CAPE MAY – Following a closed session with the city solicitor, the City Council passed a resolution that advances the city’s plans for a set of lots within the Lafayette Park area.
The lots along St. Johns and Lafayette streets are city-owned or soon to be city-owned, and have been under remediation by JCP&L because they once were the site of a coal gas manufacturing plant.
The agreement that was adopted as part of the resolution allows for temporary public use of the properties, a restoration payment by JCP&L to the city of $275,000 as reimbursement for park amenities that were removed for JCP&L work, and continuation of the Cape May Housing Authority agreement, which remains subject to U.S. Housing and Urban Development approval.
City Solicitor Christopher Gillin-Schwartz said good progress is being made in achieving the needed HUD agreement.
Mayor Zack Mullock praised the resolution, citing as he did the “alphabet soup” of state and federal agencies that have had a role in resolving issues related to the parcels. In a mixed metaphor, Mullock called it “unscrambling a bowl of spaghetti” as a way of indicating the complexity of the task.
At various points in the process, Mullock said there was necessary involvement from the state’s Green Acres and Blue Acres programs, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Environmental Protection, the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, the Cape May Housing Authority, the Cape May Board of Education, HUD and JCP&L.
With what Gillin-Schwartz called “light at the end of the tunnel,” JCP&L is providing the city with temporary public access to the land in advance of expected final turnover of the properties to the city. The next major step in that process will be the HUD agreement.
Mullock said this allows the city to move ahead with the long-planned rejuvenation of the park. He noted that the city has now applied for the standard state permits for work and is applying to the county Open Space grant program for financial support.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
