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Early this month, the city’s planning division released the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan, the latest long-range development blueprint for Journal Square and its surrounding area. Journal Square 2060, which covers a little less ground than the original Journal Square Redevelopment Plan (211 acres as compared to 244), but a great deal more than the now-nixed Journal Square Core Redevelopment Plan, is the result of a long year-plus the city has spent reworking the plan since the original was tabled by the City Council.

When the initial proposal was revealed, it raised quite a bit of consternation from local residents who feared the plan would destroy the character of their neighborhoods. And although the latest draft was developed in consultation with a number of neighborhood groups, judging by a community meeting Thursday night, some neighbors still have concerns.

The two-hour meeting, organized by Ward C councilwoman Nidia Lopez, was part of the city’s continued outreach to the community as it looks for comments on the draft plan. She invited city planning officials and members of Journal Square-area neighborhood and block associations to discuss the details of the plan and express their concerns. A similar meeting will be held Thursday, June 10 at 6 pm in the City Council Caucus Room on the second floor of City Hall.

Lopez and city planning director Bob Cotter were joined by planners Sandra Sung and Jeffrey Wenger, along with deputy mayor for economic development Rosemary McFadden. Also in attendance were 15 or so Journal Square residents, many of them members of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association — which covers an area just east of Journal Square, also known as The Island.

Cotter, Sung and Wenger went through the permitted uses, building heights and other details of each of the nine zones proposed in the draft plan, which include a central high-density transportation hub, historic districts and mixed-use commercial and residential areas. The plan also envisions an ambitious public pedestrian plaza to be built over the PATH rail cut, a project which would provide the area with sorely lacking open public space and “form a continuous link from the Journal Square PATH station to the surrounding neighborhoods from Baldwin Avenue to Garrison Avenue.” This portion of the plan is at this point nothing more than an idea, and city planners indicated that they have not seen any specific architectural or engineering plans that seek to make it a reality.

The concerns of the assembled residents centered primarily around what some of them saw as excessive density and building height as well as a lack of provisions for off-street parking. Wenger explained that Journal Square 2060 is conceived as “a transit-oriented development plan,” which is a set of planning principles that purposefully concentrates high-density development around mass transit and incorporates provisions to discourage reliance on personal automobiles.

“There is a large and growing market for people who want to live near mass transit and not have to own a car,” Wenger said. “Do we want to attract people who want to live without a car or … people who are completely car-dependent?”

Other residents expressed concerns that high-rise buildings looming over the surrounding neighborhoods will create a jarring visual effect and destroy the residential character of some of Journal Square’s side streets.

“It’s incongruous to have big tall buildings and really small buildings” right next to each other, Cotter admitted. “But that’s Journal Square.” Cotter pointed to the Downtown towers 77 Hudson and 70 Greene as examples of how thoughtful design can help to integrate large buildings into neighborhoods where they might seem out of place.

Resident Margaret Marley was not satisified, however. “Will you consider bringing down the height of that red zone?” she asked Cotter directly, referring to the area marked in the plan as Zone 1. Proposed maximum floor area ratio (MFAR) standards in the 2060 plan could in theory permit buildings of over 50 stories in the central high-density zone.

“No,” Cotter replied. “We want to see tall buildings there that meet the neighborhood gracefully.”

The planners reported that they expect to release a slightly revised version of the current draft plan next week, which will incorporate sidewalk cafes and make minor changes to design details. When asked by JCI when a completed draft is expected to reach the City Council for a vote, Cotter indicated that could happen “by the end of the summer.”