There was a plan seriously discussed from the early 1900's into the early 1980's, to dam the Hackensack River at various spots in Downtown Hackensack (usually at The Susquehanna Rail crossing), and create a lake that stretched up to the lower dam in Oradell.
The problem is that a project so big and complicated takes so long that it spans multiple political administrations, and usually it does not survive the changes in political agenda from one administration to the next. The same has happened for the more recent Hackensack River Walkway, only small parts of which have been built. And major segments repeatedly canceled.