How should the Historic Central Railroad train shed, now overgrown with vegetation, best be reused?
What strategy is best to mesh ballfields and public parking with greenery?
Which form of seating accommodations for an arts amphitheater is the least intrusive for viewing park vistas?
These and more puzzlers are now before members of the Liberty State Park Design Task Force, the state Department of Environmental Protection and their planning consultants, Arup, a global firm that designed Hunter’s Point South, an 11-acre riverfront park in Long Island City, N.Y., offering sweeping views of the East River and Manhattan skyline.
Arup’s fee is $1.4 million, according to DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette.
The LSP task force met Saturday inside the train shed, with about 150 members of the public split between an interior conference room and an overflow room. Others signed on using a livestream.
Task force members and the public were asked for comments on LSP-North (Phase 1B): proposed multipurpose athletic fields, arts and cultural amenities, to be built along the Audrey Zapp Drive corridor at the park’s northern end, from Jersey Avenue to the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal. Also envisioned for this phase are rehabilitated and repurposed train sheds, a public outdoor amphitheater, plus a playground, concessions and other gathering spaces.
A possible extension of Phase 1B would be active recreational improvements to the park’s southern end along the Morris Pesin Drive Corridor and Freedom Way Corridor which could include a track-and-field center, integrated multi-use fields, basketball and racquet courts and skate park.
Still being evaluated are plans for a possible community pool, aquatics center, community gardens, long-term parking and intra-park transit strategies and enhanced coastal wetland habitats.
Meanwhile, DEP is planning to take construction bids shortly for the cleanup and restoration of the park’s 234-acre-interior bordering Phillip Street which remains closed to the public.
Asked about that project during a break in the proceedings, LaTourette told reporters DEP figures to tap funding received from settlements with legacy polluters of the area plus an additional $35 million set aside in this year’s state budget. Some preliminary work, like removal of compromised trees, shrubs and weeds, has been done already, he said.
“We’ve also been surveying for different types of contaminants, such as unexploded munitions dating from the World War I era, the Black Tom rail yard explosion, materials from old New York City subway cars that were blasted and dumped into the cove and dredge materials,” he said. “There are also some chromium issues.”
“It’s going to take several years to do the interior,” he added.
LaTourette declined to say how much the cleanup would cost. Based on the estimates from experts, he said: “The numbers will make your head spin. You can say upwards of $100 million.”
Still, he remained hopeful about LSP’s future redevelopment and pointed to what he considered a relatively recent DEP success story – though on a less grand scale than LSP – in the conversion of an abandoned city landfill into the 62-acre Cramer Hill Waterfront Park in Camden at the convergence of the Cooper and Delaware rivers.
Opened in 2021, the park – whose development was underwritten by settlements with former polluters and other sources – features three miles of hiking and biking trails, a fishing plaza, kayak launch and a wetlands area.
In the meantime, DEP is focused on moving forward with shaping and refining plans for LSP’s new look.
To that end, LaTourette and Assistant Commissioner John Cecil reminded the Task Force that the agency, in no other state park, has made youth sports such an important component in recognition of the host community’s needs, but now, they said, it’s important for the locals entrusted with design recommendations to ensure that their preferences “reflect diversity,” particularly in years to come, when more and more youths may be playing sports like soccer and cricket.
Design Task Force member Barkha Patel, Jersey City’s director of Infrastructure, had suggestions on a variety of issues. She recommended outfitting the revamped train shed with reminders of its historical importance in having transported untold numbers of immigrants to destinations around the U.S.; ensuring that parking lots have enough spaces reserved for scooters and bikes; in cases of electrified ballfields, being mindful of potential danger to migratory birds; and embedding greenery to separate fields from parking lots.
Over the last year, several of the Task Force members allied with Liberty National Golf Club owner Paul Fireman have actively promoted a plan to build an extensive sports and entertainment complex in the park including multiple ball fields, a 7,000 seat concert venue, a five thousand seat stadium and a 250 thousand square foot community center.
One member, Bob Hurley, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation and donations from Firman. Others have received large contributions for organizations they head.
The DEP proposal unveiled last year would devote 61 acres to active recreation such as that advocated by the Fireman supported group. However, the Fireman supported group are demanding 85 acres and buildings that a local newspaper called a “mini Meadowlands.” At a recent meeting, Hurley acknowledged that his group had not conducted had not performed a formal assessment of what Jersey City’s needs are for playing fields.
Task force member Sam Pesin, president of Friends of Liberty State Park, told the group that “you can’t solve all of the needs of Jersey City in Liberty State Park.”
County Commissioner and Task force member Jerry Walker, who has received contributions for his “Team Walker” not-for-profit from Fireman, said that the recreation facilities would provide a “safe space” for young people who live on the South Side of the city.
The first public speaker, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, seemed to take direct aim at the Fireman-supported members when he said “we don’t want to have monied interests, politicians who are paid off, other people in the community who are bought and paid for trying to drive this process.”
Laverne Washington said she supported building active recreation. She described having to take her kids to Newark for recreation. “My kids in the community have nowhere to go.”
State Senator Raj Mukherji said commercialization would “impair the value of the park.”
Other speakers called for things like international food courts, farmers’ markets, small-scale commercial vendors, along with visual, musical and performance artists to fill the space at currently vacant outdoor areas at the train shed.
In May, the DEP laid out a three-phase plan. The first would focus on a cleanup and restoration of 230 acres of land in the interior that has been closed to the public due to a legacy industrial contamination followed by the creation of “scenic overlooks” and a 5.6 mile walking and running trail.
The second phase would focus on “active recreation, arts, and culture improvements” in the north “area” of the park along Audrey Zapp Drive to the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal Building. The currently off-limits train shed would be renovated and repurposed as a community space and sometime marketplace. Arts and cultural spaces, including a public outdoor amphitheater, would be developed.
The first two phases would include work on new “southern and northern athletics hubs” for active recreation.
The third phase would focus on the southern and waterfront areas. Public athletics could include a track-and-field center, multi-use fields, basketball courts, racquet courts, a skate park, and other amenities. Planners would evaluate the feasibility of offering a community pool, an aquatics center and community gardens.
It is now up to the DEP, along with planners and the Task Force to settle on a final, detailed plan for the park.
LSP’s Design Task Force is scheduled to next meet on April 9.