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PLANS
- The mayor’s plans for the park, shown here, include
an “aquatic center,” horseback riding area, outdoor
science center, maritime museum, and beach area.
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A
clash is looming over Liberty State Park, as the mayor's plans
for a water playground have raised objections from park-backers
who decry using the state grounds for private development. The
water park idea is a part of one of three proposals for the
future of the park that a state-appointed committee may finalize
this coming week.
"This is a major war," said Sam Pesin, President of
the Friends of Liberty State Park, last week. "Our park
philosophy is for a free and green, open space,
non-commercialized, non-privatized park."
But Mayor Bret Schundler sees things differently.
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"Why
can't we take 20 acres out of 225 acres and do something that
creates more recreation opportunities?" he said last week.
The administration-dubbed "family aquatic center" has
been proposed for a spot southwest of the Liberty Science
Center, where a soil mound now sits. The soil had been used for
the creation of the "Green Park" (a stretch of public
land on the waterfront) and a boat marina.
The water park would use anywhere from 12 to 18 acres of land,
and would include pools, waterslides and water trails. A private
developer would likely be named to work on the project. Water
Technology, Inc., a Wisconsin-based water park developer, made a
presentation to the park committee earlier this year.
The debate is just another skirmish in the 24-year history of
the state park, and it is a fight over the future vision of the
nearly 1,200-acre (578 of which is water) one-time rail yard and
current major migratory bird path. Critics of the plan argue
that densely-populated Hudson County has a natural jewel that
should not be chipped away, while Schundler sees the plan as
crucial in making the park a linchpin in "the gateway to
New Jersey tourism."
"It's always a balancing act," said Frank Gallagher
last week. A facilitator for a state-appointed park committee
and Administrator in the state Department of Environmental
Protection's Division of Parks and Forestry, Gallagher is
working with the committee to hammer out proposals for the
future of the park's interior. "And in areas like New
Jersey, which is so highly developed, it's a question that is
becoming more and more the major environmental issue of the
day," Gallagher said. What happens in Jersey City, he said,
may be a prelude of what is to come.
Estimates are for 4,000 water park users each day during summer
months, at an admission price of anywhere from $9 to $13. This
newest plan comes five years after Gov. Christine Whitman
ultimately rejected an 18-hole golf course for the center of the
park.
"The 225-acre center portion of the park will be left as a
natural area and will not be developed in any way," said
the Whitman in a 1995 press release.
Out of that golf course fight came the planning committee for
the remaining uses for the park. That committee has been meeting
since early this year and has been charged with putting before
the public alternatives for future uses of the 230 acres in the
heart of the park. The committee may finalize on Monday three
proposals that will eventually go before the public in the form
of two public hearings. The committee will then make a
recommendation to the state Department of Environmental
Protection, and, eventually, the governor for final approval.
Keeping the majority of the interior pristine is a priority for
all the groups, but the alternatives for the peripheral land is
what is sparking the debate.
Three proposals
The first of these proposals would make "protecting the
natural resources of the site" - as the draft reads - the
top priority and maintaining areas at the boundary as a
"passive trail system." A 25-foot buffer would ring
the interior. The New Jersey Audubon Society, which has a seat
on the committee, endorses this proposal.
Proposal two would have "more than passive trails,"
and would allow more space to be used for "informal sports
play" and picnicking in areas on and around the existing
soil stockpile and ringing the interior. This proposal has the
backing of Pesin and other park groups.
The third proposal would also include the trail system and
"a more active perimeter" as outlined in the second
proposal, but would also include "a high activity
feature" for things like "an aquatic center, ice
skating rink, horse riding facilities, or skateboard
facility..."
Schundler and Liberty State Park Development Corporation
President Peter Ylvisaker - both members of the committee - see
the latter proposal not only as a way to drive up tourism in the
area, but also as a way to fund the park. Funds from admission
or leasing could go toward the upkeep of the park.
"This revenue could be used to further develop or support
park programming or offset operational expenses," reads the
draft proposal.
The politics of surveying
Schundler points to an overwhelming favorable response to his
proposal in a survey his office sent out in June. The survey was
distributed to Jersey City schoolchildren to take to their
parents. The survey also has been posted on the city's official
website. Schundler aide Liz Jeffery said that approximately
1,100 respondents voted in favor of the mayor's plan and
approximately 100 voted for the "passive recreation
only."
But that survey, argues Pesin, is "deceitful, unethical and
meaningless." The reason, he explains, is that the survey
included only two options: the first "natural space"
proposal and the mayor's "active proposal." It didn't
include the second "informal sport and recreation"
plan, leaving only, as Pesin put it, "the two
extremes."
Responded Schundler: "The bottom line is, I don't remember
anybody talking about a third option. The issues are having the
park be natural area, or are you going to have some active
recreation?"
Yet as early as January, 2000, a 27-page "Interior Park
Plan" listed several DEP-penned options for the interior,
including the "DOT Dirt Pile Site" that "will
also be re-landscaped as lawn area and be replanted with
appropriate trees and vegetation," as well as less formal
"landscaping initiatives" to "foster interpretive
and educational opportunities" and a "multi-purpose
trail system."
Critics of the water park say that the estimated crowds of 4,000
per day would bring crippling traffic, take away free and open
land and damage the ecology for the remaining open areas of the
park.
The mayor and his backers say they got the idea for the park
when the crumbling long-time park pool was closed last year.
It's more than just the water park
For someone like Greg Remaud, President of the Liberty State
Park Conservancy and a New York/New Jersey Baykeeper, and an
opponent of the water park, these "political
decisions" are to the park's detriment. "What we're
starting to get is a very mediocre park," he said. A master
plan for the park could prevent future fights like this one, he
said.
Liberty State Park was created in 1976. Once part of a wide
tidal bay, it became a landfill site and later a canal, rail and
ferry terminus with factories and warehouses. Morris Pesin,
father of Sam Pesin, is considered the "father of Liberty
State Park." He spearheaded the creation of the park that
now has hundreds of species of birds, water life and plant life.
Ospreys, Great Blue Herons and horseshoe crabs all claim the
park as a home.
Sam Pesin thinks the mayor should look for city-owned land if he
wants to develop a water park, but park development corporation
president Ylvisaker said, "They did look at alternative
sites, and this is the only site they believe is
available."
Ylvisaker said that Pesin, in his opinion, has "closed his
mind" and is not willing to compromise.
In an October letter to Ylvisaker, Pesin wrote, "The NJDEP
Interior Planning Committee and public meeting process is not a
compromise. It's not a negotiation. It's a careful planning
effort to create the best plan possible - the best alternative
possible."
Plans large and small are in the works for areas in and around
the park. A Chelsea Piers-type Sports Complex on Phillip Drive,
with soccer fields, basketball, swimming, ice hockey and in-line
skating, is expected to be developed on a 14-acre car impounding
site across from the proposed water park. The mayor envisions
swimming in the Hudson on the southern portion of the park. He
also sees conferences held on Ellis Island and the construction
of an "old time railroad line" for tourists.
"After a few days of theater, shopping and dining,"
the mayor's statement on the park reads, "some of the 36
million visitors to New York City can be brought to Jersey City
for some fun in the sun at Liberty State Park, followed by an
excursion to the farms of Hunterdon County or the main streets
of Phillipsburg. Getting there can be part of the fun via an
historic train coach ride from the Central Railroad Terminal or
its vicinity. International visitors will then know more of
American life. And New Jersey's historic downtowns (so hurt by
"mallization") can be brought back to life by train
fed tourism, without cars!"
Long-time park advocate and conservancy board member Audrey Zapp
said preservation of the existing park is crucial for the
future. "We don't want the children of Jersey City and
their children to not see the treasures of this park," she
said. "We want to share this amazing wonderland with future
generations."
Schundler was equally adamant.
"I don't think [using] 10 percent diminishes what we're
doing here," he said.
It's a debate that likely will not go away soon, and the future
is on everyone's mind.
"If we want to keep New Jersey a place where people want to
live, work, and raise their children, protection of open space
is critical," said Gallagher.
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| Reprint
from The Jersey City
Reporter 2000 |
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