The Jersey City Independent"

A much-needed 15,000 square feet of green space is coming to a mostly industrial area west of Journal Square, thanks to a high-end condo development.

CANCOlofts announced this week that construction has begun on the new park, located across the street from its main building on Dey Street. In the inverse of the famed Joni Mitchell song, the park will replace a parking lot there, and it is slated to be finished and opened to the public by the end of October.

In June, Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli ruled that developer Steve Hyman was entitled to a new hearing before the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) regarding his petition to tear down the 6th Street Embankment. The ZBA has scheduled a special meeting to hear the case Wednesday evening.
Hyman’s initial applications for Certificates of Appropriateness [...]

- Parking Lot Replaces Housing in Developer’s Plan: The Jersey City Planning Board has approved a Bayonne-based developer’s plans to construct a 436-space parking lot at Grove and 18th streets. Ten years ago, the same developer won Planning Board approval to build two 43-story towers on the site, but the project never got built. The [...]

In spite of a sorely needed vision and plan for the future of Journal Square, the latest version of the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan remains deficient.
The plan is for our true downtown and the heart of the city, but it fails to reconcile its goal of pedestrian-friendly street life with its requirement for minimum [...]

Developer K. Hovnanian’s attempt to force Jersey City to revise its tax abatement deal for the 77 Hudson condo building has been dismissed by a Superior Court judge, who found that “Hovnanian has no legal right” to the amended deal.
The developer had gone to the city seeking a sweetened abatement deal after one was given [...]

Although Jersey City’s City Council last week narrowly approved issuing about $7.6 million in bonds to acquire the contested 6th Street Embankment, developer Steve Hyman says he has no interest in selling the city the land. Instead, he says he will continue fighting in court for his right to develop the property.

After taking some testimony and public comment at its Tuesday night meeting, the Planning Board carried the consideration of the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan to its July 27 meeting. That meeting, which was initially canceled, has now been reinstated and will focus squarely on the Journal Square plan.
The plan, which you can browse below, [...]

- City Looks to Bond for Embankment Deal: A bond ordinance that would allow the city to spend up to $7.7 million in its efforts to gain control of the 6th Street Embankment from developer Steve Hyman will be up for a vote at tomorrow’s City Council meeting. The city says it has a number [...]

New Jersey City University (NJCU) is one of 25 higher education institutions around the country that has received a 2010 Kresge Fellowship Award from the Boston-based nonprofit Second Nature.
The fellowships, part of Second Nature’s Advancing Green Building in Higher Education Initiative, are designed to provide under-resourced institutions with information and networking opportunities that will [...]

- ‘I am So Scared Right Now’: “I stand before you facing the most terrifying moment of my life,” former deputy mayor and Healy campaign treasurer said before a federal judge sentenced her to three years in prison yesterday. The Ledger has more. “It is a sad image: a 75-year-old woman expressing terror and begging [...]