The Record (New Jersey)

Editorial

LIBERTY STATE PARK MUST BECOME A PEOPLE'S PARK

October 7, 1994
 

URBAN OASIS or golf course? After 10 years of reports, hearings, and debate, the future of the last big chunk of undeveloped land in Liberty State Park is in the hands of Governor Whitman and Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert Shinn.

 By now, their choice should be clear. The reasons for a people's park far outweigh the arguments for setting aside 150 acres of prime waterfront real estate for a golf course.

 Liberty State Park is no place to build such a facility. The park is on the doorstep of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. On the park's southern tip is Liberation Monument, a statue of a World War II soldier carrying an emaciated survivor of a Nazi concentration camp.

 On the park's northern end is the historic Central Railroad Terminal, which served as the gateway to America for more than 10 million immigrants.

  To fence off the heart of the park from the vast majority of visitors hardly seems in keeping with its setting.

 The better choice would be an urban refuge in the tradition of Manhattan's Central Park. It would be a pastoral place for all New Jerseyans to enjoy, year-round.

 The golf course would put state taxpayers at risk. Advocates of leasing out the land as a golf course for the next 30 years say, rightly, that their plan is the quickest way to develop the barren 150-acre parcel. The golf course would be financed with $20 million in state Economic Development Authority bonds, with profits used to create 82 acres of playgrounds, picnic areas, and wetlands.

 But the projected revenues are suspect. Including interest, the long-term cost of the bonds would be $55 million. By one estimate, the course would have to be filled to capacity from dawn to dusk 250 days a year, just to break even. That would take a lot of mild winters, a lot of fair weather, and a lot of rapid golfers.

 If the golf course did not generate enough money, taxpayers would have to make up the difference. New Jerseyans who don't play golf 98 percent of the population would have nothing to gain and everything to lose.

 For years, one of the big pro-golf arguments has been that Hudson County has no golf courses. But public golf courses are now being planned for two sites in the county that are more appropriate.

In contrast, the demand for park land in Hudson County, the state's most densely populated area, is enormous. Liberty State Park has so few picnic table areas that they are all filled by mid-morning on sunny weekends.

 The park should be developed gradually, as private and public funding become available, to provide open space and recreation for as many people as possible.

 In June, Assistant DEP Commissioner James Hall said that if the golf course proposal drew overwhelming grassroots resistance at the two public hearings this summer, this would play a major role in determining the future for the heartland of Liberty State Park.

 And the response was overwhelming. Over 700 people attended the August hearings at the park and in Trenton and the vast majority opposed the golf course plan. Of the 120 people who spoke at the public hearings, 92 citizens, more than 75 percent, opposed the golf course.

 They said they wanted walkways, not fairways. They said they needed green space, not greens fees. They said that Liberty State Park should be for all New Jerseyans.

 In coming days, the DEP is expected to present summaries of the two hearings, as well as public comments, to Commissioner Shinn and Mrs. Whitman.  A decision on the golf course proposal is expected by year's end. Is there any doubt what their choice should be?