1 1 HUDSON COUNTY OPEN SPACE ADVISORY BOARD 2 IN RE: ) 3 ) TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC HEARING ) PROCEEDINGS: 4 ) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _) 5 Lincoln Park Administration Building, Lincoln Park 6 Jersey City, New Jersey February 23, 2005 7 7:15 p.m. 8 B E F O R E: 9 SARAH CREW, CHAIRWOMAN 10 THOMAS McCANN, COMMISSIONER 11 BRIAN BUCKLEY, COMMISSIONER 12 BOBBIE D. MORGAN, COMMISSIONER 13 WILLIAM LaROSA, COMMISSIONER 14 HENRY SANCHEZ, COMMISSIONER 15 JOSEPH LICCARDO, COMMISSIONER 16 A L S O P R E S E N T: 17 MASSIEL MEDINA, Division of Planning 18 PAUL GLEITZ, Heyer, Gruel & Associates 19 Reported By: 20 21 MICHELLE GRUENDEL, C.S.R. 22 REPORTING SERVICES ARRANGED THROUGH 23 VERITEXT/NEW JERSEY REPORTING COMPANY, L.L.C. Kabot Battaglia & Hammer Suburban Shorthand 24 Waga and Spinelli Arthur J. Frannicola CSR 25B Vreeland Road 25 Florham Park, New Jersey 07932 2 1 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Good evening. 2 Welcome. We're going to re -- not readjourn. That 3 would be great -- call the meeting to order one more 4 time. 5 Without further ado, I am going to introduce 6 you to Paul Gleitz, who is with Heyer, Gruel & 7 Associates. He's our consultant on formulating the 8 Open Space Plan and he will give a little slide show 9 presentation and answer all of your questions. 10 Without further ado, Paul. 11 MR. GLEITZ: Thank you. 12 Hi, everybody. Thanks for coming out 13 tonight. This is our Public Hearing for the Open 14 Space Plan for the County of Hudson. We have been 15 working on it for a while. We were given direction 16 by the County Administration on how to formulate the 17 plan. We came up with a draft, brought it back 18 before this Board, had some work sessions, made some 19 edits, and now we're here tonight to present it to 20 the public in the hope of finalizing the draft so it 21 could be presented to the County Freeholders for 22 their adoption. At that point it will then become 23 the Hudson County Open Space Plan. It will be sent 24 to the State, to DEP, Green Acres for -- to their 25 files to be listed as County Open Space Plan and as a 3 1 part of -- and allowing the county to take advantage 2 of all the funding opportunities that are available 3 through the state for open space acquisitions. 4 Thanks for coming out tonight. I'm going to 5 get rolling. If at any time you have any questions, 6 just feel free to stop me. 7 There's still copies of -- this is a slide 8 show presentation that's an overview of a document. 9 If you need a copy of the document, there's still 10 some more over there, as you'll notice. There's 11 plenty more detailed information in the plan itself. 12 I'm just here to give us an overview of what's in the 13 plan, so I'll get started. 14 Here is a beautiful shot of the county, kind 15 of an idea of -- you know, what we want to achieve is 16 really just kind of preserve a special kind of way of 17 life, you guys who live here in Hudson County. 18 Here is a quick list of credits of the County 19 Executive, the Freeholders and the Mayors who were 20 all a part of this process. The Administration was 21 very helpful in crafting the plan. This also lists 22 the members of the Open Space Advisory Board, that's 23 the sponsors of this document, and we also have a 24 list of some special thank you's to some of the 25 nonprofit and academic communities that also helped 4 1 contribute information to the crafting of this plan. 2 So the basic contents of the plan, we have 3 Executive Summary and Introduction, which kind of 4 lays out the basic framework of what we're trying to 5 discuss. We also have -- then we have a Vision and 6 Intent, and that's pretty much a forward looking, you 7 know, 20, 25 years from now, what do we envision the 8 state of open space to be in the county. We then 9 describe the Public Participation process and the 10 results of the Citizen Survey that was conducted as 11 part of the Trust Fund Referendum. There was a 12 section that relates this plan to other plans, both 13 municipal master plans, county plans, state and 14 federal plans, and how this document would be 15 incorporated to the framework of each of those, how 16 they overlap. Then we look at the Existing Open 17 Space Resources throughout the county, designate open 18 space in existence, recreation facilities, the 19 existing natural resources, historic and cultural 20 resources and the scenic resources that are found 21 throughout the county. We then go through an Open 22 Space Needs Assessment, both parkland and facilities 23 deficits that need to be addressed in the plan. 24 There's been a discussion of the Opportunities that 25 exist, including existing initiatives that are going 5 1 on to help strengthen the open space infrastructure 2 of the county. There's also a discussion on 3 redevelopment and information on vacant land in the 4 county. There's also discussion of the Constraints 5 that are in place that affect the ability to protect 6 open space, including rising land costs, development 7 pressure, overlapping jurisdiction priorities. 8 There's a separate section on Brownfields because 9 they're kind of a mixture of both, they're an 10 opportunity and constraint, but the interesting 11 phenomenon they have, I really think, when we get 12 down to it, opportunities for open space in the 13 county, and then we break it down into an Action Plan 14 and Implementation Strategy, so we have our list of 15 priorities. We have a list of open space acquisition 16 priorities and we talk about the other types of 17 priorities in terms of Hudson River Waterfront and 18 other riverfront walkways, recreation facilities and 19 maintenance and expansion, put up a resource area 20 acquisition and so on. For the properties, we have a 21 list, I think it's up to 16 now, acquisition 22 priorities. 23 Then there's, after the Action Plan and 24 Strategy, there are tools to implementing the plan, 25 including a discussion on the DEP, the funding 6 1 process, and then a funding matrix of other sources 2 of funds available out there for open space 3 acquisition the county or the municipalities can also 4 take advantage of, and then, as an appendix to this 5 document is the Vacant Land Survey, and what the 6 Board is basically proposing, that any vacant lands 7 in the county are pretty much candidates for open 8 space, not saying that all of them will become open 9 space, but there can be a start for opportunities to 10 acquire open space. 11 So by way of introduction, it's often 12 important to find, exactly what is open space. Lots 13 of people have different ideas of what it is and lots 14 of definitions of what it could be, and in the one 15 sense, it's undeveloped land. Most people think of 16 it that way. It's also landscapes and areas that 17 build an environment. Anything that's not a building 18 itself can be part of open space, but then you even 19 go beyond that to include scenic corridors, scenic 20 views, historic structures. I don't want to think of 21 a forest, field or meadow as an open space, but 22 historic sites, yards, gardens or yards, vacant lots, 23 athletic fields, these are all part of the mix of 24 what we consider open space, kind of the green in the 25 cultural framework that we, that we live in. 7 1 Why do we need open space? Well, simply, the 2 aesthetic value. It's important to live in beautiful 3 places. It's important to have places that are 4 pleasant and vibrant, that you can interact with, 5 that are a separation from the built environment that 6 we often have to deal with everyday. They also have 7 very important ecological functions which help 8 maintain water and air quality. As you can see, you 9 know, everyday we hear about other disasters, and a 10 lot of times it's because development has occurred in 11 environmental sensitive areas. They also provide 12 recreational opportunities. Not only do we need a 13 place to sit and contemplate, we also need a place to 14 stretch our legs, we become active citizens, and so 15 recreation opportunities are bound in the county and 16 it's important that the citizens take advantage of 17 those, both for mental and physical health. Also, 18 tying it altogether is a sense of cultural identity, 19 you know. A lot of times, you know, when you're on 20 vacation somewhere, you go to open space areas 21 because you want to see what it's like to live 22 somewhere, so those are the places that we want to go 23 visit on purpose. It helps us find who we are as 24 citizens. We're often defined by the park we go to 25 and the recreation activities that we all enjoy, so 8 1 that's kind of some of the basic functions of open 2 space. 3 Now we're going to look at types of open 4 space. A lot of people think of active recreation, 5 soccer fields, football fields, ball diamonds, 6 running tracks, swimming pools, golf courses, skate 7 parks, boat launches, these are -- boat launches, 8 these are typical open spaces. It's part of any kind 9 of a park system, but there's also passive 10 recreation, hiking trails, bird blinds, boardwalks, 11 picnic areas, just quiet places, places that don't 12 involve, you know, a league or a team or a sport or 13 an activity, but just another place, the green space 14 to simply sit and be yourself. There's also natural 15 resource protection type of open space. There's 16 forestlands, there's wetlands, there's species 17 habitat, there's floodplains, steep slopes. These 18 are all natural resources that fall into the open 19 space matrix. Then, there's also historic resource 20 preservation areas. Historic buildings and facades, 21 historic districts, interpretive signage and public 22 and private preservation. These are also part of 23 this cultural identity that we kind of incorporate 24 into our, into our open space protection plans. 25 Any questions now? I'll just keep going. 9 1 As we move into the document, it's important 2 we come up with a plan to really have, define goals, 3 what are we trying to achieve through this plan, why 4 are we even here discussing it, and so the Board 5 agreed upon these set number of goals that Hudson 6 County wants to see for its open space. 7 Number one would be to improve the quality of 8 life of all Hudson County residents. A goal of this 9 plan is to provide accessible recreation to all 10 Hudson County residents; to provide green space for 11 public enjoyment in all of Hudson County communities; 12 and it's also important to ensure the completion of 13 the Hudson, Hackensack and Passaic Riverfront 14 Walkways. One of the county's, you know, most 15 important assets are its riverfront areas. It kind 16 of defines it as a very special place. Another goal 17 is to actively acquire new open space lands where 18 needed and wherever feasible, to continue building 19 our open space infrastructure. It's also important 20 to protect all the remaining areas of critical 21 resources, including wetlands, floodplains, steep 22 slopes, wildlife habitat and open waters. It's also 23 a goal of this plan to help protect important view 24 sheds throughout Hudson County, the Palisades and the 25 riverfront areas and the most obvious areas of scenic 10 1 resources. There's also a goal to link proposed and 2 existing recreation areas into an open space network, 3 not simply isolating recreation opportunities, but an 4 entire network of open space opportunities, kind of 5 expanding your interaction with recreation and open 6 space. It's also to ensure the protection of the 7 county's historic and cultural resources. There 8 are -- every town has a myriad number of exciting 9 historic places and cultural areas, and then you 10 could be protected. It's also a goal to educate the 11 citizenry about existing and future open space and 12 recreation opportunities and to continue efforts to 13 increase the support for these activities. 14 What I think you'll see from the survey, I 15 think the residents of Hudson County already realize 16 how important open space and recreation is to their 17 daily lives. 18 Now, from those goals we get a certain number 19 of objectives. Those are kind of -- you know, we 20 want to know where we want to go, and the objectives 21 of, kind of like, how are we going to get there. 22 These are broken down into several key areas; the 23 first one being quality of life. This plan wants to 24 ensure access to recreation facilities for all 25 residents, young and old, no matter where they live 11 1 in the county. We want to ensure recreation 2 facilities for all age groups. We want to work 3 toward the goal of a 10-minute walk to a park bench, 4 not necessarily just large county parks, but smaller, 5 vest pocket parks, we call them, smaller green areas 6 so everyone has a little green in their 7 neighborhoods. We also want to protect clean air and 8 water for critical resource protection and identify 9 new opportunities for the small, local vest pocket 10 parks throughout the county, so there are recreation 11 objectives. 12 We want to address the needs that were 13 identified in the Open Space and Recreation Needs 14 Assessment for Facilities Deficits. That's an 15 existing document the county has crafted that has a 16 lot of excellent information on what needs to 17 continue to be done in its existing facilities. 18 Ensure the completion of the 1998 Hudson County Park 19 and Recreation Plan for facilities improvements and 20 increase funding priority for the maintenance and 21 upgrading of facilities in county parks and encourage 22 the same prioritization for municipal facilities. 23 Provide scenic walkways and bikeways along the 24 waterfront, all three river waterfronts. It's a goal 25 to expand existing parks and encourage the 12 1 development of new parks, and it's also a goal to 2 continue to react to the public requests for new 3 recreation facilities. 4 Now, aside from recreation, there's also the 5 green spaces objectives that we want to meet as 6 well. Identify vacant parcels in each municipality 7 as possible green spaces; identify existing publicly 8 owned parcels as possible green spaces, not just 9 vacant lands held by private hands, but if there are 10 any surplus properties already in hand, in public 11 ownership, they can be nominated to be part of the 12 open space infrastructure; as well as assessing needs 13 for landscaping and tree maintenance in all of our 14 existing parks. You want to be able to provide 15 incentives for private developments to include 16 accessible green spaces. You know, in Hudson River 17 Walkway, you have to include the walkway as part of 18 it if you are a waterfront developer. Once again, 19 identify new vest pocket parks, and it is also 20 important to coordinate with local officials, 21 adjacent counties, the Meadowlands Commission, state 22 and federal agencies and non-profits as well to help 23 increase green spaces at all public facilities. 24 Next we moved on to walkways. This is, you 25 know, of particular importance. The Hudson County -- 13 1 you won't find waterfront walkways in other county 2 plans because Hudson is classified by these three 3 rivers, so we want to encourage the construction of a 4 coordinated waterfront walkway along all the 5 waterfronts, work with private developers to ensure 6 inclusion of walkways and, once again, work with 7 local partners, adjacent counties, the Meadowlands 8 Commission, state agencies and private non-profits 9 for waterfront, development of -- for development of 10 waterfront walkways. It's important to follow the 11 strategies outlined in the existing Hudson Waterfront 12 Walkway Implementation Plan and the Hackensack River 13 Walk Plan. We also think it's a good recommendation 14 for further planning to go ahead and craft the 15 Passaic River Waterfront Walkway. 16 We talked about open space. We also talked 17 about acquisition, buying new properties to include 18 into your open space inventory, so the county wants 19 to encourage the municipalities to go through the 20 same process and prepare inventories of publicly 21 owned properties to consider for uses, create a list 22 of county acquisition priorities, which you'll see 23 later on in this presentation. We also want to 24 encourage the municipalities to follow suit and 25 create their own lists of priorities for their own 14 1 acquisition, to be sure that we utilize the recently 2 passed Trust Fund, to begin acquisition activities as 3 soon as possible and to partner up with local 4 municipalities, adjacent counties, Meadowlands 5 Commission, state agencies and non-profits for joint 6 acquisition projects. It's always easier to bring 7 multiple partners to a table, more funding to a table 8 to help achieve our goals for new acquisitions. 9 Nothing better than leveraging your own funds with 10 other funds to create more success. 11 We also want to identify areas of critical 12 resource preservation, suggest critical resource 13 ordinances for our municipalities to help prevent 14 development in critical areas, pursue acquisition of 15 any remaining critical resource areas, reevaluate any 16 capital, county capital program in critical resource 17 areas, to make sure they're environmental sensitive, 18 and, of course, pursue cooperation, the same list of 19 possible partners out there. 20 We want to ensure completion of the 21 riverfront walkways to preserve our, the view sheds 22 in Hudson County, protect visual resources of the 23 Palisades and the long range Harbor view sheds, 24 ensure that the new development provides public 25 access to waterfront areas and recreational 15 1 facilities. 2 Then we talk about network links. It's all 3 well and good to have individual parks and individual 4 recreation areas, but it's also, it's an additional 5 bonus if you can link these together into a 6 recreation experience so people can walk, hike, bike 7 in between different parks and have a larger 8 experience throughout Hudson County, so the walkways 9 are going to be a long way towards providing these 10 kind of linkages between the different communities 11 along the way, but just as important as with finding 12 signage to nearby parks so that when you are on these 13 linear connections, you also know how close you are 14 to other recreation, and improve the signage along 15 all the bikeways in the county and create more east 16 and west connections, provide this great north/south 17 linkage. We also need to find a way to create east 18 and west linkages between these north and south 19 corridors. We also want to maximize the access to 20 cultural and historic facilities through public 21 transportation and protecting walkway improvements, 22 and not only do we want to protect these cultural 23 resources, we want to make them available to as many 24 citizens as possible. It's important for the county 25 to actively participate in the existing East Coast 16 1 Greenway and Liberty to Water Gap Trail initiatives. 2 These are two existing initiatives from Maine to 3 Florida that have a biking and hiking path from north 4 to south, and from the Liberty to Water Gap, they go 5 from Hudson County all the way across the Delaware 6 Water Gap. It's another trail that was put 7 together. The existing county greenway has several 8 proposed walkways and bikeways identified as 9 important to follow through on those already existing 10 programs. 11 We think about the objectives we want to have 12 for our cultural and historic sites. We want to 13 preserve the integrity of historic districts and 14 places and preserve structures of significance. We 15 want to encourage the creation of special interest 16 districts which build on the county's unique cultural 17 and historic resources, encourage the municipalities 18 to follow the county's important historical 19 significance, create a list of historic resource 20 acquisition priorities, encourage the municipalities 21 to do the same, utilize the trust funds, begin 22 acquisition activities, encourage the adapter for use 23 of historical lead significant structures rather than 24 a de-construction or reconstruction, and then also 25 encourage the use of the facade easements to at least 17 1 preserve the appearance of historic buildings and our 2 historically sensitive commercial corridors. 3 Lastly, we want to also not only do that, we 4 want to craft a great plan to achieve all these 5 objectives. We also want to let the public know 6 about it, so we want to produce pamphlets and other 7 literature explaining what's in this plan, put all 8 the information on the county's web site, partner off 9 with the Meadowlands Commission, the state and 10 nonprofit groups to advertise and cross promote 11 existing recreational programs that are out there in 12 the different communities and to help develop new 13 ones, where needed, and create new educational 14 signage in existing and proposed recreational areas, 15 work to create school programs to explain the 16 benefits of open space to the next generation. Also, 17 to get out there and explain the existing 18 recreational programs and the benefits of physical 19 fitness to all the youth and assist the Meadowlands 20 Commission in providing public access to and 21 educational programs for the wetlands and other key 22 environmental areas of the wetlands, which is another 23 vital resource for Hudson County's Historical 24 Preservation. 25 Any questions about any of those? I'll 18 1 just -- quick drink and I'll keep going. 2 Now to the Public Participation Process. 3 There was an Open Space and Recreation Survey that 4 was drafted by the Hudson County Office on Strategic 5 Revitalization, and the survey had several questions 6 that were asked of the different residents in the 7 county and they wanted to rank their responses, agree 8 strongly, agree, no opinion, disagree, disagree very 9 strongly, the way it's worded. As you can see, 95 10 percent of the citizens responded, placed a high 11 value on the county's park and recreation facilities; 12 74 percent, very important; and 21 percent said they 13 were important, so nearly everyone feels parks and 14 recreation is important as part of their life-style, 15 and the same numbers and same mix also had those 16 exact same feelings about historic sites, about 17 preserving their cultural heritage for future 18 generations as well, so you can see, there's a strong 19 link and people kind of inherently have an 20 understanding of how important open space and 21 cultural heritage is to themselves in their sense of 22 place and their sense of place in their communities, 23 so it's hard to -- the community gets it and everyone 24 understands how important this stuff is. 84 percent 25 of the respondents said they used a county or 19 1 municipal park or participated in a recreation 2 program over that past year; almost half the 3 respondents have visited local parks on a weekly 4 basis; 20 percent said they use it just about 5 everyday, 20 percent said they go at least once a 6 month; and at least one in 10 citizens said it was at 7 least once a year they wind up going into a park. 8 Only six percent said they really never used any kind 9 of park and 75 percent felt that parks and 10 recreational opportunities were very important to 11 them. Back to the original point. 12 Now, the second half of the survey -- that 13 was the first half, which had the agree strongly, 14 disagree, those type of things. Then there was an 15 open-end session that was asking, well, how do you 16 feel about things, what do you want to see, what 17 don't you like, what do you like, what can we do to 18 improve the recreational experience here in Hudson 19 County, and those responses fell into four basic 20 groups. Equipment and maintenance concerns, fix the 21 gates, fix the doors, fix the bathrooms, fix the 22 water fountains, fix the curbs, those types of 23 things, and more detail is provided within the plan 24 itself as to the actual number of issues that are 25 brought to light, but the second were grouped into a 20 1 number of the types of activities they wanted to see, 2 volleyball, in-line skating, skateboarding, public 3 performances, picnicking, basketball, different types 4 of sports and recreation activities that different 5 citizens wanted to see take place in their parks. 6 Some of them, the response is based -- we looked at 7 the policy and vision. More fields and parks, more 8 sports fields, no more paving, more gardens, more -- 9 so it was more of a direction that they wanted the 10 Parks Department to go in, and we have those comments 11 collated. Then, the last section was really about 12 facilities, what do we want to see. Number one, you 13 know, and number two were dog runs and swimming 14 pools. People love their dogs, people love to walk 15 their dogs, people love to talk about their dogs with 16 other people that love dogs, and the best place to do 17 that are in these dog runs. There are a couple of 18 these parks, if you go where they have these special 19 enclosed areas, where people can let the dogs run out 20 and play. They're always full of people and people 21 always have a really good time. There's at least 22 22 or 23 different responses. Next on the list was 23 swimming pools, water areas, sprinklers, those kind 24 of -- you know, I don't know if the survey was filled 25 out in August or not, but there was a strong demand 21 1 for increased aquatics. Then, in terms of any kind 2 of -- any sports facilities, volleyball courts were 3 very big, were very high on the list. Lots of people 4 wanted to see increased use of the volleyball 5 courts. Rinks, both ice-skating and in-line skating 6 and skateboarding, we kind of lumped together 7 opportunities for that kind of stuff. Golf courses, 8 of course, was number one. Also, very important 9 here, we have a driving range facility here and 10 there's some proposals for full size golf courses. 11 There are no public courses at this moment in Hudson 12 County and that was seen as a real deficit. People 13 wanted more tracks, hiking paths, bicycling paths, 14 in-line skating paths, any kind of, you know, linear 15 for recreation. There was a call for band shell or 16 amphitheater of some kind for performances throughout 17 the summer. Gardens, both formal gardens and 18 community gardens. There's a calling for just both 19 as an active type of activity in terms of community 20 gardening and a passive kind of, more formal gardens, 21 different types of activities, and as you can 22 imagine, different components had different 23 thoughts. Some people think we really need more 24 soccer fields. Some people think we have enough 25 soccer fields. We need more baseball diamonds, but 22 1 on the whole, I think it was felt that people always 2 like to see more activity fields, so that was kind 3 of, that kind of gave us a direction as what's 4 needed, what's out there, what the community feels 5 and how they feel about the parks. 6 Then we took a look at the Existing Open 7 Space Resources. As of this time, give or take a 8 couple of acres, there is a little over 4,000 acres 9 of open space in Hudson County. When you break that 10 down, there's 550 acres of county parks, nearly 600 11 acres are in municipal parks, over 1,900 acres are in 12 state ownership, the majority of that in Liberty 13 State Park, nearly 900 acres are habitat areas that 14 are managed as wetlands, habitat by the Meadowlands, 15 and there's another 58 acres of federal ownership 16 mostly linked to Ellis Island and Liberty Park, those 17 kinds of things, and then -- so that was kind of a 18 current accounting of what's existing, what's out 19 there. 20 We went around, looked at other parks, and as 21 you can see, the photos were taken. We also did an 22 inventory of the natural resources that are found. 23 There's over 2,000 acres of wetlands. As you can 24 imagine, a lot of it is part of the river marsh 25 system, some of that is already in protection and 23 1 other areas need to be protected. Seven percent of 2 the county is fully considered wetlands. Now, that's 3 not to say that is taken from the statewide wetlands 4 data, but I'm sure if you went out there and did 5 field inspections, you'd probably find other areas 6 that would qualify as wetlands that aren't quite on 7 that northern state line inventory. 8 Floodplains, over, over 10,000 acres. Nearly 9 11,000 acres are within that 100 year flood hazard 10 area. 37 percent of the county. There was a lot of 11 development in that area. That's not all open space, 12 but it's pretty level. Until you get to the 13 Palisades, it's a pretty level county surrounded by 14 three rivers, so as you can imagine, large portions 15 of the county fall within that floodplain. There's 16 actually quite a bit of natural diversity species 17 habitat. There's over 2,000 acres of emergency 18 wetlands habitat, so all the wetlands you see in the 19 county, and also, those wetland areas are actually 20 habitat for wildlife. The state considers them 21 important both for fish breeding and bird breeding 22 ground areas. Forest and wetlands habitat are, 23 rather than having -- like the lower picture you see 24 on the right-hand side, that's just considered 25 emergent wetlands habitat. That's grasslands, all 24 1 types, all types of things, and forest would be, it 2 actually has trees on it, whether it be Maples or -- 3 and other kinds of wetlands, specific type of 4 forestlands. There's other -- 35, 34, 35 acres of 5 forest habitat and another 98 of the grassland 6 habitat, mostly adjacent and as part of the greater 7 Meadowlands, and most of all, there's five Peregrine 8 Falcon nest sites in Hudson County on all the bridge 9 crossings. All the major bridge crossings have 10 Peregrine Falcon nest sites. It's the only county 11 that has that many. It's got a similar distinction 12 in the DEP database, that there's five different 13 Peregrine exotic nest sites right here in Hudson 14 County. 15 Now, in terms of waterways, in the plan 16 there's a description of all three of the major river 17 systems' current condition and the state of 18 development along them. There's also over 600 acres 19 of steep slopes. I'm sure most of you know right 20 along the Palisades there, it's very steep slope 21 areas, but three percent of the land's area of the 22 county is considered to be steep slopes as well, and 23 access development on steep slopes has all kinds of 24 issues. As you can see California right now, what 25 happens when you build too much on steep slopes. 25 1 We looked at the existing parklands, our 2 natural areas, then we have an accounting of the 3 historic sites found on the National Register. Now, 4 there's a brief summary that shows a number of sites 5 that are actually listed on the State and the 6 National Historic Register by city, but within the 7 plan itself there are many more pages of historic 8 sites that didn't quite make it on to the register 9 but were significant enough to be, to have been 10 reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Office, 11 and as I'm sure many of you know, there's probably 12 even more historic sites throughout the county that 13 aren't even on that much more inclusive list. 14 We also looked at scenic resources, which is 15 kind of a, sometimes it's hard to define, but you 16 kind of, you know it when you see it, and so the 17 views of the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline 18 along the Palisades Ridge and eastern edge of the 19 county, views of the Manhattan Statue of Liberty and 20 Ellis Island from Liberty State Park, the view of the 21 Upper Newark Bay from the eastern extension of 22 Bayonne and southern Jersey City, views of the 23 Bayonne Bridge and Staten Island from the southern 24 edge of Bayonne, views of Port Elizabeth and the 25 Newark Bay from the western edge of Bayonne, the view 26 1 of Downtown Newark and the NJPAC from the southern 2 edge of Harrison, the views of the Meadowlands and 3 the Hackensack River from the western edge of 4 Secaucus. These are all seen as just -- I'm sure you 5 all have your favorite, your own favorite place to 6 sit and, you know, have lunch or something like that, 7 but these are seen as the more key areas in Hudson 8 County that offer views that you probably can't find 9 anywhere else, and it's important to do our best to 10 maintain access to those areas so people can continue 11 to enjoy those views for time to come. 12 Now, that would be -- we did a -- that was 13 our inventory, what do we have, what's existing, 14 what's important to us, what's out there, and then 15 the next step in the plan is -- well, that's what we 16 have. What more do we need? We pretty much followed 17 these numbers, and in some cases, you know, a lot of 18 people would say, well, no matter how much open space 19 you need, we can always use more, but the state has 20 come out with certain guidelines and their Open Space 21 Recreation Plan that's considered state policy, they 22 recommend three percent of the net developable land 23 area. That means lands that are able to be 24 developed, not floodplains and wetland areas, are 25 over the areas they removed them from. The equation 27 1 should be set aside for municipal open space, and so 2 when you use this calculation, you can see we have -- 3 you just multiply three percent times the developable 4 land area in each of the cities and towns in Hudson 5 County. We have a column of the need that's 6 generated, that's three percent, the existing, and 7 then what the deficit winds up being, so as you can 8 see, in Bayonne the state recommends a little over 9 200 acres, the city park, and right now they have a 10 little over 100 acres in the city park, leaving them 11 another 100 acres that they should really be actively 12 involved in acquiring to reach that three percent 13 goal. If you go down to Hoboken, you'll see that 14 based on the land size, the state recommends 35 15 acres. They have 41 acres. They actually have a bit 16 of a surplus, with five-and-a-half acres. When you 17 total them all up, the municipalities, aggregates are 18 short nearly 500 acres of open space and that should 19 be -- to be compliant with these general guidelines 20 set by the state. Now, they go further in saying the 21 county should have a large responsibility. The 22 county parks traditionally are larger, they serve a 23 broader community and they're designed to offer more 24 diversion recreation than the localities can provide, 25 so they set that number at seven percent, and so 28 1 there's the calculation. The existing parklands and 2 the deficit numbers, it turns out, in total, to be 3 nearly over 2,000 acres of parkland that the county 4 should consider, continue to acquire to be compliant 5 with the recommendations of the state, so not quite 6 double. They have -- you know, they need to 7 quadruple the number of open space, sorry, but they 8 currently don't, to meet the current standards. 9 Now, as many of you know, Hudson County 10 Executive Office has pledged to double the current 11 open space holdings of the county using the Hudson 12 County Open Space Recreation and Historic 13 Preservation Trust Fund, and the rest of the 14 preservation -- for the rest of the presentation, 15 I'll call it the Trust Fund, because that's quite a 16 mouthful, so to that end, the program statement, this 17 was a statement of policies and procedures. The 18 administration of the fund was granted in 2004 and 19 this document established the process, policies and 20 procedures by which open space fundings will be 21 disbursed. There is a pretty lengthy discussion in 22 the plan as well as the guidelines themselves, but I 23 didn't even think -- further on in the presentation, 24 there's a more lengthy discussion as to how that 25 works. 29 1 We've seen that we have 550 acres of county 2 parkland, we need a little over 2,000 per the state 3 guidelines, and we actually have a commitment to try 4 and get over 1,000 acres right now with the county, 5 the current county administration, so that was a 6 wrong number acres, kind of an -- if you look at 7 parkland deficits, and then the second half of that 8 is the facilities deficits and, you know, Hudson 9 County has a really impressive array of recreational 10 facilities already, but there's plenty of room for 11 improvement, and this is another list of, a little 12 more detailed list of the types of things that the 13 survey revealed that the community wants, dog runs, 14 pools, gardens and green spaces, cycling areas, 15 waterway access, skating rinks, shuffleboard, picnic 16 areas, sports field, amphitheater, all the things we 17 talked about before, and there are specific numbers 18 laid out in the plan as to how many people have 19 requested these through the survey. That's all well 20 and good. We know what we have, we know where we 21 want to go, but what's standing in our way, and these 22 are constraints. 23 You know what, I forgot to talk about 24 opportunities, so let me do that right now. Before 25 we get to constraints, let's talk about 30 1 opportunities. 2 What opportunities are out there for people, 3 how can we move forward. 4 There's plenty of seats over there. 5 PUBLIC MEMBER: I didn't want to 6 disturb you talking. 7 MR. GLEITZ: Come on in, please. Give 8 me a chance to get a drink of water here. Grab a 9 seat. There's plenty of room. 10 I don't have a slide from this, but I'll 11 speak from memory and get you guys out of here. 12 The Hudson River Walkway, the Hackensack 13 River Walkway, the Liberty Water Gap Trail, the East 14 Coast Greenway Trail, these are all existing programs 15 in place designed to help increase recreational 16 opportunities in the county. Part of these trails 17 already exist within Hudson County. 18 Another opportunity out there is vacant 19 lands. These are lands that don't have development 20 on them, they're not being used right now, and every 21 one of them should be considered as a candidate for 22 some type of open space use, not all of them, of 23 course, but each one of them, in its own way, even if 24 it's just a quarter acre or eighth of an acre or 25 100th of a plot somewhere with some trees and park 31 1 benches in it and in a developed neighborhood will 2 provide shade and green and it will improve the 3 quality of life of different neighborhoods, and then 4 there's funding opportunities out there. There's the 5 Green Acres funding opportunity and there's plenty of 6 other programs out there. There's partnerships with 7 non-profits, partnerships with the state, with each 8 municipality. There's plenty of opportunities out 9 there, plenty of people who are also interested in 10 increasing or preserving open space or plenty of 11 people who are interested in preserving historic 12 structures and historic districts. There's always 13 going to be a partner out there for someone to work 14 with to keep moving forward on open space and 15 recreation, so that's the upside, and like we 16 mentioned before, redevelopment, redevelopment and 17 brownfields. This is that kind of double edge we 18 sort of talked about. People think about their 19 brownfields, they're contaminated. Why do we want to 20 bring them into open space inventory? Well, the 21 thing is, these are all sites that might not be -- 22 that were once industrial sites that probably aren't 23 going to be plugged back into the industrial -- the 24 economy has changed, things have changed, land uses 25 have changed. They're not going to be redeveloped as 32 1 industrial sites, but they might have some 2 contamination issues that would also make them very 3 difficult to be redeveloped as other types of 4 commercial or residentials. It's very easy. A lot 5 of these are waterfront sites, because being in a 6 waterfront was part of the industrial infrastructure 7 for a long time, so they are great locations, they 8 just have these contaminations. There's a lot of 9 funding available from the State and Federal 10 Government to clean up these sites, remediate these 11 sites and turn them into green fields, golf courses, 12 playgrounds, green areas, all these kinds of things. 13 You've seen examples of these, converting landfills 14 into open space, you know. You've seen some examples 15 of the Meadowlands, of some amazing transformation, 16 former industrial sites into wetland areas and 17 recreation. 18 (A brief recess was taken.) 19 MR. GLEITZ: So brownfields become an 20 opportunity and the state is far more willing now to 21 look at these kind of places for opportunities for 22 open space than they once were. 23 Now I'll move on to constraints. If there's 24 also opportunities out there and everything is 25 hunky-dory, why don't we have more? Well, there's 33 1 always constraints on open space. Rising land costs 2 is probably the number one -- it's very expensive, 3 and we do a quick thumbnail sketch of property 4 values, vacant property values, just the assessed 5 value, not even the market value. They can cost up 6 to $1 million for an acre of land. In this county 7 it's really expensive, and as you can see from the 8 population, I mean, there's tons of development 9 pressure. Not only is land expensive here -- you 10 know, you can go down to Cumberland County and buy 11 some property for $500 an acre. You can't do that 12 here. It's not possible. Plus, you know, population 13 is on the upswing. More and more people are coming 14 here. More and more people are staying here. More 15 and more families have realized Hudson County's a 16 fabulous place to be, and so they need more and more 17 places to live, so there's increased development 18 pressure as well, and so combining those two with 19 limited resources, you start to get a much clearer 20 picture of why we don't have a lot of parklands. We 21 have a great start, why it's hard to keep going, 22 because it becomes very expensive and there's other 23 competitive bidders throughout who want the lands for 24 other purposes besides open space. 25 Now, another constraint is overlapping 34 1 jurisdiction. We're our own rural state and each 2 town has kind of controlled its own land use 3 destiny. It sometimes gets confusing. Looking at it 4 from a county standpoint, it's very hard to know, you 5 know, I live here and I want a park, who do I talk 6 to, who's in charge of that, how do I -- it can be 7 kind of difficult to get things done, because there's 8 big cities, there's small towns, there's county 9 government, there's state government, and all those 10 overlapping jurisdictions can make it difficult to 11 move forward on projects. There's also another level 12 of approval you need from somewhere. 13 Then the conflicting priorities. I put this 14 up here because I think it's really a false that 15 they -- and people say, well, everyone loves open 16 space, but we have to have development. We have to 17 have economic development. We have to have a place 18 to live. People need jobs. People need -- we have 19 to keep things going. We can't just buy up all the 20 land and preserve it. I think it's, I think it's a 21 bit of a false because I think they can be done 22 together. They have a development to move forward, 23 being sensitive to environmental needs, to open space 24 needs, and I think anybody would much rather live in 25 a development that incorporated open space and green 35 1 areas into it rather than one that did not. I think 2 you'll find the property values increase, more open 3 space is present, citizen satisfaction increases when 4 open spaces are present, and when you have open 5 space, it helps contribute to vibrant living areas, 6 and so if it's only commercial and residential 7 development and it becomes overwhelming, you have to 8 have these green spaces to break that up, and so I 9 really think that it can -- it's another one of those 10 double edge stories where you can, really can move 11 forward with both, if you do it sensitive. 12 Okay. So figure out what we have, where we 13 want to go, what's standing in our way, what's going 14 to help us get there, how do we do it, how do you 15 move forward, and at the very base of it, it's open 16 space acquisition. We need to buy more open space. 17 How do we do that? Well, the biggest contributor in 18 this poor development in the county is the passage of 19 the Trust Fund. In November of 2003 there was -- the 20 ballot question was put out, and two to one, the 21 majority of county voters said yes, we want this. We 22 were willing to dedicate one cent per hundred dollars 23 of the total county real estate property value, so, 24 basically, one cent for every hundred dollars of your 25 property value now goes into this Trust Fund to be 36 1 used for open space recreation and historic 2 preservation. They said yes, we want this. Every 3 county has this now. Most towns have this now. Now 4 I think it's coming up on the rest of the 5 municipalities, to follow the county's lead and move 6 forward. People like parks. People want to live in 7 green neighborhoods. You couple that funding 8 opportunity with a commitment from the county 9 administration to double current space holdings and 10 that leads to the crafting of a statement of policies 11 and procedures. 12 The creation of this Board, of the Hudson 13 County Open Space Board, it establishes the process, 14 the policies and procedures by which the Trust Fund 15 money will be disbursed, to help fund open space 16 recreation, historic preservation profits throughout 17 the county and to also establish procedures, to 18 ensure that the lands acquired with the funding will 19 remain for use in conservation recreation and 20 historic preservation forever, so that the money is 21 used and it's always being used and the use has 22 remained for open space. So pretty much, this 23 program statement of policies and procedures which 24 we've summarized in the document constitutes the 25 rules and regulations governing the review and awards 37 1 of grants. It establishes eligibility requirements 2 for the applicant's review criteria, application 3 review governance, completeness requirements, roles 4 and responsibilities, and funding award categories 5 and criteria, and a certain percentage, 50 percent 6 can go towards open space acquisitions, 25 percent 7 can go towards recreation, 25 percent can go towards 8 historic preservation. It also creates and defines 9 the membership of the Hudson County Open Space Trust 10 Fund Advisory Board. This Board is charged with 11 advising the County Freeholders on the merits of the 12 applications that are -- we have an ever increasing 13 pool of money. Applications are made by towns, by 14 non-profits, by the county itself to utilize these 15 funds. This Board reviews all those applications, 16 weighs their merits and makes recommendations to the 17 Freeholders to actually approve the awarding of these 18 grants. 19 This is the make-up of the Board. There's 20 the member of the Division of Parks, Division of 21 Planning, Division of Housing and Development and the 22 Office of Cultural Affairs, also, the board as well 23 as citizens members that represent conservation and 24 environmental groups, historic preservation, parks 25 and recreation and the greater business communities, 38 1 so it's designed to be a broad, basic approach to 2 have different constituencies represent the Board as 3 they go through and review these applications for 4 final. 5 Now, the Trust Fund monies are available for 6 acquisition of land for conservation and recreation, 7 development and redevelopment of land existing or 8 acquired for recreation or conservation, preservation 9 of historic properties, including the acquisition of 10 such properties for historic preservation, or the 11 payment of debt services on other acquisitions from 12 one to -- one and two and three, to help, even help 13 existing projects come to a completion. 14 So now we have -- the funding is in place. 15 What's next for the county? How is the county going 16 to start its march towards building open space 17 inventory? What we see here is the list, this list 18 for development by county staff, and each of the 19 municipalities and administration, they came together 20 at a series of meetings and developed this list of 21 acquisition priorities. Kearny Point South, the 22 former PJP Landfill in Jersey City, 6th Street 23 Embankment in Jersey City, Reservoir No. 3 in Jersey 24 City, the Enos Jones Park North, the Mori Tract in 25 Secaucus, the North 40 Park in Bayonne, the Perisi 39 1 Site in North Bergen, Passaic Riverbank Park in 2 Kearny, Newark Industrial Track, both in East Newark, 3 Harrison and Kearny, section of the Boonton Line in 4 Jersey City, Kearny, Secaucus, Little Snake Hill in 5 Secaucus, the Vitamin Factory on the Waterfront in 6 Guttenberg, the 1600 Park Avenue Site in Hoboken, the 7 Pool Site in North Bergen and the Park Avenue site in 8 Weehawken. These are seen as priorities for 9 acquisition, and this is the first step towards 10 acquisition. 11 Beyond those immediate acquisition tickets, 12 there's also other programmed priorities that the 13 Open Space Plan recommends and, hopefully, the County 14 Open Space Board will be instrumental in pushing 15 forward. That's the continued Hudson River 16 Waterfront Walkway. There's large sections that are 17 completed. There are gaps that need to be filled. 18 There is a plan in place to do so, and it's just 19 incumbent on the county to move forward and complete 20 that. As different sites become available, new 21 portions will be included. It's also important to 22 follow and to craft both Hackensack/Passaic River 23 Walkway plans that follow along the same lines of the 24 Hudson River Walkway so that all three riverfronts 25 have a plan, to create walkways along the riverfront 40 1 and all the citizens of the county can enjoy. The 2 continued County Recreation Facilities Expansion and 3 Maintenance we talked about earlier. Critical 4 Resource Area Acquisition, wherever they may be. 5 Protection of Historically and Culturally Important 6 Properties and Creating and Enhancing Community 7 Connections. These are all priorities through 8 implementation. What we've done is created an 9 Implementation Plan Table. Within the plan there's 10 charts just like this for each of the goals. This 11 example here is to provide green space for public 12 enjoyment, I just pulled that sample out of these, to 13 identify vacant parcels, identify publicly owned 14 parcels, assess the need to landscape, provide for 15 private developments for vest pocket parks, it also 16 talks about what the level of commitment is and what 17 the time line is. We think some of these can be done 18 in the short terms, six to 18 months after passage, 19 we should have a list of all the vacant parcels in 20 the municipalities. Mid term is 18 months to three 21 years, such things as new opportunities or private 22 developers. Long term is within five years and 23 ongoing are things that the county needs to continue 24 to keep doing over time, to make sure we implement 25 these strategies to help move forward. You can have 41 1 goals, but how do we get there? What's the framework 2 for moving forward on each of these goals and who's 3 responsible for moving forward? We don't have the 4 name, address and phone numbers for who's 5 responsible, but we do identify the basic 6 administration of who's responsible for that. 7 The next one, Implementation Tool. The big 8 chunk is Green Acres Program Matching Funds. The 9 county has an approved source of open space funding, 10 vis-a-vis the Trust Fund, and an approved Open Space 11 and Recreation Plan. Hopefully, what this plan will 12 be, the Green Acres Program within the DEP provides a 13 larger match for land acquisition, so Planning 14 Incentive Grant for counties with an open space levy 15 and an approved Open Space and Recreation Plan 16 provides a 50 percent matching. If it's an urban aid 17 area they can receive up to a 75 percent matching 18 grant. Most of the areas in this county qualify for 19 a 75 percent matching grant. Now, if a county does 20 not have an Open Space Approval Plan, they're only 21 eligible for 25 percent of the acquisition cost, so 22 by going through this process, by being an urban 23 county, by having an Open Space Plan and by 24 considering what's needed and where we want to go 25 forward, the state is saying thank you for going 42 1 through the effort, thank you for doing some smart 2 planning, here is an incentive, here is more money to 3 help you meet your goals. So real numbers, using the 4 75 percent match as our baseline, there was -- the 5 Trust Fund raised last year over nearly $3.5 million, 6 that one cent per hundred dollars of the said value 7 last year on the books. Right now 3.4, nearly $3.5 8 million. We'll divide that by .7 and you get 2.6. 9 You total that up, with a max over $6 million 10 eligible for acquisition projects. Now, if you also 11 appropriate the levy funds to be raised in this 12 current year, 2005, it comes up a little higher, to 13 3.6. You leverage an additional 2.7, its goal for 14 two years, to give you $12.4 million available for 15 acquisition for recreation and for historic 16 preservation. That's a lot of money and that can go 17 a long way, and if you do the planning ahead of time, 18 instead of having $7,000,000 available, you have 19 nearly $12 million available for acquisition costs, 20 which is just amazing. 21 At the end of the document we have more 22 implementation points. We have a funding resource -- 23 this goes on for pages. There's a small snippet 24 here, and what it does is that it lists not only -- I 25 mean, the Green Acres Matching Grants is the biggest 43 1 source, the most convenient source, the most likely 2 source of funds to match Hudson County's own funds, 3 but they're planning other funding opportunities out 4 there. Aid for Urban Environmental Concerns, 5 Emergency Grant and Loan Funds. I'm just listing a 6 few, Urban Environmental Concerns, as an example, 7 Emergency Grant and Loan Funds, Environmental Grants 8 through the EPA, as an example, Garden State 9 Preservation Trust Fund Administrative by New Jersey 10 DCA. These are all examples. There's pages of 11 them. You couple them with the Trust Fund money, the 12 Garden State, the Green Acres' money and other 13 funding opportunities, you really get the ball 14 rolling and get a lot of money, start moving this 15 plan. 16 Then, as an appendix to the plan, we have the 17 vacant land survey. What that is, basically, it's 18 just a listing taken from the tax rolls from last 19 year of all the vacant properties in the entire 20 county. The reason why we include that is because, 21 to make the property eligible for Green Acres' funds, 22 it has to be listed in your plan, so we've simply 23 made an appendix. Hudson County is going to be, 24 consider all vacant lands possible and it's going to 25 work with community groups, non-profits, with the 44 1 local municipalities, let them come forward with 2 ideas, let us come up with our own ideas, we have our 3 own priority list, but if anybody else has any idea 4 for these other vacant lands, we're also going to 5 include these as potential sites for open space 6 acquisition. 7 That is the end of my presentation, so I'll 8 be glad to entertain any questions, any comments on 9 the plan. 10 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Excuse me. If 11 anyone has a comment to make, please identify 12 yourself, your name and your, either municipality or 13 the organization you're speaking for so we have it 14 for the record. 15 Thank you. 16 MR. GLEITZ: Any questions? 17 Comments? 18 Come on. 19 MS. RANSOM: Jesse Ransom, City of 20 Bayonne. 21 That list of vacant land at the end, publicly 22 and private owned? 23 MR. GLEITZ: No. It's -- yeah. It is 24 both, I think. It is both, yes, I think. 25 We simply just used the tax assessor's 45 1 database, and they have a code for land use type and 2 we pulled all the vacant -- the Tax Assessor's Office 3 pulled the vacant land category, so they probably 4 would include municipal lands. 5 We had this discussion earlier with the Board 6 as we were drafting this. We have our 16 high 7 priority sites. We have a list of vacant lands, but 8 that doesn't mean that the municipalities, if they 9 know the properties or other opportunities can't 10 draft their own plans and now would make them 11 eligible, they can't bring those plans to the 12 Hudson -- to this, to county level and ask that those 13 properties be -- this is a living document. It's 14 designed to be reviewed. It's designed to be edited 15 and changed. This is the current version that we 16 need to, we need to have something passed, given that 17 Green Acres, for them to re -- get the ball rolling, 18 we want to spend the Trust Fund money as soon as we 19 can, and this is a key part. We have to pass this 20 plan before we can put this forward, but if we miss 21 something, it can be added, and that's pretty easy to 22 do, so it's incumbent upon each municipality and each 23 interested group to review that and make sure they -- 24 let the county know that we were in rush projects, we 25 looked at the plan, we're not sure if it's in or not, 46 1 here's the information, let's make sure we get 2 included so we can move forward, because we want to 3 use you as a partner in a project. 4 MS. RANSOM: On that same note, what 5 are the major revisions between the April draft and 6 the December draft? 7 MR. GLEITZ: We added more language on 8 historic preservation, we added -- the guidelines 9 were drafted, the Trust Fund guidelines. We added 10 all the language about the Trust Fund guidelines. 11 There was some errors in calculations of acreages for 12 some of the areas. We added internal review goals to 13 reevaluate our clients and produce a report every 14 year on how the money was spent, where the money was, 15 you know, what projects were completed or not. 16 If the Board wants to help me with some other 17 things that we've added -- 18 MR. LaROSA: Parks. 19 MR. SANCHEZ: Parks in Bayonne. 20 MR. GLEITZ: Yes. There were a couple 21 parks that were acquired previous to that. There's 22 two parks in Bayonne that aren't in that draft 23 because they were acquired in 2004. They're going to 24 be added before the Freeholders -- and there is also 25 a request to add a map of the six -- there's just a 47 1 list of those six priority sites. We're going to map 2 them and include that before that goes in before the 3 Board as well. 4 MR. LaROSA: Also, for the, for those 5 maybe with preservation, we ask that consultation 6 with historic preservation groups be included in the 7 outreach process. 8 MR. GLEITZ: And when we look at the 9 Implementation Plan, this Implementation Plan 10 Timetable, this thing, the Implementation Goals, 11 we're going to add several things that talk about 12 consulting with -- and I think the Board would 13 actually like to come together, consult with the 14 historic preservation groups and see if they would 15 like to add even more language about specific 16 historic preservation goals that need to be 17 addressed, even as an amendment possibly to this 18 draft to be considered later on by the Freeholders, 19 so, like I said, it's a living document and we can 20 amend these things, add more, so if more interested 21 groups come forward and say this is a good start, 22 we're not sure you really fully looked at this 23 particular issue that we're interested in, we think 24 maybe this will be helpful to you to add that, so 25 that possibility exists out there. This is the 48 1 framework. This is the starting point. This gets us 2 in the door. This gets us rolling, but if there are 3 other interested groups we didn't consult with -- we 4 have a list of non-profits we talked to, but if we 5 left people off the list, they are more, more than 6 encouraged to come in. In fact, one of the goals is 7 to actually go out and consult with the historic 8 preservation folks out there, to make sure we've met 9 their needs and their concerns. 10 Was there a question over here? 11 Your name? 12 MS. CROWLEY: Maureen Crowley. I'm a 13 member of the Preservation Coalition in Jersey City 14 and also the New Jersey Committee for the East Coast 15 Greenway. 16 I brought two statements to read into the 17 record, but if I could just give them to you, or you 18 take the comments, I would do that, rather than read 19 them, but I'd just like to -- 20 MR. GLEITZ: Want to summarize? 21 MS. CROWLEY: The Embankment 22 Preservation Coalition Statement, I just want to 23 thank everybody who worked on this plan. We really 24 think it's an excellent plan. We've read it, you 25 know, from front to back, and I'm especially pleased 49 1 with the focus on open space acquisition. Another 2 important emphasis that we really liked are the 3 emphasis on natural habitat sites, the physical links 4 between open space and recreation sites, the access 5 to historic sites and cooperative endeavors with 6 groups like ours. We really appreciate that, and 7 it's very sensitive to the needs of Hudson County. 8 I also wanted to call -- this is not a 9 comment that's exactly germane to the plan, but I 10 wanted to call to your attention that the City of 11 Jersey City is actively moving ahead to acquire the 12 embankment in Jersey City, which is not only a 13 historic site, but also open space resource and a 14 future link, and they have requested to negotiate for 15 that parcel. However, there is a speculative 16 investor who has an option in the property. We're 17 not sure that Conrail will negotiate with the City 18 and they may have to take the embankment. We have 19 quite a lot of money on hand to acquire the 20 embankment, but because of the takings of law 21 requiring that you put down the full amount of the 22 appraisal without taking into account environmental 23 remediation, the initial figure for the embankment 24 might be higher than what's on hand. We expect this 25 development to happen very quickly over the next 50 1 year, and we really, you know, ask you, as the 2 Committee, to do all that. It's really a great site, 3 because it does, it has so many of the goals that are 4 in your plan in terms of historic sites, open space 5 linkages and natural habitat. 6 Then, the other statement I had was from 7 Elizabeth Brody, who's the Chair of the New Jersey 8 Committee for the East Coast Greenway. That 9 Committee is very -- has very recently activated and 10 has done incredible progress during the last year. 11 It has over 360 members statewide, and Hudson County 12 has lots of members. Jersey City has the most 13 members of any municipality in the state, so you can 14 see the interest in the, that East Coast Greenway. 15 Here, I have some -- we're going to be following up 16 this statement with specific comments on the plan, 17 but one, one of the things we noticed when we read 18 the plan was that, although the East Coast Greenway 19 is mentioned numerous times, the information is out 20 of date because of the progress we've made in the 21 last year. We actually designate the East Coast 22 Greenway line, actually designated the half mile 23 section of the Greenway in Jersey City in November, 24 half mile segment from Exchange Place to Newport on 25 the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, so we'll be 51 1 updating that, and we ask you, when you consider open 2 space priorities, to really make greenway a priority, 3 because it will, it will link our Hudson County open 4 space sites, it will secure natural habitat corridors 5 and will provide easy access for the public to 6 historic sites. 7 I'll give you these statements for the 8 record. 9 MR. GLEITZ: Thank you. 10 Just make sure we get -- if it's updated 11 information on the greenway, you need to get that as 12 soon as possible. 13 MS. CROWLEY: The 25th is the 14 deadline. We'll have it to you in the next two days. 15 MR. GLEITZ: I'll go right down the 16 row here. One, two, three. 17 MR. PARKHURST: Joshua Parkhurst of 18 Jersey City, Vice-President of the Jersey City 19 Landmark Conservancy. 20 First, just, I sent Stephen Marks last week a 21 copy of a report prepared by the Conservancy for the 22 Advisory Committee. He told me to send nine copies 23 to him so he could distribute them to the Board 24 members. I don't know if he did that before this 25 meeting or not, but I would ask that you obtain 52 1 copies of that report as soon as possible. 2 I know, I was looking through the minutes 3 here, that at the last board meeting there were 4 suggestions that historic preservation should be 5 consulted, and perhaps, as Captain Sheehan suggested, 6 that a member of a historic preservation group be 7 placed on the Board. Obviously the Conservancy 8 wholeheartedly concurs in that sentiment, and we look 9 forward to working with the Board in whatever 10 capacity the Board allows us to. 11 The report we prepared, and I guess it could 12 be, hopefully once the Board reviews it, could be 13 placed into the public record, but since you don't 14 have it tonight, I would just like to briefly go over 15 what the contents of the report were. 16 We prepared a list of proposed projects which 17 deal with the issues both of green space and historic 18 preservation. We picked various projects that would 19 allow the Advisory -- the Open Space Committee to 20 essentially kill two birds with one stone. Each of 21 the projects contain not only open space, but 22 historic resources. Each of the spaces is threatened 23 in some way or another and each of the spaces also 24 has broad based community support for development as 25 open space and for historic preservation. 53 1 Just for the record, I would like to read it 2 into the record. The first is the development of 3 park and a greenway on the site of the 6th Street 4 embankment, which Miss Crowley just mentioned. The 5 second is sort of a corollary to that, would be 6 development of the Bergen Arches into a park and a 7 greenway, and that is essential to the East Coast 8 Greenway link to continue the link westward to the 9 Meadowlands and such. The third is development of an 10 urban nature preserve on the site of former Reservoir 11 No. 3. The fourth is the creation of a walkway 12 tracking the path, as faithfully as possible, of the 13 Morris Canal in Jersey City, and the centerpiece of 14 that would be development into parklands of the one 15 remaining un-filled portion of the Morris Canal, 16 which is the 1,000 feet of canal. I'm not sure what 17 the site is called or it is named, but it's out Route 18 440 and Clendeny Avenue. It mysteriously -- and 19 we've never been able to figure out why it was the 20 one remaining part of the canal that wasn't filled, 21 but we believe that could be the centerpiece of a 22 Morris Canal park, which could possibly then be 23 developed into an entire walkway. Then, fifth, 24 slightly smaller project, we think the extension of 25 Riverview Park to include the currently vacant 54 1 Holland Street, which is one of the few remaining 2 cobblestone streets in Jersey City. 3 I don't want to go over the entire report, 4 but, as I said before, each of these sites was picked 5 because, first, it allows us to kill two birds with 6 one stone, acquiring open space and parkland, and 7 also preserving a viable historic resource. 8 Secondly, it contains historic resources, which 9 you've been threatened one way or another through 10 development. Third, there is broad based community 11 support for the project. We are happy to see that 12 both the embankment and Reservoir No. 3 are on the 13 list of priority projects. I would ask that the 14 Committee consider these other sites as well, 15 particularly the Bergen Arches, which we think is an 16 absolutely necessary link for construction of the 17 East Coast Greenway. You need to link the embankment 18 further west, and that's the way to do it. 19 I'd be glad to take questions from any of the 20 Committee members later on, if you have any questions 21 about that. 22 MS. MEDINA: I just want -- just a 23 remark on behalf of the Division of Planning. 24 I want to apologize. The report wasn't made 25 available. We did receive it, but we had already 55 1 sent out the mailings by the time we received the 2 report. We will have those copies to you as soon 3 as -- 4 MR. LaROSA: Question for the speaker. 5 You're suggesting priorities. Is that for 6 Jersey City or appropriate agencies? 7 MR. PARKHURST: We have spoken with 8 the City of Jersey City on numerous times. As you 9 know, there have been a number of changes in 10 administration over the past, for some unforeseen 11 reason, so, and there's been some overlap in 12 officials. I know when we spoke with Carl Sablicki 13 about some of our concerns, Mayor Cunningham, he 14 still would have been -- but given we have to 15 obviously keep the channels of communication open 16 with Jersey City, because there has been quite a bit 17 of turnover and continues to be quite a bit of 18 turnover, but we are happy to work with the City as 19 well. 20 MR. LaROSA: I think it would be 21 interesting for you to know, I think at this point 22 the Board is still getting its feet wet in the 23 process, under our obligations here, and normally 24 what we're doing, I think that we are not in a 25 proactive position. We are reacting to what's 56 1 presented to the Board. We had this discussion last 2 week. As people know from the first meeting, I 3 suggest to you, yet again, that you present these 4 ideas to Jersey City Administration, and they are the 5 ones, or nonprofit, to make the application to and 6 show it to the Board. That's how it works. We're 7 not going to go out and knock on doors, as you 8 understand, so as an activist, you would have to take 9 on that role. 10 MR. PARKHURST: I understand. 11 Well, not-for-profit, we are presenting these 12 proposals to the Board in a formal report, and we'll 13 submit it. We're also in regular communication with 14 Jersey City officials. 15 MR. LaROSA: We're not that 16 application. You have to -- 17 MR. PARKHURST: We'd like it in the 18 plan. 19 MR. GLEITZ: Sure. Go down the line. 20 MR. SELENDER: Mike Selender, 21 S-E-L-E-N-D-E-R, Conservation Chair for Hudson 22 Meadowlands Siera and also Essex and Hudson Trails, 23 Chair for the New Jersey East Coast Greenway Lines. 24 I think in the first few years of this fund, 25 overwhelming priorities should be on acquisition, 57 1 particularly of properties that are risk, at risk of 2 being developed or purchased by private entities, so 3 I think that should be, really be prioritized by 4 which priorities -- properties are in great danger of 5 being lost if they're not purchased. 6 Just looking at this list on page 170 of the 7 documentation I have, I just want to comment on 8 number 11, Boonton Line. New Jersey Transit is, New 9 Jersey Transit has a study by a team of consultants, 10 a study called Access Regions 4, or R, and they are 11 looking at news in Jersey City and Secaucus section 12 of that tract as part of the loop between, I think 13 Pascack Valley and Bergenline and Secaucus Junction 14 Station, so -- and I understand the county, that's a 15 critical East Coast Greenway link. I believe it's 16 critical for Hackensack River Walkway, so if the 17 county is not already talking to New Jersey Transit 18 about how to share that corridor, I would recommend 19 that the county do so as quickly as possible. It's a 20 long-range plan, but it should have a great effect on 21 those two initiatives. 22 MR. GLEITZ: The DOT has several 23 retired plans that they're considering reopening. 24 Want to go next, down the line? 25 MR. WELNER: My name is Alan Welner. 58 1 I'm a Hoboken resident and I'm here with Sandy, who 2 may say something, and who's been to prior meetings. 3 For the Board, I'm very impressed with what 4 you've done. It's really a wonderful thing to see, 5 kind of parallel with what Hoboken has been doing. 6 We have a Master Plan, quite a thick one, beautifully 7 done. Whether in fact that many of the things will 8 be, will be put into, into concrete form remains to 9 be seen, but one thing I'd like to mention here, my 10 primary interest is waterfront recreation, kayaking 11 or just access into the water. The Hudson River, 12 primarily. I just want to remind the Board that, for 13 example, some of the acreage totals here are given in 14 hundredths of an acre, 951.23 acres, for example, 15 very specific acreage of parks. For example, 16 anything that's done on the waterfront, on Hudson 17 River Waterfront is going to have a huge multiplier 18 affect in terms of the acreage, so that the one 19 little kayak launch that we have in Hoboken now, 20 which is probably, we can probably figure it in 21 hundredths of an acre, is probably no larger than the 22 space of a driveway, of a suburban home driveway. It 23 has hosted in the last few years, the last five, six 24 years, really innumerable, public and private parties 25 and a little kayaking launching here and there. Not, 59 1 not much. Actually, there's not all that much kayak 2 or canoe launching there. Occasionally, there is, 3 but primarily it's used by people to come down and 4 actually be at the river level as opposed to being 5 above the river level on a beautiful walkway that we 6 have there as well, but that's eight, 10, 12 feet 7 above the river, and that little strip is -- Sandy's 8 got a book full of photographs of boating or kids or 9 dogs using that little entrance, and to think that 10 that's the only spot in this huge expansive 11 riverfront that we have -- most of it is Hudson 12 County. Of course some of it is Bergen County, but 13 when we were lucky enough to get the City of Hoboken 14 not to bulkhead that, essentially, to leave that spot 15 un-bulkheaded and safe-line it, really, for the rest 16 of the park, which is now called Sanatra Park, save 17 the money and kind of surprised everyone with the 18 amazing amounts of use that it got, and, 19 particularly, by the way, after September 11th, after 20 9-11 a lot of people found their way down to the 21 riverfronts, just kind of be there. I live just a 22 block away, and there were people who got to the 23 river that had never in their lifetime, really, in 24 Hoboken, or certainly for decades gotten down there 25 to just experience whatever it is, not necessarily 60 1 use all of that as a primary intent. At first just 2 to be there, to throw stones in the river, just to 3 watch, to take a look at the views across the river, 4 and the acreage was minimal. It was really -- I 5 can't imagine that it would be more than a tenth of 6 an acre, and all of that, of course, when it is used 7 on launching for boats and, in fact, several times a 8 year there is dozens and dozens of kayaks from New 9 York or from Jersey City, Hoboken area, you're 10 getting hundreds and hundreds of acres of waterfront 11 for nothing, essentially, and we do have a big piece 12 of underdeveloped waterfront at the north end, which 13 is called Weehawken Cove. We would like to call it 14 Hoboken Cove, but that's another issue. It's known 15 as Weehawken Cove, and it's a huge, huge, huge spot. 16 Sandy mentioned to me that that's where Henry Hudson 17 dropped anchor on his initial trip up the river that 18 was laid to bear his name. It's a fantastically 19 large protected area, which, of course, borders 20 Hoboken and Weehawken. There are photographs, 80 21 years ago, 100 years ago, and that cove is just black 22 with shipping of all kinds. The thing that interests 23 me most is that there were dozens of boathouses in 24 that stretch, hundreds and hundreds of small boats, 25 essentially kayaking, canoe type things occupying no 61 1 land, really, just kind of sticking out. They are 2 about the size of a garage, those boathouses, and 3 they were just for storage of boats. Any funds that 4 can be kind of focused on that sort of area, I think 5 would have a huge, huge multiplier affect on people 6 using them with very, very little money spent. You 7 know, it's very impressive to see the amount of money 8 that has been raised from one penny of a hundred 9 dollars, that's really remarkable, and given that 10 matching -- but, you know, when you see how much 11 something costs, the swimming pool really can cost 12 millions of dollars, one swimming pool. It's really 13 sad, in a way, to realize how difficult your job is 14 going to be to try to figure out where to apportion 15 these funds. I mean, everything in here sounds 16 fantastic, it really does, and it would benefit 17 Hudson County tremendously, but I'll -- again, I'll 18 just cut it short. Even a small, small amount of 19 money, along the riverfront, particularly, but also 20 any of the wetlands that can get used or have public 21 access to will have a tremendously larger affect than 22 bricks and mortar anywhere else, so just try to 23 remember that, if you can. 24 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Thank you. 25 I'd like to just say one thing in response to 62 1 all of you. Going along with what Bill stated 2 earlier, we are not, at this point, a proactive 3 board. What we consider will depend on you. We will 4 be generating applications -- this will go to the 5 Board of Freeholders once the plan is approved. We 6 will then formulate and generate applications which 7 will be available, and depending on the applications 8 that come back for our consideration, that's what we 9 will base and what we will be able to use to 10 determine where the funding goes, so once the 11 applications are out, and we will make sure they get 12 them, you can fill them out and get them back to us, 13 but unless we get an application from you, we will 14 not be able to do anything. 15 MR. LaROSA: You need to engage your 16 municipality, or at least a Skerit (phonetic) Club in 17 Hoboken, and non-profits that can work out 18 arrangements to get involved financially. 19 PUBLIC MEMBER: Well, in terms of the 20 actual mechanics of this, I've spoken to -- 21 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Steve? 22 PUBLIC MEMBER: -- Bernie Kenny and 23 Dave Roberts just in the last week or two and they 24 both assured me, although, you know, things change 25 constantly, but both of them thought this was a great 63 1 idea, to use as much resource as they could on the 2 waterfront. They're very proud of the waterfront. 3 They live, both live in Hoboken, so, currently and in 4 the past they've been very, very supportive. 5 Now, when you are talking about applications, 6 you mean specifically from public groups or from the 7 municipalities themselves? 8 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: It can be from the 9 municipality or from a not-for-profit organization. 10 PUBLIC MEMBER: And it's a formal 11 application that you -- 12 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: It will be a formal 13 application, yes. 14 MR. LaROSA: They will be made 15 available as soon as they're put together. 16 PUBLIC MEMBER: What's the time frame 17 for us to see those, roughly? 18 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Good question. 19 MS. MEDINA: If I can. 20 MR. GLEITZ: Please. 21 MS. MEDINA: If we accept the plan 22 today, along with some changes that Paul will be 23 making, we will go in front of the Freeholders 24 probably in the beginning of March, and at that point 25 the plan is set, and then we will work together to 64 1 produce an application that will become available. 2 The Division of Planning, we'll post it on the web 3 site and we'll have information and we can download 4 it or get the application straight from our office. 5 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Probably six weeks 6 to two months? 7 MS. MEDINA: Maybe, yeah. I would say 8 definitely by mid, I would estimate by mid April, we 9 would have an application. 10 MR. GLEITZ: It's going to be an 11 application for funding, is what it is, so if it's 12 ad -- a nonprofit decides that they have a project in 13 mind, what they'll need to do, they'll need to do 14 some type of groundwork, put together a real 15 application for funding, which will be, we'll need a 16 project, and you'll have to really need to be moving 17 forward with some sort of acquisition type of a 18 project. I think in the beginning we'll probably, 19 the Board will focus mostly on acquisition projects, 20 so you'll have to identify an actual site, an actual 21 owner, a seller, a market price, you'll have to have 22 all that legwork done, and then you're making an 23 application to the Board to pick up the check, 24 essentially, is how that's going to work. The more 25 partners you bring to it, the more support you have 65 1 to it, the more -- so that's really what it is. 2 Now, from the previous discussions in terms 3 of sites to be added, updated information and perhaps 4 some revisions to the language in terms of access and 5 value of access, that's something that will go into 6 the plan and now that is something that will need to 7 happen, so comments on the additional sites and 8 updated information and other types of things, that's 9 what we're going to put into the plan, and then once 10 the plan is accepted, the Freeholders are ready to 11 move forward. Then we would present the real 12 application for acquisition of some sort of project, 13 and you'd have to have a lot of partners pull 14 together, and that's how it would work. You're 15 asking for money to do it, you're not asking for 16 support or a letter or something like that. You're 17 coming before this Board saying, you know, we found 18 100 feet and we know the land owner and he wants to 19 sell and we got, it's going to cost us 500,000 to buy 20 the land and 200,000 to put down the riffraff and 21 another 500,000 to put together the shack or whatever 22 it is, that will be our -- and that application will 23 be made before the Board and then the Board will make 24 a decision to pass that on to the Freeholders. 25 That's the kind of process that the Board's 66 1 considering, but the larger philosophical questions 2 of the importance of, you know, access to the 3 riverfront and the importance of three additional 4 sites to be considered and the updated information on 5 the true nature of the greenway pathway, those are 6 the kind of things that we need to put into the plan 7 as part of a policy. 8 I guess I'll keep going around. Are there 9 any more questions? 10 MS. SOBARSKI: I'm Sandy Sobarski, the 11 Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse. 12 I just wanted to know what goes on with the 13 Weehawken Cove. Is there some historical, like, 14 discussion about it or is it not historical, because 15 you were shaking your head? 16 MR. LaROSA: For the record, she's 17 talking about the Weehawken Cove. I'll point out, 18 it's the only natural cove on the Hudson, on the left 19 bay, on the Jersey side that remains from, I guess 20 antiquity, and it has been for many years. A lot of 21 things that the -- whether it's true that Henry 22 Hudson had entered there, we cannot prove that. We 23 go back to the notes and there's no indication there, 24 but more than likely, in Highlands, New Jersey, we 25 call that the map of the Hudson River. That's 67 1 just -- 2 MS. SOBARSKI: I was wondering why 3 there was no discussion of it being historical. 4 MR. LaROSA: Well, again, that goes 5 back and, again, he met the case, as Paul pointed 6 out, for this. You have to make -- that's another 7 level. It matches up to the importance in saving 8 this cove. If you can prove more evidence that this 9 is the site or, in fact, it is a natural cove, then 10 that way is probably even higher, but I can't stress 11 enough the fact that you have to engage your items, 12 whatever you prepared, or the -- if not as a working 13 partner, again, as Paul points out the constraints 14 here, we all know that there's only so many things 15 that, whether it's Hoboken or Bayonne or Jersey City 16 can do, and they love to do them all, but if you can 17 bring in a partnership, whether they -- let's say to 18 the city, if you acquire this, we will commit 19 ourselves as friends of the organization to maintain 20 these sites or to raise funds, whether it's from DEP 21 or -- and that makes the application much more 22 interesting, but again, if there's no interest, why 23 would you want to engage -- you have to have that 24 level. I don't care what it is, historical sites, 25 natural sites. It's a pop-up situation. We had this 68 1 discussion last week about this. It's one thing to 2 say that, but if you have a ground full of support, 3 and this is not going to go anywhere, and I know from 4 our jobs at the county, that whenever citizens get 5 together and they speak genuine on a broad basis from 6 all segments of the population, that makes your 7 application much more, you know, reachable and much 8 more attainable to us. 9 MR. GLEITZ: Any more questions or 10 comments? 11 MR. GAULIN: Michael Gaulin, 12 G-A-U-L-I-N, and I represent the New Jersey Outdoor 13 Group. We're a group of about 250 people right now 14 that do all sorts of outdoor activities. I'm 15 basically here to jump on the pile here in regards to 16 Hoboken Cove and inclusion of the community 17 boathouse. 18 We've put together a letter from one of our 19 members that I can pass around, if you want. Some 20 more paper. For the record, I won't go -- 21 MR. SANCHEZ: The Chair will take 22 that. 23 MR. GAULIN: I don't want to repeat 24 what's already been said, but basically we're 25 throwing our support behind such a plan and such a 69 1 boathouse, that we could really utilize a facility 2 such as that, and we find ourselves -- although we 3 represent all of New Jersey, most of us live in 4 Hudson County, and we find that in a lot of cases, we 5 travel outside the county to do outdoor activities, 6 or consider the river to go kayaking, so we find that 7 having such a facility would really be a great need 8 for, you know, a group of people. Adding to that, 9 and I don't know if it's been mentioned up until this 10 point, the gentleman who wrote that letter, it's not 11 me, but he also runs a program called Hobiken, it's 12 H-O-B-I-K-E-N, not proper English, but it kind of 13 recovers what it is, and what it is is a, it's a 14 free, free bike program where they have bikes lined 15 up and you can, for a very nominal fee, kind of rent 16 them, and the idea is to connect it with a pathway 17 that goes along the river, and you can just, on a 18 great, sunny day, take a ride all the way up and down 19 the Hudson. The idea is, if you could kind of tie 20 that in with, you know, with the boathouse, community 21 boathouse, this all could kind of fit into that same 22 sliver of land there in the Hoboken Cove, so if 23 you're looking for additional people to, you know, 24 support such a plan here, we are so -- I had put 25 my -- our e-mail address on the second page of that 70 1 document, if anyone has any questions, and, you know, 2 we can, we can go from there, but thank you. 3 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Thank you. 4 MR. GLEITZ: Seems to me you have the 5 beginning of a friend of Hoboken Cove Committee right 6 now. Get yourself some 501c3 status, get yourself a 7 board of trustees, start raising some funds, and in a 8 year or two come before the Board with an application 9 for site and acquisition. That's become the process 10 that's built in to the -- you know, the citizens to 11 move forward and gain access to the funds is to say 12 here, we are, and this is the program and you want to 13 move forward. You know, there's very large 14 non-profits that are very successful at this, at 15 accessing public funds for open space acquisition, 16 and just the same process for a small amount to do 17 the same thing. There's also some very large 18 non-profits that have active programs as well, so 19 probably hook up some, like TPL or something like 20 that, public lands on urban areas as well, so you 21 contact them, you have your own 501c3, you guys 22 contribute money, they contribute money, you come to 23 the cove, ask for money, ask Hoboken for money, 24 everybody asks the state for money, and before you 25 know it, you have an acquisition site, so that's kind 71 1 of the process. 2 Any more comments or questions? 3 Sure. 4 MS. RANSOM: Jesse Ransom, City of 5 Bayonne. 6 I just want to check again with this 7 application process. It's not just for acquisition, 8 it will also be for -- 9 MR. GLEITZ: 50 percent of the fund is 10 dedicated for -- there are guidelines, if you go to 11 the web site, I believe, or if not, contact the 12 Planning Department, they'll provide you with 13 guidelines. 14 50 percent of the funds are earmarked for 15 acquisition, 25 percent are for recreation and the 25 16 percent for historic preservation, so that's pretty 17 much the way it's been. The Freeholders have decided 18 they want to parcel out that money, so if historic 19 preservation groups want to purchase facades off a 20 building, this historic building, and they're going 21 to redo the building, but we want to purchase the 22 facades on that, saying that we'll give the developer 23 money to not change the front of the building, then 24 they can put in more money, an application to get 25 money to do that. If it's Babe Ruth Little League, 72 1 league wants to rehab one of the recreation 2 facilities, they need 25, $30,000, they've raised 3 half, if you come before the Board for the rest of 4 that or the recreation portion of that, or the town 5 can say we want Hoboken, who wants to rehab one of 6 their ball parks, or Bayonne wants to rehab one of 7 their state parks or something like that, they can 8 come before the Board asking for matching funds. 9 We've got 30 grants in our, in our parks budget. We 10 need another 30 to complete the project. They come 11 before the Board. Then, the last piece would be 12 acquisition, and that would be the other half of 13 funding that would be, we've identified Hoboken 14 Cove. It's owned by William Seller. He's asking 15 this much money for it and we've raised 10 percent. 16 We've got Hoboken on the hook for 30 percent, we've 17 got the trust public lands that kick in another 20 18 percent and we're coming to you for 30 percent and 19 the state for 50 percent. You've got the numbers, 20 you've got appraisers, you got it all put together 21 and you come before the Board and you got a good shot 22 of the county -- put it all together, you've got 23 yourself a boat launch and those kinds of things, so 24 that's kind of the process, that's how this will 25 work. You'll come before them and -- you know, it 73 1 could be easements. It doesn't have to be naturally 2 acquisition, it could be easements or other type 3 of -- not just buying a piece of land. You can also 4 buy development easements. I mean, these are all 5 different tools that can be used to do these kinds of 6 things, so you can purchase development rights, you 7 can purchase facades. You can do a lot of things. 8 The more creative you are, and if you be creative 9 about your solution, you can solve the problem and 10 find support and find some money yourself to bring to 11 the table, you're going to have a really good shot at 12 getting money from this group. 13 I'm going to bring us back, if that's okay. 14 Any more comments, before I go on? 15 MS. MASSEY: I have a question. My 16 name is Michelle Massey, Jersey City. 17 You mentioned earlier about once the plan is 18 approved, what will be the process for suggestion and 19 recommendations for this planning in the future? 20 MR. GLEITZ: This Board will be one 21 avenue for that. You're Jersey City? You said you 22 were from Jersey City? 23 MS. MASSEY: Yes. 24 MR. GLEITZ: Jersey City doesn't have 25 an open space tax and they have a Master Plan. I 74 1 don't believe they have an Open Space Plan, so one 2 way to do that, if, you know, if you live on a 3 certain block and there's a vacant lot on the corner 4 you think will make a great park, one thing, go to 5 Jersey City and say we're the friends of my 6 neighborhood and we want to have this neighborhood 7 park. Ask them to put together a plan to do that. 8 You can come before this Board and say, this property 9 isn't on your list of properties that should be used 10 for this, please add this to your list of properties 11 to be considered for funding. 12 MS. MASSEY: What if it's not the 13 Master Plan and a redevelopment for a particular 14 area? 15 MR. GLEITZ: Sure. Sure. 16 Now there's an existing redevelopment plan in 17 place? 18 MS. MASSEY: We're actually working on 19 it. I'm with the Monticello Community Development 20 Corporation and -- 21 MR. GLEITZ: Have you done a study? 22 MS. MASSEY: Study's in the process. 23 MR. GLEITZ: Process of doing a study, 24 and then after the study -- I'm sorry. After the 25 study you'll do it to a plan, correct? 75 1 MS. MASSEY: Well, the plan, yes, 2 we're preparing it, yes, and we have been designated 3 by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs as 4 a main street, which is part of a national historic 5 trust program. 6 MR. GLEITZ: So you have a couple 7 options, then. You've got -- you know, you can, you 8 can build into your redevelopment plan and open space 9 piece. If you, if you designate that area, if that 10 designated area defined by the city as redevelopment 11 area. 12 MS. MASSEY: It is. 13 MR. GLEITZ: Draft a redevelopment 14 plan, you can put open space, and then the 15 redeveloper has to follow that plan. If it's an 16 approved plan and includes open space, you designate 17 parcels A, B and C as parts of an open space area. 18 That's the rules for that area. Redevelopment has 19 much tighter control over what happens. 20 MS. MASSEY: Right. 21 MR. GLEITZ: It supersedes the Master 22 Plan and it supersedes the zoning. It sits on top 23 and it says this area will be park. 24 MS. MASSEY: Well, my interest was 25 more in the historic preservation area, but I 76 1 understand. 2 MR. GLEITZ: In terms of historic 3 preservation, you are now mainstream, you're NDCA, 4 and by them, there's funding opportunities there. 5 What you can do is in the redevelopment plan itself, 6 you can put in provisions for facades to be 7 maintained and you can also make provisions for new 8 construction to match the facade elements from the 9 existing construction. You can do that as well. If 10 you have a local Historic Commission -- does Jersey 11 City have a Historic Commission? 12 MS. MASSEY: Yes. 13 MR. GLEITZ: You can contact them and 14 say, we're the Monticello -- 15 MS. MASSEY: Monticello, yes. 16 MR. GLEITZ: Okay. We're the 17 Monticello Redevelopment Agency, we've identified 18 these buildings and this district, we would like you 19 to designate this and put this on your list for 20 designation and for acceptance, and then you can also 21 go -- and then beyond that, you can get very creative 22 and you can make it a part of the redevelopment 23 process, to have easements purchased on the remaining 24 buildings so the facades don't change, so you can -- 25 they can gut the inside but the outside looks the 77 1 same. 2 MS. MASSEY: Exactly. 3 MR. GLEITZ: If the property's worth a 4 million bucks, you can spend 100,000 or 50,000 to 5 just keep the outside of the building the same, just 6 have it repainted, have stone work rehashed but not 7 change the front, so you can do those kinds of 8 things, and since you're in the redevelopment area, 9 that gives a little more control of the city to kind 10 of say what really happens in there if you can get 11 the Historic Commission to designate the building, at 12 least from the city's perspective, that adds extra 13 weight to your redevelopment plan. 14 MS. MASSEY: Well, it's part of the 15 Bergen Historic District. 16 MR. GLEITZ: They've already probably 17 had you go through that plan and see the, what the 18 recommendations are, and maybe the Historic District 19 Plan needs to be updated to include new ideas on 20 preserving those areas, those buildings, so there's a 21 couple different things you could do. 22 MS. MASSEY: Yeah. We have options. 23 MR. GLEITZ: And then this is a source 24 for funding for that. If there are four buildings 25 that are of importance that are likely to be 78 1 redeveloped and might not be maintained in their 2 current appearance, you can go to the Historic 3 District, to the Historic Commission, you can go to 4 the non-profits and you can go before this Board and 5 say we've contacted the property owners and they are 6 willing to increase the costs of their development if 7 we purchase the facade easement rights on these 8 properties and we need funding to help us do that, 9 and you can go to KDCA for money and you can come 10 here for money and you can come to the city for 11 money, and if it's part of the Redevelopment Plan, it 12 might even be redeveloper money as well, because they 13 can get tax credits, they can actually donate a 14 portion of that and get tax credits for that, so 15 through the appraisal process, it turns out that the 16 facade easement is worth $100,000. If the developers 17 donate $50,000 of that, that becomes a tax credit and 18 all you have to do is raise the other $50,000. Same 19 thing with the canoe launch and everything else. If 20 you get someone to donate a portion with the bargain 21 sale, if it's worth $100,000, sell it to you for 50, 22 that can be counted as part of the match. You've 23 earned that $50,000. You convinced the land owner to 24 sell it to you for less. He gets the tax break, she 25 gets a tax break, they get a tax break, and then that 79 1 money can be seen as part of the contribution. You 2 don't even have to have the cash in hand. You can 3 also sometimes have a promise of the reduced value, 4 and so a lot of times you can get a lot of 5 non-profits who purchase open space, work with 6 farmers and work with property owners and say, well, 7 appraisal's at 100,000, you sell it to us for 60 and 8 the IRS gives you a tax credit on the other 40. 9 That's kind of how it kind of works sometimes, so 10 there's lots of creative -- 11 (A discussion was held off the record.) 12 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: We'll take a break. 13 MR. GLEITZ: We'll take a break and 14 when we come back, what we're going to do is have a 15 discussion with the Board to find out what changes 16 and what comments we've heard tonight they would like 17 to see inked in the plan and where. 18 (A brief recess was taken.) 19 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: If everybody could 20 just take your seat and we'll resume. 21 Thank you, very much, and before everyone 22 leaves, Henry would like to say a few words before 23 you all leave. 24 Henry. 25 MR. SANCHEZ: Thank you. 80 1 I'm sure, for the Board, we want to thank all 2 the speakers tonight, and I want to thank you for 3 coming in tonight, it's kind of cold out there and we 4 do appreciate, very much, your input. 5 We're crawling on this Board now. The County 6 Executive is just anxious to get this thing rolling 7 and pushing it and we're working as hard as we 8 possibly can to meet all the needs necessary, but as 9 you can see, there is that procedure, there is 10 something -- we must follow the steps, also, and we 11 don't want you to leave here -- we are grateful for 12 your attendance, your input, again, and we, I assure 13 you that we will work on this as fast as we possibly 14 can. The staff, the board, the county is on top of 15 this continuously, so is every mayor in this county 16 on top of this, I assure you that, and we want to 17 thank you, very, very much. 18 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Thank you. 19 MR. LaROSA: I have a question, before 20 you go. Those of you here who are with non-profit 21 groups, through the Chair and approaching -- Steve 22 Marks is not here, but if we were able to provide 23 workshops on how to get involved in this process, 24 learning about easement rights, would you all be 25 interested? 81 1 PUBLIC MEMBER: Absolutely. 2 MS. SOBARSKI: I would. 3 MR. LaROSA: So I suggest you approach 4 Steve Marks about the possibility of engaging Paul. 5 MR. McCANN: We have a 6 representative? 7 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Yes. He'll be back 8 next week. 9 MS. MEDINA: Yes. 10 PUBLIC MEMBER: That's a wonderful 11 suggestion. In fact, I just thank Mr. LaRosa for 12 actually sharing that sort of workshop for friends of 13 mine in Hoboken who were looking for a way to fund a 14 cultural theatre group. That workshop was really the 15 key to a successful application for them, and so we, 16 I'd be very happy to have access to that kind of 17 information. 18 MR. LaROSA: Make a motion that that 19 be on the table for the next meeting with the Board. 20 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Do I have a second? 21 MR. SANCHEZ: I'll second it. 22 MR. MORGAN: I'll second. 23 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: All those in favor? 24 MR. LaROSA: Aye. 25 MR. MORGAN: Aye. 82 1 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Motion carried. 2 We'll speak to Steve about this on the Agenda 3 for the next meeting. 4 MR. LaROSA: Thank you, Madam Chair. 5 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: You're welcome. 6 MR. GLEITZ: Okay. I think we're done 7 with the public input portion of program. 8 MS. SOBARSKI: Thank you, very much. 9 CHAIRMAN CREW: Thank you for coming. 10 MR. GLEITZ: All that's left to the 11 Board now is make their motion to approve the 12 document. The Board, at their discretion, can make a 13 motion to approve the document as it is or it can 14 make a motion to approve the document with certain 15 edits to be made prior to submission. I think you 16 can probably designate either the Chairwoman or Mr. 17 Marks, the Planning Department to review before they 18 go to the Freeholders. My suggestion would be that 19 we put on the record that we pass with certain edits, 20 including the addition of the two parks in Bayonne to 21 the spreadsheet under the Bayonne recreation 22 inventory, the map of the 16 priority sites, as I 23 leave it to the Board as to whether they would like 24 to simply add the letters and reports presented from, 25 by the non-profits as a separate friends appendix or 83 1 we can actually try and include some of the 2 recommendations to text itself. I think that's up to 3 the, whatever the Board feels is more appropriate. I 4 think in terms of the East Coast Greenway Link 5 updated information, I think that's easy enough to 6 incorporate into the text itself, but if, in fact, 7 they have chosen a pathway at the time of the 8 writing, they were still debating on which path to 9 take, and that's something I think we can put in the 10 body of the text, but in terms of the five or six 11 proposed historic preservation sites that were 12 mentioned and the East Coast Greenway and the other 13 letter, I think we can do it one of two or three 14 ways. I'll ask Massiel to help me, she's been taking 15 notes. 16 Have I forgotten any other substantive 17 comments, other than directions? 18 MR. LaROSA: Madam Chair, I think add 19 in that a separate appendix on their own. 20 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Separate appendix on 21 their own? 22 MR. LaROSA: Second. 23 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Any discussion? 24 MR. LaROSA: No. 25 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Those in favor? 84 1 MR. MORGAN: Aye. 2 MR. SANCHEZ: Aye. 3 MR. McCANN: Aye. 4 MR. LICCARDO: Aye. 5 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Opposed? 6 Motion passed. 7 We will -- these letters and contents will be 8 in a separate appendix. 9 MS. MEDINA: Okay. 10 MR. McCANN: Any change, we would 11 refer to Steve Marks, and he can ink those couple 12 changes in the book. 13 MR. GLEITZ: There's edits to be 14 made? 15 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Yes. 16 MR. McCANN: Yes. 17 MR. GLEITZ: Like typos or substantive 18 edits, like numbers? 19 MR. McCANN: Actually, on two pages, 20 on 155 and 37. 21 MR. MORGAN: Motion to pass. 22 MR. GLEITZ: Those are wrong numbers? 23 MR. McCANN: Yes. 24 MR. GLEITZ: Okay. Let's make that 25 note, then. 85 1 Let's make a motion, I think to pass as 2 written with the following edits to be made, and then 3 Steve and I can work out how to make those edits. 4 The edits would be made at my office, because that's 5 who holds the design. 6 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: So we'll send the 7 edits to you or -- 8 MR. GLEITZ: We'll, Massiel and I will 9 work together and to make sure we get that stuff 10 done. 11 MR. SANCHEZ: Make the motion. 12 MR. GLEITZ: I'll list the edits. 13 MR. LaROSA: I'll second counsel's 14 motion. 15 MR. GLEITZ: The edits will be to add 16 two park properties in Bayonne. 17 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Right. 18 MR. GLEITZ: To create a map of the 16 19 priority sites that Massiel and I will work on in the 20 next day or so, to correctly identify their 21 locations. We will make -- 22 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Changes. 23 MR. GLEITZ: -- changes to the numbers 24 on page -- 25 MR. McCANN: 37. 86 1 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: 37. 2 MR. McCANN: And 155. 3 MR. GLEITZ: And you will provide 4 Massiel with that information? 5 MR. McCANN: Absolutely. 6 MR. GLEITZ: Are there any other 7 edits? 8 MR. LaROSA: In addition to the word 9 consultation with historic preservation. 10 MR. GLEITZ: Yes. The three notes. 11 MR. McCANN: On pages 187 and 188. 12 MR. GLEITZ: Yes. Page 187, we will 13 add to the Agenda, consultation with historic 14 preservation groups to review and advise on the Open 15 Space Plan, propose appendix to the Open Space Plan 16 focusing solely on historic preservation, and on page 17 188, consultation and outreach to historic 18 preservation groups, and I'll just type up the 19 language, but those, the essence of those three 20 additions to our plan. 21 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Can I have a motion 22 that we accept this and present this plan to the 23 Board with the changes that we have so directed them 24 to make? 25 MR. LaROSA: So moved. I'll let 87 1 Bobbie make that. 2 MR. McCANN: Bob, you second it? 3 MR. MORGAN: I second it. 4 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Any other comments? 5 MS. MEDINA: If you have any edits, 6 please send it to Steve, and if you want to cc me, 7 I'm leaving town, so, but Steve will be back so we 8 can -- 9 MR. McCANN: Very good. 10 MS. MEDINA: So it's all covered, 11 someone in the office -- 12 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Just because you're 13 getting married. 14 MS. MEDINA: I'm getting married 15 Saturday. Tomorrow is my last day. I'm in tomorrow. 16 MR. GLEITZ: Got you. 17 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Yes. Okay. All 18 those in favor? 19 MR. LaROSA: Aye. 20 MR. SANCHEZ: Aye. 21 MR. MORGAN: Aye. 22 MR. LICCARDO: Aye. 23 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Opposed? 24 Motion carried. 25 Good. We will submit this to the 88 1 Freeholders. 2 MR. GLEITZ: Great. Congratulations. 3 You just approved an Open Space Plan. Nice job. 4 Does anyone else need a card? 5 Motion to adjourn. 6 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Second? Do I hear a 7 second, to adjourn? 8 MR. McCANN: Second. 9 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: All those in favor, 10 say aye. 11 MR. McCANN: Aye. 12 MR. MORGAN: Aye. 13 MR. LaROSA: Aye. 14 MR. SANCHEZ: Aye. 15 MR. LICCARDO: Aye. 16 CHAIRWOMAN CREW: Okay. The meeting 17 is adjourned. 18 (At 9:15 p.m, proceedings were concluded.) 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 89 1 2 C E R T I F I C A T E 3 I, MICHELLE GRUENDEL, a Notary Public and 4 Certified Shorthand Reporter of the State of New 5 Jersey do hereby CERTIFY that the foregoing is a true 6 and accurate transcript of the testimony as taken 7 stenographically by and before me at the time, place 8 and on the date hereinbefore set forth, to the best 9 of my ability. 10 I DO FURTHER TESTIFY that I am neither 11 a relative, nor employee, nor attorney, nor counsel 12 of any parties to this action, and that I am neither 13 a relative nor employee of such attorney or counsel, 14 and that I am not financially interested in the 15 action. 16 17 18 MICHELLE GRUENDEL, C.S.R. License No. XI01905 19 20 21 22 23 24 25