JERSEY CITY — A four-block Downtown Jersey City neighborhood that sits in the shadow of the New Jersey Turnpike Extension is at the center of a tug-of-war between developers with competing plans to transform the area into the city's hottest new residential neighborhood.

Developer Sandy Weiss of Manhattan Building Company has plans to build nearly 900 apartments in the area, but property owners have their own development proposals that the city is looking to halt to make way for Weiss' project. The property owners now face the prospect of having their lots seized via eminent domain as the city argues they've had more than a decade to change the neighborhood and haven't.

"Sandy is the master developer because his work speaks for himself and he can get it done," Jason Solowsky, who is close to Weiss, told The Jersey Journal. "He can build and some of these other guys can't."

The neighborhood in question in sandwiched between the Turnpike extension and the Old Colony shopping center. It includes about a dozen homes, a number of commercial properties and some dilapidated lots. The city in 2006 declared it in need of redevelopment and created the Bates Street Redevelopment Plan, named after the street that gives the zone its eastern border.

The redevelopment plan allows for owners of large properties (15,000 square feet or more) to develop them themselves. Those properties are also exempt from any eminent domain threat.

But after 12 years, there is only one project under construction. So the Planning Board on Tuesday is scheduled to hear amendments to the 2006 plan that would remove language protecting the large property owners from eminent domain and add language that gives Weiss' company total control over development of the four blocks.

Jim Burke, an attorney for one of the property owners, said he is stunned by the city's push to bring on Weiss as a master developer. Burke's client has approval to build a 12-story building on property he owns at Colden and Bates streets.

"My client worked closely with the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency throughout the development process, so to be told this 18 months later is a bit shocking," Burke said.

Weiss' company is the developer behind the Cast Iron Lofts and SoHo West buildings near the Hoboken border. For the Bates Street area, he wants to build an 870-unit project, with the base mirroring the brownstone style in the nearby Van Vorst Park neighborhood.

A rendering of one plan for the Bates Street area in Jersey City (not Sandy Weiss' plan). The intersection at the bottom right is Grand and Center streets.

The city's legal argument for Tuesday's proposed action appears to stem from a memo sent by a lawyer with the Archer law firm to city officials in May. The memo, obtained by The Jersey Journal, says the property owners do not have the right to develop their own properties because the JCRA in November designated Weiss' company to develop them.

This conclusion has alarmed the property owners, like Mike Mecca, who owns an auto body shop at Grand and Bates streets. Mecca in April submitted his own plans to put a residential building on the property and he said he's prepared to start building immediately. The Archer memo puts his plans, like the ones for Burke's client, in limbo.

"What is this, Russia?" Mecca told The Jersey Journal. "What is more sacred that one's private property?"

Burke said the memo could have implications for any homeowner in the city's nearly 100 redevelopment zones.

"If this goes though and the Archer memo is enforced throughout, I think it would create a great deal of uncertainty and instability among the lending community, among the development community and among contractors and professionals," he said.

The memo was written by Brian Nelson, a longtime friend of Mayor Steve Fulop (Nelson told The Jersey Journal the two have not spoken in about a year).

City spokeswoman Hannah Peterson noted that Mecca owns dozens of properties citywide and has not developed them yet.

"The city has one objective which is to see progress," Peterson said. "Whether it is Mike Mecca or someone else, we are indifferent who the developer is."

Solowsky is a Fulop political operative. His sister, Allison, sits on the Planning Board. He said she will recuse herself from this matter.

The Planning Board meets on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 280 Grove St.

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