JERSEY CITY — Luxury golf course Liberty National's bid to expand onto the Caven Point area of Liberty State Park has been rejected by state environmental officials.

The golf course's owner, Paul Fireman, wanted to lease the roughly 20-acre section of the park and move three of its holes there, but New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection official George Chidley said in a letter sent Thursday to Liberty National that the DEP will not pursue the project "at this time." The agency oversees the 1,200-acre state park.

The state's decision is a major victory for park advocates who slammed the expansion plan as a privatization scheme. The Caven Point area is a peninsula at the southernmost end of Liberty State Park that includes a sandy beach and a bird sanctuary.

"It's wonderful news that the DEP has preserved this priceless natural area behind Lady Liberty for wildlife, environmental education and nature explorers of all ages," said Sam Pesin, president of Friends of Liberty State Park, which opposed the golf course expansion plan.

Chidley's letter to Liberty National says the DEP rejected the golf course's bid as "nonresponsive" because it does not include a number of required items. Liberty National failed to demonstrate how its proposed rent — $10,000 annually or a one-time payment of $200,000 — was equal to the market value of the proposed use, the letter says. The bid also failed to specify the tangible public benefit of leasing the portion of the park to Liberty National, according to the letter.

It's not clear whether Liberty National will make a second attempt to lease the land. A request for comment from the golf course's spokesman was not returned. Fireman has said he wanted to move the three holes to make way for a Hudson County chapter of First Tee, a golf and mentoring program for young people.

Park advocates like Pesin believed Fireman wanted the Caven Point area so golfers would have better views of the Manhattan skyline.

"NJDEP did the right thing by protecting the irreplaceable Caven Point natural area at Liberty State Park," Greg Remaud, CEO of NY/NJ Baykeeper, said in an email. "Turning it over to private interests makes no sense and would have deprived the public of one of New Jersey's protected urban natural areas."

Park advocates are still waiting to hear from the DEP on a separate plan to build a marina on the south side of the park. The 45-acre marina would sit across the water from the Caven Point area.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.