NORTHERN VALLEY AREA—A draft of Bergen County Parks’ master plan—the first-ever prepared in over 70 years for Bergen’s 9,000-plus-acre system—barely mentions the proposed Northern Valley Greenway, and advocates are speaking out to get the initiative mentioned prominently in a document that lays out the Bergen County Parks Department’s long-term goals and objectives.
While the report does mention the Northern Valley Greenway in passing, little focus on supporting the three-year, ongoing effort is provided in the draft despite county officials’ support of the nascent greenway initiative.
The draft report was prepared by Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability, part of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, formerly known as Cook College.
Greenway advocates urged residents and supporters to send in comments by Nov. 21 encouraging the county to include the Northern Valley Greenway in the master plan.
A form to submit comments online is available at
bit.ly/parksplancomments, and supporters urged greenway proponents to send in comments in hopes of generating more long-term county support for the effort.
Supporters were also urged to attend a Nov. 13 public meeting on the master plan to advocate in-person for the greenway’s inclusion.
‘Known, desired, supported’
“Let Bergen County know that you’d like Northern Valley Greenway included on page 64 of the [county] Parks Master Plan graphic as a known, desired and supported Greenway transportation alternative,” said Christine Evron, a volunteer member of the interlocal committee advocating for the 7.4-mile greenway.
“On page 110, include Northern Valley Greenway as an element of the connectors to county parks that provides a safe way for residents to bike and walk to county amenities,” noted Evron, also Tenafly Chamber of Commerce president who represents Tenafly on the committee.
On page 106, the draft report includes a lone mention of Northern Valley Greenway under a flow chart graphic, characterizing it as “Other” along with Hudson River Waterfront Conservancy, NY/NJ Trails Conference and Master Gardeners of Bergen County.
The chart illustrates groups and organizations that provided input to the parks’ master planning process.
However, on page 64 where the draft plan mentions a goal to “improve access and connectivity” between county parks and lists its objective to “identify greenways,” no mention is made of Northern Valley Greenway.
Instead, extensive description is given on a planned East Coast Greenway effort, an initiative to create a 3,000-mile pathway of interconnected trails from Maine to Florida, an effort unrelated to the proposed Northern Valley Greenway.
In fact, said advocates, the draft report dated Oct. 11, 2019, does not even offer a brief description of the ongoing three-year greenway effort to create a 7.4-mile linear park in northeast Bergen County, although greenway advocates said an earlier draft did mention Northern Valley Greenway.
‘Absolutely supportive’
“The Northern Valley Greenway folks have done an admirable job…we are absolutely supportive of the greenway concept,” said James Koth, Bergen County Parks director.
He said since the Master Plan document was “more geared to broad planning concepts and principles” the document does not include any specific countywide, regional or local initiatives such as the Northern Valley Greenway project.
Koth said he hoped to present a final Master Plan to county Freeholders on Dec. 4.
Koth said greenway advocates spoke at a Nov. 13 public meeting and “they were very supportive of the [master] plan,” he said, noting the plan speaks of greenways as connectors between parks and public spaces.
“The purpose of the document is to talk about the ‘Big Picture’ of what could be going on, and not dive down deep on anything,” he added.
Koth said the evolving greenway project “definitely fits the mission of the Parks Department” but that the greenway effort is “an extremely complex transaction and will cost more than you ever thought, but the end game is that it will all be worth it,” he said.
He said while the East Coast Greenway mentioned in the parks’ master plan actually exists in certain places where segments have been built, the Northern Valley Greenway remains a concept with more work to be done, such as studies, negotiations to purchase an unused CSX rail line, fundraising, consensus-building, and who will assume ownership and maintenance.
As one challenge, he pointed to the number of at-grade street crossings requiring signal devices to safely guide and protect future greenway users.
Other challenging issues will also occur that need to be addressed as the greenway planning process moves along, said Koth.
Before joining Bergen County, Koth said he served more than a decade managing operations for a five-mile-long bikeway along the West Side Highway, operated by Hudson River Park Trust, and he knows how greenways and pedestrian-friendly spaces can transform an area.
“For me this [greenway] is a personally exciting prospect, and could be monumental, and a game-changer for the area,” said Koth.
He said public greenways, bikeways, and spaces offering transportation options (i.e. biking, running and walking) can “change the way people look at an area and change the area” leading to more economic opportunities for nearby food and retail shops.
Koth said he planned to request the Freeholder board adopt the Bergen County Parks Master Plan by ordinance so that it becomes the guiding planning document for county parks, which may be updated regularly to address the needs of park users and county parks.
Study: Greenway ‘feasible’
In September, a technical planning study conducted by a planning consultant hired by the state Department of Transportation found a Northern Valley Greenway “feasible” and urged the greenway interlocal committee—operating under the auspices of Tenafly Rotary—to continue public outreach, planning and negotiations with CSX Corp, a Jacksonville, Fla., rail conglomerate, in efforts to acquire the unused rail corridor.
CSX owns the unused rail line and right-of-way running from Englewood’s northern boundary to Northvale at the New York State line. The line intersects with the Joseph B. Clarke trail, which then enters New York.
The proposed rail-to-trail swath cuts through Tenafly, Cresskill, Demarest, Closter, Norwood, and Northvale.
At a kickoff event for a greenway planning study in August 2018, Bergen County Executive James Tedesco III told Northern Valley Press that his administration was considering putting county open space funds towards the effort.
At least two dozen local officials and mayors of the six involved Northern Valley towns came out 15 months ago to show support for a future greenway.
‘This is a good thing’
“I think we will all get together and work on making CSX understand why this is a good thing for them and us,” said Tedesco then.
“It’s a rail line just sitting here doing nothing, right? Why not give people an opportunity to utilize something that’s laying dormant and will have only positive impacts?”
The draft Master Plan was prepared by Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability after extensive public input, including 11 stakeholder meetings, and an online survey open to the general public, via a Rutgers’ website for six months.
The Rutgers’ center reported the online parks’ survey was completed by 2,245 participants.
Andrew Mikesh, team leader of Northern Valley Greenway’s interlocal committee, said although the greenway effort was not highlighted in the draft Parks Master Plan, he did not see that as a sign the county was no longer supporting the greenway effort.
“We [Northern Valley Greenway] are probably the poster child for what they’re trying to do in many cases in this document,” said Mikesh to Northern Valley Press Nov. 12. He said he read the draft plan and called it “more of an academic strategy plan document” and “not something at the granular level.”
He said the greenway interlocal committee knows the county supports its efforts, and continues to be a partner moving forward to build awareness, interest, and capacity for the multi-year effort.
Freeholders ‘very positive’
“The [county] Freeholders have been very positive and they do like the greenway concept absolutely…they’re doing all the good stuff that a county should be doing for a fledgling project not run by them,” he added.
Mikesh said the interlocal committee was more interested in why they were not mentioned in the document, as opposed to being upset about it.
“The county will do what’s appropriate for [the greenway effort] to continue. It’s not telling us to go away. We’ll have a little more work cut out for us to be the advocates that we’re supposed to be,” added Mikesh.