Public Meets to Discuss Downtown Vacant Land's Development on Thursday

Residents have suggested transforming 1-square acre of vacant land downtown into a well-coifed lawn that would invite workers to push themselves away from their desks and enjoy the afternoon air.

Others envision a playground with swing sets, slides, and small, smiling faces on sunny summer days.

These and other proposals will likely be revisited Thursday when the public meets again to discuss what type of park should take shape on a grass-covered lot where the Wolfson Parking Deck once stood.

The meeting, which will start at 6 p.m. at Delta’s Restaurant, will be the second one held to solicit public input.

Two things have happened since 30 or so residents in December lobbed proposals ranging from meditation space to herb garden to sports park at New Brunswick Director of Planning, Community and Economic Development, Dan Dominguez, and landscape architect William Reimer of Florham Park-based Matrix New World Engineering.

First, hundreds of residents have apparently filled out online questionnaires on the site’s development.

And second, the sentiment to turn the field into a dog park has grown stronger.

The growing call to create a dog park downtown became the topic of conversation at last month’s Parks and Gardens Commission meeting, which Dominguez called into.

He said that the term “dog park” was detected often by a program that scanned the questionnaires.

Dominguez told the commission members during the meeting held via phone that it was “unfeasible” to use the tract for a dog park.

The proposed park has been informally referred to as Wolfson Park or Neilson Street Park, but it has not been properly named yet.

The field is surrounded by the First Reformed Church to its north, Esquina Latina restaurant to its west, The Quincy apartment building to its south, The Lofts at Neilson Crossing to the east, and Hiram Square development to the northeast.

George Street, with its many shops, restaurants, and cultural and religious sites, is a short stroll away.

Reimer said in December the park is conceived as a private-public partnership in which longstanding city tenants such as Johnson & Johnson and Rutgers could be asked to help finance construction and maintenance costs.

He also said business and restaurant owners in and around nearby George Street will also be asked for their input on the park.

Dominguez said he hopes that construction will begin this summer.

The city announced last summer that a dog park will be carved out of Boyd Park, a 20-acre strip wedged between the Raritan River and Route 18. That dog park will be a collaboration between the Parks and Gardens Commission and the Parks Department under Superintendent Salvatore Salsa.

The original plan was to build the dog park in the fall and open it early this year. Members of the commission said at their January meeting that the project has not moved forward. They said they were told by Salsa that the materials have not been ordered for the construction of the dog park.

By Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: TAPinto New Brunswick