Mayor Zimmer: City Will Acquire New Park in SW 'Soon'

The city is continuing its negotiations toward acquiring a one-acre park in the Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced last week.

"We are confident we will get the title to Block 12 soon," Zimmer told the city council last week.

The land in question is one acre at the intersaction of Harrison and Jackson Streets.

The land will be paid for with a $3 million grant the city has in its coffers. The grant, however—which was relocated to be used in the Southwest last year—is set to expire in August.

The city — which has started eminent domain proceedings to acquire the land — is offering $2.3 million for the land.

This park is supposed to be the start of the creation of the "South West 6," a plan to create six acres of open space in that neighborhood.

Zimmer said that — according to her current planning — the park could be open at the end of 2014.

Councilman Tim Occhipinti is proposing that the city buys three smaller properties in the Fourth Ward as well, which are owned by the Zaklama family. One of the properties currently houses a burnt out building at the corner of First and Jackson.

Roughly 400 Hoboken residents have signed Occhipinti's petition in favor of the park.

Zimmer said last week that purchasing those parcels of land will be too costly for the city.

Chris Gizzi, a member of the Southwest Park Coalition, said that the two parks aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

"We should not ignore opportunities," Gizzi said. "Here is an opportunity for open space. It'd be remiss for anyone to use fear of litigation or cost or any other factor to not investigate what could be possible."