A new multi-use park on the banks of the Hackensack River in Carlstadt is beginning to take shape. Officials last week announced significant progress at the River Barge Park at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s monthly meeting and confirmed open space revelers could begin enjoying the waterside green space and river access by the end of 2009 with full construction at completion with an accelerated schedule.
This past spring, the first major phase of the park began when Global Construction Inc. tore down the iconic Barge Club, a family owned restaurant and club that was a staple of the Meadowlands since 1976. It became such an icon for its uniqueness as owner Jay LaVerghetta and his father Lenny constructed the restaurant by joining two massive 30 by 100-foot barges they recovered on the river that had previously been used to transport railway components.
In 2005, the NJMC reached a deal with the LaVerghetta’s to purchase the four-acre site for $3.1 million to develop a multi-faceted park after the owners had seen a decline in their business and failed attempts to develop the property into 28 units of condominiums.
"Projects like this symbolize the rebirth of the Meadowlands, and provide for increased opportunities to use this watershed as a recreation destination," said Ceberio.
Katy Weidel, senior landscape architect at the NJMC presented an updated design of the park, something that had thoroughly been missing from the park’s timeline until last week. Prior, just specs and conceptual plans were set forth. Within the designs, the park depicts two side-by-side boathouses on the same footprint as the Barge Club, colored red just as the iconic restaurant was for nearly three decades. One house would store the Meadowlands Rowing Center while the other, the NJMC Paddle Center. Both will be flanked by the large BARGE sign that greeted customers to the Hackensack eatery, one of many relics that had been salvaged from the site and will be incorporated into the park.
"The goal of this project is to really showcase the commission’s lean and green philosophies," said Weidel. "What is sort of interesting is the architecture of these boat houses will be very reminiscent of the old wooden barges, which were formerly on the site."
The green initiatives will extend to solar panels on facets of the project including carports, using salvaged 100-year-old Southern Longleaf pine beams from the old barges and exercising practices of the New Jersey Clean Marina Program. A storage building at the corner of the property built by the LaVerghetta’s in anticipation of the condos will be converted to an on-site station of a DEP conservation officer. Attached, will be a winter storage shed for the NJMC’s motorized boats, including pontoons that currently run river tours from the site.
On the water, there will be 26 total boat slips, 16 for public use and 10 for the NJMC. Officials have yet to determine how the public slips will be leased and the process in which applicants can vie for one. Throughout the rest of the park, an outdoor education pavilion, educational signage and anticipated nature trails connecting to the 587-acre Richard P. Kane Natural Area are also anticipated.
The project, although touted on paper and through conceptual designs has already seen its fair share of roadblocks. The first is the strenuous and drawn out process of obtaining the proper permits to commence work. The hardest to obtain according to the NJMC has been a dredge permit required jointly by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, thus the projected opening of the park in 2009, three years after the property was actually purchased. During low tides, boats that would be utilizing the ramps and slips at the park would be impeded by a shallow riverbed incurring the need to dredge along the bank.
"We will be dredging under the new marina slips. It is about 6,000 cubic yards and will be disposed as per DEP regulations at an upland site," said NJMC spokesperson Sheri Hensley.
The second snag has been the controversy that arose from the award of the architectural contract voted on by the NJMC in February. The choice to grant the $575,000 contract to DMR Architects over the lowest bidder in Cubellis Ecoplan was criticized because DMR originally came in $100,000 higher but was allowed to match Cubellis. DMR, a high contributor to political campaigns in Bergen County was considered the most qualified and won the bid. Cubellis, who has no campaign contributions on record in state election records, was denied the contract. Soon after, the NJMC board passed far-reaching ethics rules.
Many residents and groups at last week’s meeting have already showed their interest in joining onto the park within some entity as a way to access the river for their respective boating clubs, including a representative of the Hudson County Technical Schools, the Hackensack Canoe and Kayak Club and the Ridgefield Park-based Wanda Canoe Club.
Although interested, James McLoone of the Wanda Canoe Club expressed concerns that powerboats at the site would take priority opposed to the recreational rowers that his club represents.
"It appears that the powerboat launch area and the paddling boat launch area would be inter-mixed and that in my mind creates a similar situation at Laurel Hill Park," said McLoone. "What happens at Laurel Hill Park, you seem to end up mixing power boats and canoes and kayaks…it, at least in my mind, leads to unsafe conditions. It could lead to problems."
Other questions arose about the one road that accesses the site, Outwater Lane, a thoroughfare that is currently riddled with potholes and is even partially cobblestone in one part. One member in attendance told the commissioners, "You have roads going to the site the will break axles on most cars."
New NJMC Acting Chairman Joseph Doria assured that the agency would work hand in hand with Carlstadt, who is responsible for the maintenance of the road, to reconstruct and maintain it for suitable everyday use.
