New Jersey residents who live in flood-prone areas are keeping a close eye on what the remnants of Hurricane Ian could bring to New Jersey.

A weather advisory has been issued in Hoboken – a city that often must deal with flooding conditions. Anticipated strong winds have canceled the popular Arts and Music festival this weekend. Heavy rain is expected to start overnight.

Hoboken officials on Friday reminded residents to stay clear of flood-prone areas. The city also announced detailed plans to expand the Southwest Resiliency Park, which is expected to better protect Hoboken from future heavy rain events.

The pickleball courts that have been part of a temporary pop-up park off Harrison Street are now expected to become permanent.

“These courts will stay in a row, but pushed further back a little bit,” says Mayor Ravi Bhalla. “It’s about 1 acre of land we will use for both flood mitigation, as well as open space and recreation.”

The final concept design includes above- and below-ground infrastructure that will protect the city from future flooding. It will have rain gardens, permeable pavers and underground detention tanks.

“This really is parks as defense against flooding, which is critical for Hoboken with climate change seeing storms getting more intense, rainfalls getting more intense. So, we need to adapt and change and innovate,” Bhalla says.

The new design expands the existing Southwest Resiliency Park across the street. It more than doubles the underground stormwater detention capacity, to hold a total of 460,000 gallons of stormwater.

“It’s really had an incredible effect in mitigating flooding in this part of Hoboken. This park will improve and build upon that momentum,” the mayor says.

The groundbreaking on the new park is expected to happen late next year. It is not expected to be open until 2025.