Locksmith Services in Jersey City, NJ

Homes and locks in Jersey City

In Jersey City, the door usually follows from the neighborhood.

• Downtown row houses. The Hamilton Park, Harsimus Cove, Paulus Hook and Van Vorst Park historic districts are mostly 19th-century row houses. The Historic Preservation Commission dates the earliest, Greek Revival rows, mostly in Paulus Hook, to the 1830s to 1850s, and most of the rest to 1850 to 1870. The main entrance is on the parlor floor at the top of a stoop, and many fronts have an areaway fenced with iron.
• One- and two-family blocks. Proposed 2006 amendments to the city's master plan call one- and two-family housing the largest land use, predominant in the Heights, Greenville and the West Side, with a significant presence in Bergen-Lafayette. A two-family house may have a shared front door plus a door for each unit, so a rekey after a move can cover several locks.
• Waterfront towers. The area around Exchange Place has a high concentration of high-rise office and residential buildings. Check the building's rules before changing an apartment lock there.

Businesses and buildings

Until about the Civil War, downtown shops were ground-floor or basement fronts in row-house-scale buildings, often on corners. In the downtown historic districts, storefront security gates should be open-link and installed inside the storefront, though exterior scissor-type gates are also acceptable. An open-link interior gate needs a Certificate of No Effect; any other gate needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, which limits the gates and gate locks that can be fitted.

Since the 1990s, Exchange Place has overtaken Journal Square as Hudson County's major business district. Elsewhere, the 2006 master plan amendments describe small neighborhood shops scattered through residential blocks.

Car trouble in Jersey City

The same amendments call parking a significant issue in one- and two-family neighborhoods, where older homes often lack off-street parking or share a driveway to rear-yard garages.

• Permit zones. Resident parking permits are required to park more than 2 hours in many areas where signs say so. If you are visiting and your keys are locked in the car, that clock keeps running.
• Snow. The Office of Emergency Management tells drivers to remove vehicles from designated snow emergency routes, citing City Ordinance §332-34. If your only car key is lost, replace it before a storm is forecast.

Local rules worth knowing

The Historic Preservation Commission's guidelines for the four downtown districts cover exterior doors:

1. Repairing a historic door, including replacing hardware to match the original, requires a Certificate of No Effect.
2. Historic doors may not be removed unless beyond repair. A non-matching door or a changed opening needs a Certificate of Appropriateness.
3. New door or window security gates where none existed need a Certificate of Appropriateness and should be mounted within the opening. Exterior window gates are not permitted above the first floor on the front facade.

Section 345-71 of the Jersey City Land Development Ordinance adds that replaced doors and windows shall match the style and finish of the building's period of significance. A fifth district, West Bergen-East Lincoln Park, has since been added. This is general information, not legal advice.

Requesting service in Jersey City

New Jersey Locksmith Pros takes service requests from homes, businesses and drivers in Jersey City. Include your neighborhood or cross streets, and say whether the problem is a stoop door, a unit door in a two-family house, an apartment behind a lobby or a storefront gate. See lock repair, lock rekeying, car lockout, commercial locksmith or the New Jersey page.