Does anyone remember the first incarnation of the plan for the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront redevelopment? It included commercial and residential development along with quite a lot of active and passive parkspace. It got slammed by the Brooklyn Heights crowd as a sellout, probably rightly as that area is no longer in need of help to develop economically. But it seems to me that kind of vision would be just right for the enviromentally and economically blighted area between 440 and the Hackensack.

Lets stop trying to reinvent the wheel in JC and look at what other cities have done or planned for their deindustrialized zones.

Lets think about other industries to attract. Fim sound stages? gourmet vegetable greenhouses? Film sound stages with gourmet vegetable greenhouses on the roof? Why can't JC think like a city of the future rather than a city of the past, building warehouses.

And the main reason we're getting killed on property taxes is because the city is so "pro-business," giving tax abatements to big downtown developers after campaigning on a no-waterfront-abatement platform, settling with Goldman rather than enforcing the laws he broke, etc., etc. With the exceptions of Fulop and Richardson, the entire city council has betrayed the citizens of JC and need to be voted out in the next election. To say nothing of our laughingstock mayor.

The fact that this area is close to Lincoln Park is besides the point. Overall, Jersey City and Hudson County have very little Green Space. The County's goal a few years ago was to double the total amount of open space (excluding Liberty State Park).

The warehouse will kill off any future development along the Hackensack River. It's a penny wise, pound foolish decision.

Any city this size that is not pro-business is doomed. Under any scenario this project will create construction jobs, permanent blue collar jobs (both of these will create payroll taxes that accrue to the city) and pay some level of property taxes. These are good things.

I'm getting killed on property taxes as it is. I don't want the city using public funds it doesn't have to purchase more open space land that it doesn't need and will cost money to maintain each year.

If anyone has more details about the Distressed City Aid I'd like to hear them.

Quote:

I guess, if by staggered you mean a continuous flow of traffic. This is a "high cube" warehouse, meaning lots and lots of storage space. Trucks are going to be flowing in an out all day when there are already horrible traffic congestion problems along 1&9 and 440. As for the jobs, this is supposed to be an automated warehouse. The types of jobs required aren't going to be sort of jobs that can be filled by unskilled labor. Besides, based on its location, what prevents anyone from Harrison, Newark, or Kearny from filling these jobs?

As for the supposed tax windfall, the "redevelopment plan" now makes it much easier for AMB to seek a tax abatement. It's just a matter of time before give it away Healy not only manages to get the City Council to give away the land to another developer but to give them an abatement too.

Why is the mayor refusing the "Distressed Cities Aid" if money is so tight that the supposed (who knows after the abatements) $1,000,000 in taxes on the warehouse are so necessary? Oh now I remember, that would require that all hiring and promotions by the city be justified to and approved by the state Local Finance Board, and we all know Mayor Healy is all about creating new jobs.

Quote:


Maybe by not awarding every developer a 30 year tax abatement?????

The amount of resources to turn it into a wild estuary would not compare to the kinds of traffic havoc/pollution that would be created by all the trucks coming through on the 1/9. Besides, if it was designed as a nature preserve like the western part of Lincoln park is already, than it's self maintaining. Take a look at Liberty State park. Look at how nature dealt with the toxic wastes dumps there.

Delta, are you serious? It's in the middle of an industial zone. An old landfill no less. More open space? Take a look on google earth. The site is near Lincoln Park, A bunch of baseball diamonds and a golf range.

How in the hell are we supposed to pay for all the services in JC if we don't allow some jobs to be created. I am all for anything that takes the unfair burden off the property holders. This place will generate an estimated $1 million dollars a year and create a few hundred blue collar jobs. I am 100% in support of it. The chant for "open space" by very unrealistic people is really getting tiresome.

Ethics board passes on recusal over site
Monday, September 25, 2006
By EARL MORGAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The reconstituted Jersey City Ethical Standards Board, reformed this summer after a three-year hiatus, already has been thrown a political hot potato, courtesy of City Councilman Steve Fulop.

The board didn't catch it.

Fulop, who believes two of his City Council colleagues should recuse themselves from a vote on a proposed redevelopment plan for the site of the former PJP landfill, had asked the board to issue an opinion as to whether their other jobs represent conflicts of interest.

"A lot of people think this board is a joke," Fulop said at Thursday's meeting. "If you take some kind of action now, it will show people in Jersey City that you are serious."

But Fulop would leave the meeting disappointed, as the board refused to issue an opinion as to whether Council President Mariano Vega and Councilwoman Mary Spinello should abstain on the proposal to build a warehouse on the site, as Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has advocated.

Vega, who wants to make the land a park, is in charge of developing parks for the county. Spinello, who favors the warehouse, is deputy executive director of the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, which has levied more than $6 million in fire code fines on Trophy Trucking, a company located on land adjacent to where the warehouse would be built. The city - at Spinello's urging - is putting together a redevelopment plan that would evict Trophy Trucks.

The Ethical Standards Board members watched as Fulop and the board's temporary attorney, assistant corporation counsel Tom Fodice, parried about whether the board should review Fulop's complaint. Fodice said that, since the council hadn't voted on the project, the board would be acting prematurely if it issued an opinion.

However, Fulop said the council had voted on the project when it introduced the development plan at an earlier meeting, and that the final vote to approve the project would likely happen before the ethics board meets again Oct. 19.

"ITS A TOXIC DUMP, A SUPERFUND SITE!!!"

Oh.

Does that mean it couldn't be used as a tree farm, botanical garden or equestrian farm with maybe a golf course on the side?

I just hate the thought of this space being used for warehousing and trucking.

Quote:

Sweet thought, but trust me, you wouldn't want to eat anything that grew in that ground.

ITS A TOXIC DUMP, A SUPERFUND SITE!!!

Geez...what's the next suggestion, a NASCAR track? A solar panel plantation? A cricket stadium?

Quote:

I think the land is way to toxic for growing food.

I wish they would use this space as farmland.

Hudson County is one of the few counties in the state without a farm.

A farm adds beautiful open space, provides locals with fresh produce etc., add to revenues through sales, access to local schools for educational purposes, create jobs, maintains a sense of historical integrity to the county....and on and on.

I haven't really read much about this but if they're still thinking of ideas, I would like to see them consider this one.

We have enough concrete, we need something green that benefits everyone and is good for the soul.

Boy, people complained about the tennis courts in HP as being low density usage of a park, that's nothing compared to a golf course!

It's so pathetic, you've got a blank slate over there and this is all they can come up with. The only way you'd get a visionary in our city hall was if you put LSD in their bottled water.

This should be turned into green space, as an extension off of Lincoln Park. It's a great spot to see so many amazing migratory birds. It would be a huge loss to jersey city residents if this was turned into some container storage space or another retarded golf course.

Speak up Tuesday about how to develop western JC

160 acres including warehouse on agenda for Planning Board meeting

Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer 09/22/2006

CONDUCTING THE HEARING ? The Jersey City Planning Board will be conducting a public hearing this week on the study and redevelopment plan of an area between Duncan and Newark avenues on the city?s west side.
This Tuesday evening, the Planning Board will hold a public hearing at City Hall regarding a study and redevelopment plan for a 160-acre area off Highway 1/9.

The area, some of which is landfill, would include the heavily debated possible AMB Warehouse.

The proposed new zone would allow a variety of uses, including not only industrial and open space, but possible residential and even retail.

The official title of the zone is Hackensack River Edge Study Area and the plan is the Hackensack River Edge Plan.

The area's boundaries are Duncan Avenue, Highway 1&9, the PATH/Conrail tracks parallel to Newark Avenue, and the Hackensack River.

The study stems from a compromise proposed by City Council members Mary Spinello and Steve Lipski to deal with the furor over the warehouse issue by looking at all the potential land uses for the landfill area before there is any vote to changing the area's zoning.

At an Aug. 16 meeting, City Councilman Michael Sottolano, who is also on the Planning Board, lobbied successfully for a redevelopment plan to be drawn up along with the study.

City Planner Robert Cotter was completing the study report and the plan as this article was going to press. Cotter did not return calls for comment.

160 acres included

Advertisement

Included in the area are 87 acres of land that were once the location for the infamous PJP Landfill, where fires burned underground for nearly 40 years. Forty-one of those acres are considered as the future site for a warehouse by the AMB Company.

Also in the area is a swath of land that includes a trucking facility.

Designation process

A redevelopment plan is a plan that provides for the reuse or redevelopment of property within a municipality. To create such a zone, first, the Jersey City Planning Department designates an area in need of redevelopment and drafts a redevelopment plan.

Then the plan is introduced to the Planning Board for their consideration. If the plan is approved, it goes to the City Council, which introduces the plan at a council meeting where it is read into the record.

At a subsequent council meeting, the council does a final vote to approve the plan.

The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency then designates a developer or developers based on their proposals for the redevelopment area.

Up for debate

However, not everyone is enamored with talk of a redevelopment plan. Some are worried because such plans make it easier for cities to seize private property to sell to developers.

Glen Cinelli, president of Cinelli Scrap Metal, said he received a letter from the city on Monday informing him of the public hearing. Cinelli is based on an acre of land located at Broadway, under the Pulaski Skyway.

"I'll be at the meeting with my lawyer and my calculator," said Cinelli. "If [the city] wants to talk this nonsense, then it should pay me $25 million for my business. It will take care of my livelihood and my four children. What else is there to say?"

But there has been support for the plan as expressed recently by Lipski.

"I am completely on board to create open space and industry," said Lipski. "[Mayor] Jerry Healy can single-handedly take credit for the development of Jersey City's west coast."

Meanwhile, Planning Board Commissioner Leon Yost said last week that he preferred not to comment too much on the plan and study until he received them.

What brought about the plan?

The issue that has brought about the redevelopment plan is the proposed 883,000 square-foot AMB Warehouse to be built off Highway 1/9 by the San Francisco-based AMB Company. The facility would be a distribution center for items brought from ports in Newark and Elizabeth.

There is disagreement among the mayor, the City Council, and county officials on what should actually be built on 41 acres of a 54-acre site. AMB is currently under contract with the Archdiocese of Newark to purchase the 54 acres once the City Council approves the idea.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has been a staunch proponent of the warehouse because it is expected to bring about 300 permanent jobs for local residents, operating on a 24-hour, seven-day weekly schedule. It also would bring more than $1 million in taxes.

Hudson County officials want the land to host a golf course and have actually voted to pursue public funds to acquire the land.

And then the group known as the Lincoln Park Advisory Committee, led by local resident and lawyer Paul Catsandonis and Hudson County Freeholder Bill O'Dea, are looking for the warehouse site to be developed as open space for recreation fields but not necessarily a golf course.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com