JERSEY CITY — The City Council is urging state lawmakers to pass the Liberty State Park Protection Act, a bill aimed at halting private development at the 1,200-acre state park located in Jersey City.

The nine-member body unanimously approved a resolution at its Wednesday meeting asking the state Legislature to pass the bill (A-4903), an act applauded by longtime park advocate Sam Pesin. Pesin has spent decades fighting plans to add commercial ventures to the park.

“It’s time once and for all to draw a line and say the park belongs to all of us and take it off the chopping block,” he said.

Pesin’s father, Morris Pesin, was a Jersey City councilman known as the founder of Liberty State Park. In the 1950s, Morris Pesin pitched the idea of turning the abandoned railyards across from the Statue of Liberty into a public urban oasis. The park, which is run by the state Department of Environmental Protection, opened on Flag Day in 1976.

For decades LSP advocates have rallied against numerous state plans to commercialize the park. Water parks, hotels, amphitheaters, golf courses … all have been opposed by advocates, led by Sam Pesin, who runs Friends of Liberty State Park. Last year, they helped defeat plans for a new marina and an expansion of Liberty National Golf Course onto park land.

“We should call this the Let Sam Pesin Sleep Act,” Councilman James Solomon said.

The county freeholder board is scheduled to vote Thursday on a similar resolution urging passage of the Liberty State Park Protection Act.

The council on Wednesday also unanimously adopted an ordinance that removes the $200 application fee charged to people seeking public defenders in municipal court.

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