Due to the city’s inability to pay, Hackensack has suspended its contract for the Johnson Park Sports Complex project.
According to a city statement, the project’s expenditures have skyrocketed from an original estimate of $7 million to a current estimate of over $40 million, drawing increasing criticism.
At a special council meeting this month, the City Council unanimously decided to suspend the contract.
The project, which was announced in 2016 with expectations to be completed by 2018, experienced delays for almost ten years before the decision was made.
Nine years went by, but no actual building ever started at the location.
In the statement, Mayor Caseen Gaines claimed that this project was expensive and doomed from the beginning.
The mayor claimed that for Hackensack families who are dealing with growing taxes and rents, the numbers simply don’t make up. We owe it to our citizens to reconsider this initiative, get community input, and make an investment in something that would truly benefit the most people.
The council’s resolution stated that the current plan was inadequate, not meeting the demands of student athletes or offering locals substantial recreational and economic benefits.
As allowed under the terms of the contract with APS Contracting, the contract suspension is made for convenience and without imposing a financial penalty on the city.
To make sure that any future development better serves Hackensack residents, the council has stated plans to reevaluate the proposal with more community participation.
