Thanks for the coverage. I want to post an update re: the issue at Pine Street where the immediate residents and property owners neighboring 183 Pine are opposing an afterschool center being proposed at the site. The property is in the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan area’s Residential Zone, where community facilities such as the one proposed by Team Walker is specifically NOT a permitted use.

As a resident of Pine Street, an architect and a professional planner, I find it unfathomable that the proposed project has gone on as far as it did. This matter is a land use issue and if the center is allowed to be built under the current circumstances, it will undermine the intents of the Redevelopment Plan at the expense of the site’s immediate neighbors, and show that the planning process in Jersey City is nothing but a farce.

A number of residents have filed an appeal with the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which is anticipated to hear the case on Jan 21st 2010. As such, the application before the Planning Board is currently stayed and was not supposed to be heard on the PB’s Jan 5th meeting.

The outcome of this case will tell if there is any ounce of integrity in the city’s planning process.