Hoboken To Get New Park At 800 Monroe St., Instead Of Development

HOBOKEN, NJ — The city will begin public meetings in fall to solicit input for a new resiliency park at 800 Monroe St. in the western part of Hoboken — a park that could hold half a million gallons of stormwater in an area that often floods.

The city acquired the property, initially slated for residential development, through a three-way land swap agreement with the Applied Parties last year. Initially, a 186-unit residential building was planned for the lot. As a part of the Monarch Development settlement, the city will utilize approximately $550,000 in funding from the Applied Parties for the 800 Monroe design process, with no impact to the municipal budget.

The 1.43-acre park will become the city’s fourth resiliency park, which includes the Northwest Resiliency Park, Southwest Resiliency Park and its expansion, and the Seventh and Jackson Resiliency Park, for a total of over 10 acres of parks with above and below-ground flood
mitigating infrastructure.

The Hoboken City Council unanimously awarded the contract to the engineering firm AECOM to provide proposed park designs at the July 20 council meeting.

By October, the City and AECOM will host the first of several public engagementsessions to gather community input, which will be used to create designalternatives that could integrate active and passive recreation amenities, green infrastructure, resiliency components, and urban design.

The park is also proposed to connect to the Green Circuit, as detailed in the city’s Master Plan.

The project team will launch a project website in the coming months for members of the public to stay informed throughout the design process, they said.

“The creation of Hoboken’s fourth resiliency park at 800 Monroe is another major step forward in our efforts to provide more green space while simultaneously mitigating flooding during
heavy rainfall events,” said Mayor Bhalla.

The city has opened two resiliency parks since 2017; the Southwest Resiliency Park and the Seventh and Jackson Resiliency Park.

The city is scheduled to reopen the Northwest Resiliency Park in spring of next year, which will detain up to 2 million gallons of stormwater and provide over 5 acres of open space.