The Jersey Journal
Editorial
Panel must have Hudson influence
Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Nearly a year ago, this newspaper called for pulling the plug on the Liberty State Park Development Corp., a public-private partnership created by the state to help fund improvements at the urban waterfront park.
Last week, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell announced that the corporation was terminal and that it must relinquish all its interests in the 1,122-acre park by June 30.
Friends of Liberty State Park and the Liberty State Park Conservancy and other groups have been battling with the Development Corporation for nearly 16 years.
The conservationists have accused the LSP panel of trying to commercialize the park instead of maintaining the waterfront tract as the state's answer to Central Park. By contrast, the development agency has unsuccessfully entertained proposals for theme parks, luxury condominiums, a commercial amphitheater, golf courses, waterparks and more.
Peter Ylvisaker, chairman of the corporation, had praised the park's OpSail Millennium celebration, a concert by opera singer Andrea Bocelli who performed with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the use of the park by the Cirque du Soleil, all of which raised money and publicity for the state's most popular park. What may have helped do the corporation in was the state's annoyance at alleged mismanagement, including under-collection of rental fees for the park's parking facilities that resulted in state expenditures of more than $800,000.
What about the park's future?
The DEP will form a public advisory committee to help make decisions on park management. The state would like to see road improvements and perhaps a shuttle service(one has existed for 3 years, Sam) that would allow easier access to the park. Campbell also wants to see some more "active recreation" like ball fields, and there are plans to create wetlands on a 251-acre parcel of land inside the park.
How serious the state is about returning control of the park to the people will be determined by just who is named to the advisory panel. One tends to get nervous when state officials say the public will be broadly represented in a committee. Some of those same activists who fought for a green park should be part of any panel. Hudson needs to be well represented. Only then will this paper feel comfortable about the future of the state's and Hudson County's oasis on the waterfront.

 

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