A tot lot will be constructed on Connaught Hill in Lambertville.
By: Linda Seida
LAMBERTVILLE The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs has awarded $150,000 to the city for the construction of a park on Connaught Hill, the site of numerous improvements and some controversy in recent years.
The relatively small lot will be used as a "tot lot," park for young children, park on Hancock Street and will be a first for residents of the hill. Several other parks exist elsewhere the city.
"People up there will have a facility that they can walk to," Mayor David Del Vecchio said when he announced the grant last week. "There’s really no place to walk from Connaught Hill; you’ve got to get in your car. This will mean a walking facility for people up there."
The park will be constructed in 2006, Mayor Del Vecchio said. It will include playground equipment for children, benches and restrooms, he said.
The City Council authorized the land purchase in 2004 with $71,250 in bonds and $75,000 from the city’s open space funds.
In addition to the proposed park, Connaught Hill has been the site of several improvements over the years as well as heated controversy.
In recent years, the city has made a push to clean up the hill, removing old tires and abandoned vehicles in an attempt to make the area cleaner and safer for residents. The city also joined forces with Habitat for Humanity to construct several new affordable houses there.
However, an initiative by the city to redevelop an area on the hill has angered some residents because of the city’s use of eminent domain, a legal maneuver that allows governments to take private land for what is described as "fair market value" to encourage and strengthen a municipality’s economic development.
On Connaught Hill, the targeted lots are either investment properties or vacant.
Also in the works for the hill is the city’s $1.4 million purchase of 16 acres from Win and Pat Buchanan, which the city intends to preserve as open space. The state Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program earlier this year awarded Lambertville $400,000 for the preservation of open space, which will be applied to the purchase price.
A year ago, voters approved a 2-cent tax on every $100 of assessed property value to pay for the purchase.