled in 1996 by Conrail to be sold for scrap.
In 1998, former Mayor Bret Schundler announced plans to tear down the embankment for the construction of market rate housing. Maureen Crowley, who lives near the embankment, heard about these plans and decided it had to be saved. A meeting was called and about 100 people showed up.
"People thought it would be a 'fait accompli' but eventually from that meeting there would be a series of meetings to explore the embankment as historic, aesthetic and environmental in terms of collecting rainwater and the habitat," said Crowley, president of the The Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Stem Embankment Preservation Coalition since it was started in 1998.
Soon after, there were meetings with Schundler to persuade him to rethink his stance but he was adamantly opposed to any plans to save the embankment and had hired consultants in an attempt to persuade the public there should be development in the embankment area. Eventually, a board of outside experts on historic designations ruled against Schundler, and recommended designation of the embankment as a historic landmark.
The Coalition's goal was to push for the top of the embankment to become a park for the preservation of wildlife and use by the public, as well as linking the site to a network of other green trails down the East Coast. Recently, the embankment was endorsed by the East Coast Greenway Alliance (based in Rhode Island) to be part of the envisioned East Coast Greenway's main route through Hudson County. The East Coast Greenway is a 2600-mile National Millennium Trail that extends from Florida to Maine.
The embankment has now been listed on the State Register of Historic Places, was declared a Municipal Landmark in Jersey City and is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Green from Green Acres
On March 11, the representatives of the state's Green Acres Program announced that Jersey City could qualify for funding in the form of a 75 percent grant and a 25 percent loan to acquire the embankment from Conrail. That lead to last week's meeting.
The closed-door meeting at City Hall lasted for about an hour. Discussion centered on the measures that should be taken to acquire the property by eminent domain and forming a steering committee with the Coalition and city officials to educate the public on the embankment.
What came out of the discussion were the goals to fast-track the application to receive funding from the state's Green Acres program, form the steering committee and start the process for acquiring the property. The coalition recently retained the services of Andrew Strauss, a land acquisition expert, to work with city planner Bob Cotter and others in the administration toward acquisition of the property.
Longtime member of the coalition, Stephen Gucciardo, who was at the meeting with Crowley and preservationist Rick James, was impressed with what took place.
"We're happy that the mayor has renewed his commitment to the embankment," said Gucciardo, "We're happy that the mayor has slated the Embankment Coalition as the group that would be slated as the public representation on the steering committee."
The Flintkote factor
Hyman's option to buy the embankment expires in June, and his lawyer, Carmine Alampi said that plans exercise it before then. According to Alampi, Hyman's plan, if he acquires the property, would be to build both housing and open space. Hyman had already commissioned architectural renderings by Hoboken architect Dean Marchetto for the type of housing would be built there.
At the last City Council meeting on March 10, Hyman and Geibel tried proposing to city officials that the city would be given the rights to the embankment on the condition that they approve abatements for any development that would be built there. The City Council voted down the abatement, which posed a setback for the developers.
Cunningham said recently he is hoping the Green Acres money, along with other funding, would enable the city to buy the property, not tying any acquisition of the embankment with any abatement/property sale deal like Hyman and Geibel had proposed.
The locals say . . .
On a recent visit to a part of the embankment between Marin Boulevard and Grove Street, there were few signs of the railway that once existed, other than some steel stumps jutting out from the earth and a pile of wood.
Nearby residents have various views on how the embankment should be developed, whether as an open space or for other purposes.
"Friends and family who come to visit me wonder just what is that wall? I didn't know that much about it but I hope that it can be developed as a light rail link. Or a dog park or bike trail," said Florian Hill, who has lived on Erie St. with his wife Kate for the past four years.
Aides Alejandro has lived most of her forty years on Sixth Street, remembering the freight cars that used to roll by on the rails. She would be pleased if there's a green trail and a park in the area for kids in the neighborhood.
According to Crowley, the project to transform the embankment into a green trail and a passive park would be block by block development that would take about five to ten years, if the embankment is acquired and in the possession of the city.
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