CAPE MAY – The longtime project to develop a park out of 38 acres along Lafayette Street, between St. Johns Street and the city’s elementary school and then on to a marsh area along Cape Island, has taken another small step forward.
Municipal Engineer Vince Orlando updated the council at its April 1 meeting on the start of a phase of work on the site, which has come to be known as Lafayette Street Park.
Orlando said the phase includes bocce ball courts and the relocation of the dog park, with the work expected to be completed by July 4.
In a related development, the council at the April 1 meeting introduced an ordinance setting rules for the use of nature trails in the park. Construction of a new set of trails with a raised boardwalk area along the marsh is nearing completion. The trails will serve the public as well as act as an educational tool for students from the elementary school.
For longtime Cape May residents the announcement of the start of more work on the park may sound familiar.
As far back as 2011, city officials celebrated a state grant for property acquisition in the proposed park area. The city planned a four-phase project on land being remediated by Jersey Central Power and Light. The land once housed a coal-fired gasification plant.
Then-Mayor Edward Mahaney said it would probably be 2015 before a “free-and-clear is issued.” Two mayors would succeed Mahaney and almost 15 years would pass before Orlando’s update at this month’s council meeting.
In 2016 the city actually dedicated the space in a ceremony that included the cutting of a ribbon and the announcement of a $1.5 million grant from the state Economic Development Authority.
Work has been done in the past, parts of the dog park and the playground have been used, grants have been received, and plans have been altered over time. Yet the space remains a promise more than a reality.
Development was slowed by the remediation work and the sheer number of organizations and government entities that had some connection to the site. Mayors Mahaney, Clarence Lear and now Zach Mullock have at various points had to deal with an alphabet soup of agencies and commissions such as the local school board, JCP&L, the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Housing Authority, the city’s Historic Preservation Commission and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Just recently the DEP agreed to a land swap that gives 0.14 acre to the city for a new police station at St. Johns and Lafayette, a use for the land that no one envisioned when park plans were first developed. That project has a two-year time horizon.
In exchange the city agreed to put 6.6 acres of the Sewell Tract under state Green Acres protection.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
