LAMBERTVILLE: Ideas being bandied about for use of open half-acre

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   Lambertville residents, including children, will have a chance Saturday morning (March 15) to review resident-inspired designs for the future of a half-acre tract of open space in the city.
   Sponsored by the city’s environmental and recreation commissions, a “design workshop” on the future of the tract will be held at 10 a.m. at the Phillip L. Pittore Justice Center, at 25 S. Union St.
   ”The city purchased the land, at the corner of North Union and Cherry streets, in 2011 after voters authorized the purchase in a referendum in 2010,” Julia Taylor of the city’s Environmental Commission said Sunday. “The city’s open space revenues were used for the purchase.”
   Saturday’s get-together, at which breakfast will be served, “is a follow-up to a similar meeting we had Dec. 7,” Ms. Taylor said.
   At the Dec. 7 meeting, uses suggested by attendees included making the field a place for passive recreation, perhaps with facilities for ball-playing.
   Plantings on the field, which is a grassy expanse, were also suggested.
   ”Some people also suggested new traffic-calming measures at the intersection of North Union and Cherry streets,” Ms.Taylor said. “That’s a pretty busy intersection.”
   After the meeting, the environmental and recreation commissions will confer on what’s been heard from the town.
   ”The plan is for those two commissions to make a joint recommendation to the City Council on the site,” Ms. Taylor said. “It’s the council that will decide what will happen there.