[CPEO-BIF] Re-Visiting the Morris Canal area, Jersey City, NJ

[Lenny Siegel]

[For a formatted version of this report, with photos, download the 352 
kB Word file from http:www.cpeo.org/pubs/MorrisCanal.doc.]


Morris Canal Area, Jersey City, New Jersey
Lenny Siegel
June, 2006

On June 9, 2006, I re-visited the Morris Canal area in Jersey City, New 
Jersey, and met with June Jones-Hawkins, leader of the Morris Canal 
Redevelopment Area Community Development Corporation (MCRACDC). I first 
visited the area in 2002 as part of joint research project on local 
government and Brownfields, in which CPEO worked with the International 
City/County Management Association. In 2004 CPEO teamed with the city of 
Jersey City to hold a workshop on "Community-Led Brownfields Revitalization.

The Morris Canal area, also known as the Lafayette neighborhood, is just 
outside Liberty State Park. The multi-racial neighborhood is home to 
many families that have lived there for generations. Part of the area is 
industrial. Other sections are mixed industrial, commercial, and 
residential. Like much of Jersey City, most of the developable property 
suffers from some type of soil contamination.

The MCRACDC began ten years ago as a neighborhood coalition. Jersey City 
actually wrote the organization into its redevelopment plan, and it 
incorporated as a Community Development Corporation in 1999. When Jersey 
City first won a Brownfields Pilot Assessment Grant from EPA, it 
promised a comprehensive program of community involvement. When it 
reportedly failed to live up to those promises, EPA threatened to pull 
the grant.

Though some in Jersey City's government only saw the community 
organization as an oversight group, neighborhood leaders have always 
wanted more. They wanted to develop their own projects, and they wanted 
concessions such as a affordable housing set-asides to help counter 
gentrification in an area becoming more and more desirable due to its 
proximity to New York City's financial district, just across the Hudson 
River.

When I first met Lafayette neighborhood leaders, I was skeptical. After 
all, they seemed to lack development expertise, and they definitely 
lacked capital. However, the strong turnout by and long attention span 
of local residents - at meetings I attended in both 2002 and 2004 - 
convinced me that they had the ingredients of success. With the support 
of some key local officials, they persisted, and they are close to 
breaking ground on three projects.

As I understand it, MCRACDC is scheduled to receive two properties that 
have been, or are being acquired, by the Jersey City Redevelopment 
Agency. In cooperation with Landmark Developers, a private, locally 
based firm, it plans to build 39 affordable homes on those two 
properties. In addition, Landmark will clean and develop another, 
higher-value property, adjacent to a light rail station, with both 
housing and retail space. Landmark has promised to share its profits 
from that site with MCRACDC, to set aside a significant fraction of the 
units as affordable, and give the community the option of setting up a 
children's day care center on the property.

The three projects have not yet been built, and the community has 
encountered unexpected roadblocks before. Nevertheless, it appears that 
a clear vision and hard work will pay off for the MCRACDC.



-- 
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org