The City Council is being asked to authorize an "in need of redevelopment" review for the downtown block that includes the Strand Theater and the Supremo supermarket.
According to a memo from David G. Brown II, the city's director of Public Works & Urban development, the block was investigated by the Planning Board in 1999 and found to be in need of redevelopment. The Union County Improvement Authority was charged with preparing a redevelopment plan. But in 2005, the City Council rescinded the UCIA's designation and authorized the consulting firm Schoor DePalma to prepare a redevelopment plan. It was completed and sent to the City Council, but never adopted.
"Since 2005 the proposed Redevelopment Plan has remained inactive," the memo states.
Now that the city has a revised master plan and in light of recent court cases that place additional emphasis on such studies, city planners are recommending that the 1999 plan be revisited. The investigation will be conducted in-house at minimal cost, according to the memo.
The block is bordered by the Green Brook, Watchung Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue and East Front Street. The Supremo supermarket occupies the former Macy's building. The Strand Theater has been vacant for some time and lost its marquee to deterioration and collapse. Those with long memories may recall that a building straddling the block's North Plainfield border on Watchung Avenue was the original proposed site for a four-story office building that was subsequently built on the Park-Madison lot two blocks west.
The site is known as Block 318 and contains a large city-owned parking lot at the north border.
This proposed redevelopment investigation is perhaps the first glimmer of renewed interest in a bevy of dormant plans on the books since 2006. Click here for Plaintalker's 2007 post on a forum on redevelopment. The only major project to be realized has been the 63-unit condo building, The Monarch, that includes a new senior center and a veterans' center on the ground floor. The emphasis on North Avenue redevelopment has largely shifted to the PNC Bank block. Sadly, the ornate building in the middle of the pictured streetscape across from the main train station was demolished this year. No comprehensive update on redevelopment has been offered lately by the administration.
--Bernice Paglia
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I would prefer to see a wholesale review of the commercial district along Front Street and up to third, and even do it in partnership with North Plainfield and go two blocks into that downtown. The downtown of the Plainfields was grown organically in a different time, and evolved for a different environment. We can do much better but we have to look at it holistically instead of in individual pieces.
ReplyDeleteLook to Rahway, New Brunswick for inspiration. It will take 10-20 years, but will be worth it in the long run.
I agree with NaRudy and thank this person for their thoughtful introspection. I was in Somerville Sunday for their street festival. I was amazed at how that town has grown and at the businesses and great buildings they have. I wonder why Plainfield and North Plainfield can't do that. We used to be one city, now we need to work together again.
ReplyDeleteIn need of Development ? Come on Bernice, if the city spent $$$ to find that out the council is the biggest fools in town. There is an old Italian saying ... Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.
ReplyDeleteGB