After years of being centered around tony waterfront addresses, Jersey City’s revitalization has moved westward and is now more evenly distributed throughout different neighborhoods. But motorists driving along Tonnelle Avenue must wonder how one of the city’s major entryways could get left so far behind in the renaissance.
While most drivers get their view of Tonnelle Avenue during the approach to the Holland Tunnel, the road itself is quite long and diverse. It spans all of Hudson county’s western edge except for Bayonne and starts out as a two-lane roadway up in North Bergen at Fairview Cemetery. Much of the street overlaps with Route 1&9 and proceeds south through Jersey City.
Tonnelle eventually becomes more of a proper highway with a divider and four lanes of traffic when overpasses and traffic circles show up near the junction for Route 139. The road then breaks off from Route 1&9 near Journal Square, ending in a more residential neighborhood before dead-ending.
While Journal Square’s portion of Tonnelle has a few development plans in the pipeline, the more highway-like parts of the road in Jersey City have generally been forgotten. It’s currently a hodge-podge of gas stations, car dealerships, budget hotels, vacant land, and generally decaying properties.
But the city is taking steps to try and change that. In late 2015, the Council ordered the area of Tonnelle that runs from around North Street to Lincoln Street studied to see if it met criteria to be classified as an area in need of redevelopment.
The Planning Board then investigated and discovered what many have known for some time. While a relatively new Holiday Inn Express hotel is well-maintained, a report from the board found that a whopping 93% of the study area’s acreage is in “poor condition,” there is a persistent litter problem and further noted that a few properties are considered abandoned.
Based on the report’s recommendations, the Council voted 8-1 last month to approve a resolution that declared the stretch a Condemnation Redevelopment Area. Known as the Tonnelle Avenue Light Industrial Study Area, the resolution grants the city authority to utilize eminent domain to force the sale of properties within the zone to the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency. The aim is to help spur development in the zone, which has many properties that lack proper sidewalks and contribute little if anything to the city’s tax base.
David Donnelly, director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Authority, told the Hudson Reporter that a meeting was held with property owners in the area last year, perhaps suggesting that the city could start condemning properties during the upcoming year in an effort to revitalize one of their gateways.
