Full Notification

The City of Hoboken will host the first public meeting on January 10, 2011 to solicit community input on the design of two parks in northern Hoboken – 1600 Park and Hoboken Cove. The meeting will be held from 7-9pm at the Rue School gymnasium, 301 Garden Street, NOT at the Wallace School.

“This is an exciting opportunity to build more active recreation fields that we so desperately need,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “We look forward to working with the community to design these parks.”

On December 15th, the City Council voted to approve a contract for Remington and Vernick for the design of both parks. The design phase is expected to be a 4 to 6 month process, including the preparation of bid documents for the construction work. Ideally, construction will begin in spring 2011 with completion early next fall. Any grass fields that may be constructed may need adequate time for seed/sod to take and therefore may not be immediately usable.

1600 Park is located north of 16th Street between Willow Avenue and Park Avenue, while Hoboken Cove is east of Park Avenue and north of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway just north of the Hudson Tea building. A related Hudson County project, Weehawken Cove, is an 800 foot stretch of Hudson River Waterfront Walkway adjacent to the Hoboken Cove area that will connect Weehawken to Hoboken and include a kayak and boat launch. Due to their proximity, 1600 Park and Hoboken Cove will be designed as one comprehensive, cohesive park.

Because the project had been stalled for many years, the City risked losing grant funding due to inaction. More than $1 million in site remediation funding which was nearly lost was saved when the Zimmer Administration jumpstarted the project in late 2009.

Environmental cleanup of 1600 Park is complete, and the City is awaiting approval from the DEP that the remediation is satisfactory. Remediation has been contracted out for Hoboken Cove, which includes more extensive remediation than 1600 Park.

To complete the design and development phase, the City has a $1 million Green Acres grant for Hoboken Cove and $237,000 of Hudson County open space funds is available toward the construction of the boathouse. An additional $1 million Green Acres grant will go to fund 1600 Park, along with a $700,000 Green Acres loan which may be forgivable and approximately $200,000 remaining from a Hudson County open space grant.

Residents interested in joining the “Friends of 1600 Park and Hoboken Cove” group should email [email protected].