FBW plan fills void in City’s redevelopment plan for Hoboken Railyards

The Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the narrow legal victory that led to the group’s birth. After a July 1990 city referendum halted a Port Authority plan to build a 33-story office tower on Pier A, the vote’s organizers sat down to create an alternative vision for the waterfront.

That proposal by the waterfront group called for a continuous public park along the entire eastern edge of Hoboken. It served as the basis for the 1995 city plan that created Pier A and Pier C Park and the promenade that connects them.

For many long-time activists, last month’s anniversary celebration was tempered by victories not yet won and battles still to come. In December, the Hoboken City Council approved one of the largest redevelopment projects since the South Waterfront – a massive makeover of 36 acres of NJ Transit-owned rail yards south of Observer Highway – over the strong objections of FBW members.

For the last six months the group has once again developed an alternative plan, led by the same architect and urban planner who laid out their waterfront proposal a quarter century ago.

Read full story in the Hoboken Reporter.