Discussion at Borough Council on February 14, 2023 was mostly about the Highland Park Redevelopment Plan. The focus was on Tract C, specifically trying to get 7 more parcels. These are parcels around South 3rd, South 2nd, and Raritan Avenue. Adding 7 more parcels to a tract is a multi-step process between the Council, the Planning Board, and the developers.

So what is Tract C? You can read the latest online version of the Highland Park Redevelopment Plan (pdf). In particular, Tract C can be found on pages 9-10 and pages 53-62. The parking lot that currently holds the Highland Park Farmers Market is part of Tract C.

Excerpt about Tract C:

The redevelopment concept for Tract C allows for infill with one or more new taller mixed-use or multi-family buildings serving as a focal point to “terminate the vista” looking up Raritan Avenue after crossing the bridge. Tract C features public space in the form of a multi-use public plaza at Raritan Avenue (unless or until there is another location devoted for that public plaza) connecting to an interior garden courtyard that provides access to the rear of the Reformed Church and continues as a walkway along a parking area to Magnolia Street. Due to the limited retail frontage on this block, any mixed-use building should strictly limit new commercial storefront space and include activated ground level frontage along Raritan Avenue with residential apartments on upper levels and along the ground level of the courtyard that will bring more people to live, work and shop along Raritan Avenue.

The Stated Purpose of the Redevelopment Plan

This is an excerpt about the purpose of the redevelopment plan:

For several decades, Highland Park has recognized a need for significant and sustained attention to the downtown business district. However, revitalization efforts have had limited impact for a variety of reasons and redevelopment efforts have never gotten off the ground. The purpose of this Redevelopment Plan is to take a more focused approach to “jump-starting” downtown redevelopment.

This Redevelopment Plan implements the 2019 Master Plan (the “Master Plan”), which involved extensive community participation including hundreds of people who attended community workshops and took part in an online survey in which only 9% of respondents said they would like to see downtown “remain the same.” During the Master Plan process, citizens identified the following issues/concerns related to downtown:

• Need for a “town square” public gathering space and lack of a proper mix/diversity of retail
  and activities.
• Create mixed-use development with higher density housing, including multi-family and
  affordable units.
• Address vacant properties, empty storefronts, and high turnover of businesses that make
  the streetscape unpleasant and presenting a sense of neglect.
• Lack of consolidated parking near major attractions, like the farmers market, lends itself
  to a fragmented downtown experience.

The Master Plan sets a goal to support a thriving downtown by leveraging reinvestment, revitalization, infill, and redevelopment to expand opportunities for mixed-use development while recognizing the challenges of an e-commerce era. The Planning Board adopted the Master Plan in December 2019, unaware that a few months later a global pandemic would unleash more formidable challenges to the future of downtown.

What do you think? Do you think this plan will: “Address vacant properties, empty storefronts, and high turnover of businesses”? Visit the forum and discuss the redevelopment plan.

Hybrid Meetings?

At the end of the meeting a reporter from New Brunswick brought up the topic of hybrid meetings. This subject had been brought up once before, and the response was that the Borough was in touch with another municipality that is holding hybrid meetings. The reporter named several municipalities in New Jersey that are holding hybrid meetings. He mentioned Zoom as one way of holding a hybrid meeting. All one needs is a laptop and an account with meetings that last more than 45 minutes. Why is the Borough Council hesitant to set up a hybrid meeting?