“There have been a lot of good ideas for this area. People want to be innovative,” Kobble said, adding that for him personally business has been good, particularly in the summer when visitors cross the Northampton Street Bridge from Easton to enjoy a beer at the Sand Bar while they look out at the water.
Knowles said Phillipsburg officials started working on the latest plan two years ago when Mayor Stephen Ellis took office. They worked with the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University to do a charrette — the process of creating a design plan — for the town’s riverfront last year.