This morning, Councilman James Solomon announced that new parking rules are coming to the Downtown, most likely in early January.
Downtown residents will see new residential parking signs going up to extend the hours for resident-only parking. According to Solomon, these changes should make it easier for residents to find street parking each evening.
The changes were passed in the summer of 2019 but the installation of the new signs was delayed due to COVID. The signs will go up this October and November, with enforcement to begin shortly thereafter.
A brief summary of the rules changes are:
Evening Enforcement
The hours of residential parking enforcement have changed from 8AM – 5PM until 7 AM-9 PM with a 2 hour window for visitors, M-F.
To apply for or renew a residential permit, click here. If you already have a permit, you simply have to renew your current permit when it expires.
To apply for a visitor’s pass, click here. In the near future, you will be able to use the Park Mobile app to purchase a visitor’s pass online.
Residential Zone Boundary Changes
Slight changes were made to the parking zones downtown. You can view the map here.
Limit to residential permits
Those who live in buildings with parking are generally not allowed to get a residential parking permit, unless they qualify for an exemption
A limit of 1 permit may be issued per unit for those who have parking available on site if they receive an exemption
But Local Residents Fear Loss of Precious Parking Spaces
Jersey City pedestrians and cyclists hoping to enjoy a new inter-county greenway face resistance from some Greenville residents looking to preserve coveted curbside parking spaces.
The project would be the final link in what historians, environmentalists and government planners envision as the Morris Canal Greenway, a continuous pedestrian and bicycle route that would follow the path of the former historic waterway.
That path would extend more than 100 miles—close to 70 miles of off-road trails and 41 miles of on-road or road-side trails—through six New Jersey counties stretching from Phillipsburg in Warren County to Jersey City in Hudson County.
Beginning in 1831, barges on the canal hauled coal and various other products that fueled the Industrial Revolution. The canal, which featured 23 locks and 23 inclined planes, continued in service until 1924 when railroads supplanted water trafficking of cargo. Canal properties were sold to municipalities and private owners.
In recognition of the key role it played in American transportation, the Morris Canal District was placed on the state and federal registers of historic places in the early 1970s.
In 2005, the Morris Land Conservancy and Canal Society of New Jersey set in motion plans for the Greenway by identifying canal properties for preservation. Thereafter, county and state governments began funding plans and studies to implement the proposal. To date, nearly 40 miles of the greenway have been built.
Morris Canal Plaque
Jersey City’s segment of the greenway—about 8.5 miles long—will traverse its western and southern edges in a sweeping loop starting at the edge of Lincoln Park parallel to Rt. 440, passing through part of Country Village and Mercer Park, following Caven Point Road, Garfield Avenue, Gates Avenue, Princeton Avenue, Berry Lane Park, and Carbon Street and ending at the edge of Liberty State Park.
The city has received a $3.5 million state department of transportation grant for the first phase of the project. It also got $800,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up certain areas. Lighting and street cameras will figure in the final design. Work is expected to begin in Spring 2021.
Part of the project’s complexity involves the design of 10-foot-wide bike paths along streets in residential neighborhoods where curbside parking is frequently at a premium. City aides are reviewing different options for configuring dimensions of those pathways as they intersect those neighborhoods.
When the city provided a recent greenway update in a public Zoom presentation, several residents of Princeton Avenue in Greenville voiced fears that the proposed special lanes between Brown Place and Winfield Avenue for walkers and bikers would displace needed parking spaces on the block.
“Biking and walking are great,” said Andrea Spencer, “but those plans shouldn’t be to the detriment of people who live in the neighborhood already. I need my car too.”
Even more emphatic was resident Pam Johnson, who said, “Biking isn’t the answer. We have lots of seniors and retirees who don’t bike who enjoy gathering on our block. We don’t necessarily want to see [strangers] gathering on Princeton. You need to be careful.”
Ward A Councilwoman Denise Ridley said the city recently designated residential permit parking for the area next to the Light Rail station at Princeton and Danforth Avenues to try to save spaces for residents frustrated by people who park there, take the train “and leave their cars there all day.”
For that reason, she said, “I would not favor removing parking spaces” to clear the way for the proposed bikeways.
Other portions of the greenway pose similar threats to neighborhood curbside parking.
The proposed Mercer Park to Caven Point Road link—a route that traverses Merritt Street, Garfield Avenue, Gates Avenue, Princeton Avenue and Linden Avenue—would see its total of 264 currently available parking spaces cut by 22–54 percent; the proposed Communipaw Avenue to Pacific Avenue stretch, which proceeds from behind the Whitlock Cordage plant on Maple Street to Van Horne Street to Carbon Street to Pacific, would take comparable hits to its existing total of 72 spaces, depending on final design choices, city figures show.
To ensure full public participation in the decision-making process, Ward F Councilman Jermaine Robinson said, “We should give all affected neighborhoods advance notice which parking spaces will be impacted because parking is the biggest concern in this city. And the sooner, the better—definitely before it gets to the construction stage.”
One resident excited about the prospect of the greenway’s coming to fruition is Patrick Conlon, president of Bike JC, a nonprofit advocacy group for bicycling. “People will enjoy having this space available to exercise,” he said. And, he suggested, in neighborhoods where bike lanes are located, “property values may benefit.”
In response to questions about the project’s design, time table, projected usage, and cost to the city, mayoral spokesperson Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said:
“There will be sufficient room to accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists, and the like. The design of the bikeways depends on each individual street. We expect segments to be paid by the grants. Plans are still being finalized, but we fully expect the Greenway to be widely utilized as this is a great way to expand opportunities for our residents and all those uniquely connected across the state by the Greenway.”
Parking in Jersey City public school parking lots will end on July 31 at 6 p.m. when gates will be locked.
As the school district prepares for fall opening, parking can no longer be provided. Resident parking had previously been permitted in the lots listed – here.
Should one’s car remain in one of the school parking lots after being locked, please call (201) 915-6320 or (201) 915-6330.
As emergency restrictions ease, here are the latest Jersey City Covid-19 updates.
If you feel sick and/or believe you may be infected call your healthcare provider and/or the Jersey City Covid-19 hotline at 201-547-5208 before traveling to a hospital.
Outdoor Gatherings
Outdoor gatherings have been increased to permit up to 25 people as follows:
The gathering must take place entirely outdoors except for restroom use;
Limit capacity to no more than 25 people at all times;
Require attendees to be six feet apart at all times, excluding immediate family members, caretakers, household members, or romantic partners;
Prohibit contact between attendees, and no organized or contact sports;
If the event is an organized gathering, the organizer should demarcate six feet of spacing in the area of the gathering to demonstrate appropriate spacing for social distancing;
Limit provided seating to single individuals, spaced six feet apart, and sanitized after each use;
Prohibit sharing of any physical items provided and require sanitization before and after each use; and
More information covering recreation can be found in Governor Murphy’s press releasehere.
Reopening of Businesses and the Economy
New Jersey’s strategic reopening plan is outlined here.
Jersey City Covid-19 Testing
Jersey City is providing free Covid-19 testing to any resident who requests it regardless of symptoms. Testing is by appointment only. Proof of residency is required. Test site will be assigned when appointment is scheduled. To schedule, call (201) 547-5535, Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
No appointment is required at the walk up test site at 465 Marin Blvd. Jersey City residents can walk up for Covid-19 testing on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and antibody testing on Mondays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring proof of Jersey City address.
Starting today, May 29, a second walk up Covid-19 testing site is available for all Jersey City residents with no appointment needed at the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center, 140 Martin Luther King Drive. Hours are 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Please bring proof of Jersey City address.
Jersey City Business Support
Jersey City businesses seeking reopening support including Covid-19 testing and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can sign up using this form.
Restaurants seeking additional outdoor seating on sidewalks and parking lanes can sign up using this form.
Parking
All parking regulations have been restored and in effect.
33 school parking lots have been opened throughout each corridor of the city for residents to park their vehicles during the State of Emergency.
Parking in Jersey City may never be the same. That is if a team of consultants hired by the city has anything to say about it. In an hour-long presentation before a virtual caucus meeting of the municipal council, the consultants laid out a detailed proposal for bringing Jersey City’s parking rules into the 21stcentury. Street parking, said the consultants, is a “public resource” that the city needs to manage more efficiently while simultaneously leveraging new sustainable modes of transportation.
“Parking is both about numbers, but it’s also a highly political process,” according to Margaret Newman, former chief of staff of the New York City Department of Transportation during the Bloomberg administration and one of the consultants who worked on the draft. Among residents, “Everyone has an interest in it, and everyone has a different story and experience,” she added.
In order to develop the plan, the team spent the last year holding meetings in each ward, running a public workshop and digesting the responses to 2,500 electronic surveys filled out by Jersey City residents. More than half the responses came from Wards D and E, prompting the consultants to call for further outreach to Wards A and F, from which the responses had been significantly lower in number.
The plan included ten recommendations ranging from modifying the parking zones to re-examining the city’s requirements for parking features in new construction.
When it comes to new construction, “Cities are moving away from parking minimums and moving to maximums and moving to use-based requirements,” one of the consultants explained. The “current requirements [for developers] were developed based on what’s been done before, copied from other cities or prescribed by council members, without a parking analysis.”
One recommendation — to adopt “tiered meter pricing” — would encourage people to park for short durations in high-demand areas by imposing hourly rates that increase the longer one parked in the spot. Those wanting to park for longer periods would be encouraged, through pricing, to use off-street parking. One of the consultants pointed out that Jersey City is currently doing the opposite, with on-street parking priced at 75 cents an hour and off-street parking at $8.00–10.00 per hour. “This encourages people to park on the street and park there for a very long time.” He added, “If we’re successful, on-street parking will have an occupancy of 85%, so there would always be a space available for those who need it. To the extent possible, we want to prevent people from circling the block or double parking just to avoid paying those higher rates.”
According to the consultants, Jersey City residents like the idea of “shared parking.” Imagine, they said, a bar and a bank that, due to their different business hours, could use the same parking lot. In a real-world example, they said Sacramento, California, had built a 35 thousand-seat stadium without any new parking simply by accessing existing parking resources nearby.
With the exception of Ward A, when asked, all sections of the city liked the consultants’ proposal to increase parking enforcement. But the consultants qualified this proposal with the admonition that any change in enforcement be properly communicated to residents and that enforcement be carried out even handedly throughout the city.
In areas close to mass transit, the consultants proposed the creation of well-marked lots for commuters in a strategy called “intercept parking.” “Jersey City has an additional burden that not all cities have in that it has commuters who park to take transit,” noted one of the consultants. Intercept parking would help eliminate “the competition between residents and visitors.”
Curb cuts in Jersey City, Jessey City Times file photo
According to the consultants, residents expressed “real concern” about curb cuts made to create private parking and their effect on on-street parking. The consultants singled out one block on Armstrong Avenue in Greenville that has lost 59 regular parking spaces as a result of such curb cuts.
“The majority of people who participated in meetings wanted to see a reduction in curb cuts,” said one of the consultants.
While acknowledging that curb cuts are “a really difficult problem to address,” the consultants nevertheless proposed a freeze on future curb cut applications.
Notably, the consultants did not recommend the construction of new parking garages, a fact that councilman Richard Boggiano found troubling.
“Charlotte [North Carolina] has numerous parking garages,” Boggiano said, and “the people are quite happy. This is something that is really wrong.”
Boggiano noted wistfully that building more garages was something he and the late Councilman Michael Yun had agreed upon — and indeed respondents to the consultants’ questionnaires ranked the construction of centralized parking garages as their top parking solution. The consultants noted, however, that their survey “has an overrepresentation of car owners.”
A consultant pushed back on the garage-building solution. She pointed out that the cost of building garages is high and that the city should first look for efficiencies.
“Before building new garages, it is critical to look at what the other issues are.”
She noted that building new garages subsidizes the cost of driving and conflicts with sustainability goals.
“Many people are attracted to Jersey City because of the other transportation amenities it offers. We need to look at what the opportunities are to capitalize on the advantages that Jersey City presents prior to increasing the supply,” she said.
The consultants’ report remains little more than a blueprint at this point. Senior Transportation Planner Barkha Patel explained that the proposal has no legal force since it is just that: a proposal. She noted that the consultants still lack some data to complete their recommendations.
“While this is mostly a report to deliver recommendations to the city, I did want it to focus a little bit on what actions we can put into effect immediately … and capitalize on some of the low-hanging fruit. It should function as a comprehensive document that touches on a lot … of questions that the city still needs to answer.”
Fun Jersey City parking numbers
60,000: the number of on-street parking spaces
1,500: the number of metered spaces
30,000: the number off-street parking spaces
$35,000 to $60,000: the cost to build one parking space in a garage
333 miles: the total length of all sidewalk curbs
223 miles: the total length of all sidewalk curbs available for parking
75%: the amount of Ward E’s curb length available for parking
59%: the amount of Ward A’s curb length available for parking (significantly lower than Ward E due to curb cuts)
38%: the percentage of Jersey City households with no access to a vehicle
