It looks like a forest but in a most unlikely location: Jersey City’s downtown.
Now, after more than a quarter-century of wrangling, officials are proceeding with a plan to transform what was once an elevated rail line into a nearly mile-long linear park.
Jersey City’s council on Wednesday approved a multi-pronged settlement agreement whose key provision will transform the overgrown Sixth Street Embankment into a scenic haven for walking and sightseeing.
Some supporters said the elevated park may someday serve as New Jersey’s version of the High Line on the West Side of Manhattan, which was also once an elevated railway. It was revived as a 1.45-mile long greenway in 2009 that attracts an estimated 7 million visitors annually.
Some Jersey City residents have long envisioned their own elevated greenway.
“We are dealing with a priceless resource here,” Robb Kushner, a 15-year Jersey City resident, told the council.
“It’s so hard to imagine what this will mean to the city, to have a pathway through nature above the city. If you’ve ever been to the High Line in New York City, you would know a bit of what I’m talking about, but this is going to be even, in many ways, cooler than the High Line,” Kushner said.
Sixth Street Embankment in Jersey City
Sean Gallagher — a resident but not the city clerk of the same name — said he has long marveled that a “naturally-seeded downtown urban forest” is in Jersey City.
Gallagher told the council the space is “the lungs to our community,” explaining that it captures carbon dioxide, absorbs stormwater and cools streets.
“We didn’t plant a single tree. We actually didn’t spend a single taxpayer dollar on maintaining it and yet this forest up on top of the embankment, it’s thriving on its own,” Gallagher said.
The agreement unanimously approved by the council via an ordinance Wednesday will transfer the future park land to Jersey City while authorizing the construction of more than 600 residential units, including some set aside for affordable housing.
6th Street Embankment in Jersey City
When it was introduced in October, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop said on X that the plan is a “historic step in realizing a continuous public corridor connecting Jersey City’s neighborhoods and parks.”
“The educational potential is vast. Young people are inspired by the strange wild structure in the middle of the city,” Katy Lyness, a board member of the Embankment Preservation Coalition, told the council.
“The embankment can help us learn about the natural world, about the history of the city, about trains and ultimately about ourselves. We hope that going forward the embankment will continue to inspire us and to be our teacher,” Lyness said.
Councilwoman-elect Eleana Little said she was in elementary school when the project was first discussed more than a quarter-century ago. Her Ward E district includes the former railway embankment.
“This is truly a generational project,” Little told the council.
“Downtown Jersey City deserves this quiet, peaceful natural greenway for eventual connection up to the Bergen Arches and the East Coast Greenway. We know how important urban green space is for our physical and mental health. We need to preserve this urban oasis,” Little said.
Stephanie Daniels, president of the Historic Paulus Hook Association, also offered support.
“I feel like we’re here on a truly historic night. This has been 25 years,” Daniels said.
“Nobody gave up. You’re creating this greenway for walking and biking and you’re connecting neighborhoods. It really does not get better than that,” Daniels said.
Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.