The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) has postponed tonight’s scheduled Liberty State Park task force meeting due to “significant public interest” in the proceedings.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Due to significant public interest in the Liberty State Park Revitalization Program, the Design Task Force Meeting scheduled for tonight, Tuesday, January 30, will be postponed to a later date,” the DEP said in an email this afternoon.
The move comes shortly after the state’s top two legislators, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19) and state Senate President Nick Scutari (D-23), wrote a letter expressing dismay about the direction of the park’s revitalization efforts and asked for the 23-member task force to have more sway, as The Jersey Journal first reported.
The task force, approved by the legislature in 2022 to determine how to spend $50 million from the NJ DEP on active recreation and other park improvements, was scheduled to be part of this evening’s public session at the CRRNJ Terminal.
In June 2022, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed the Liberty State Park Conservation, Recreation, and Community Inclusion Act, despite opposition from environmental groups who felt this gave billionaire Paul Fireman, who owns the Liberty National Golf Course and once tried to extend it into the Caven Point section of the park, too much sway in the process.
“Gov. Murphy today signed the LSP a sell out of Liberty State Park and what it stands for. He is siding with a billionaire over the millions of people that enjoy and love the park,” environmental activist Jeff Tittel, a former director of the NJ Sierra Club, said at the time.
