Jersey City is getting closer to redeveloping properties near mass transit.

Journal Square and McGinley squares have been designated as Special Improvement District (SID), and the Martin Luther King Drive and Journal Square redevelopment plans and amendments are expected to pass on final vote at the Aug. 25 City Council meeting.

One Journal Square property owner critical of the area’s plan and its resulting added SID tax assessments.

“We feel we shouldn’t be in a tax improvement district because I haven’t seen any improvements during the last two years,” said Journal Square resident Stedman Figner at a recent City Council meeting. “We’d like to see some trees planted and storm water runoff issues corrected and graffiti removed. Until you address these issues, how can you build an 80-story building near mass transit?”

But the City Council insisted the area will be improved.

On Nov. 5, 2008, the city declared the Journal Square area was “in need of rehabilitation” as a step toward making it an SID to boost private investment. The SID brings Journal Square in greater compliance with the city’s Master Plan, which calls for “station areas” around mass transit to be up zoned to include higher density residential, retail, restaurants and other compatible uses. The plan also calls for auto parking restrictions and bicycle parking, according to the Planning Board.

The Journal Square redevelopment area is a hodgepodge of 1,600 parcels on 211 acres and 57 blocks. They include single-family homes, large commercial office buildings, vacant lots, dilapidated buildings and underutilized and obsolete facilities, contributing to lack of private investment, according to Ordinance 10-103.

The city recently approved a $1.4 million budget for the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan, with monies coming from added taxes from properties in a special assessment roll from the SID, totaling $673,000 in city revenues. Property owners on Pavonia, Summit, Newark and Sip avenues saw an added tax ranging from $44 to $90,000, assessment rolls show.

The Journal Square SID budget shows that the city is spending $523,000 marketing the plan, which is a pro-active approach to developing the Journal Square as a New Jersey Department of Transportation designated “Transit Village,” which it was declared in 2005.

The smaller McGinley Square redevelopment plan has a $152,790 budget, $72,336 of which comes from added taxes to property owners in the SID area on Bergen, Montgomery, Jordan, Storms, Monticello and Fairmont avenues.

The Martin Luther King Drive Redevelopment Plan was amended to permit five stories of affordable housing within 600 feet of light rail transit.

All three areas have been in the process rehabilitation or redevelopment for almost a decade, city officials said.