Plans to redevelop the Holland Gardens public housing complex will take longer than expected as the Jersey City Housing Authority is extending its timeline on the project by six months, officials said.

The city plans to knock down the housing complex near the Holland Tunnel and replace it with a mixed-income residential high-rise that will house former Holland Gardens residents.

The project requires all 373 residents to relocate while demolition and construction takes place. JCHA Executive Director Vivian Brady-Phillips told the residents Tuesday night that relocation won’t begin until the spring or summer of 2022.

Residents were initially supposed to be moved in fall 2021 and winter 2022.

“We have always said that the dates on the timeline are the earliest that some of these things were going to happen,” Phillips said Tuesday during a quarterly meeting with Holland Gardens residents. “It takes a lot of work to prepare to redevelop property.”

Built in 1944, Holland Gardens comprises five buildings and 192 units near the Hoboken border. A total of 373 people call the complex home, a majority of whom have lived there for more than 10 years.

Under the proposal — known as the Holland Gardens Visioning Process — residents of the complex would be relocated during construction of the new building and then guaranteed a unit there upon its completion. Once finished, the high-rise would be home to both market-rate and low-income units, as well as parking and various amenities.

One of the Hollands Gardens Visioning Process proposals calls for an L-shaped high-rise to be built on top of a several story-tall base that would include parking, retail space, and housing.

The stakeholders ruled out a $21 million renovation for the complex. Instead, the Visioning Team formulated two separate plans to build high-density residential buildings on the 3.3-acre property at 15th Street and Jersey Avenue.

The city has continuously said that the public housing residents will take priority and be the first to return once the project is completed. The JCHA passed a Right to Return Policy in October aimed to strengthen residents’ right to return to the complex.

Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the JCHA expects to issue a requests for quotations from developers later this year.

“The JCHA has extended the timeline to enable more community input," she said. "We recognize these are people’s homes, and we want to make sure we communicate with all residents and have a rock solid policy for tenants to have the first opportunities to return to the new and improved housing in the quickest time period possible.”

Yet, residents continue to remain skeptical as some of them have been relocated once before.

Nia Burgin, a lifelong resident at Holland Gardens, said they would feel better about the move if they each had something in writing guaranteeing their return.

“Nobody believes it,” said Burgin about returning after the redevelopment. “It’s a little scary … this area is home… we know the area.”

Residents who remain eligible for public housing will meet with a relocation counselor before the process officially begins. Those relocated will be given a Section 8 voucher and assisted with finding a home during the revitalization.

Those who don’t qualify for Section 8 will be moved to another public housing complex or may be eligible for rental payment assistance for 42 months, according to the Holland Gardens Vision website.

Those relocated will be in their new housing for at least two to three years pending the construction of the project.