I think Jersey City should push to make this more than just a freight railroad, they should run passenger service between NJ to Brooklyn/lower Manhattan if they ever build that raillink to JFK.

Clash over future of PJP acres

Friday, January 18, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The owner of a good chunk of the PJP landfill site in Jersey City confirmed yesterday he wants to sell some of his property to a Jersey City recycling business.

But city officials, who want Edwin Siegel's 32 acres at the environmental cleanup site for their own purposes, trashed that idea.

A recycling plant "is not in accord with the city's vision with that section of the city," or in line with the city's redevelopment plan for the area, said Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis.

Plus, Matsikoudis could have added, the city wants to build new headquarters for the Jersey City Incinerator Authority and the Municipal Utilities Authority on Siegel's property, along with developing 17 acres of open space.

Asked why putting the JCIA and MUA there is more acceptable than a recycling plant, Matsikoudis dubbed the recycling station "a much more intense and noxious use."

Siegel had no comment, except to confirm he's in discussions with Galaxy Recycling of Jersey City. A former lawyer of Siegel's estimated the value of the land at $16 million.

Gary Giordano, manager of the fourth-generation recycling firm on New York Avenue near the Hoboken border, also declined to comment.

Wary of "increased traffic congestion," Councilwoman Mary Spinello opposes both the recycling facility and the city's garbage collection agencies coming to her ward.

The city had whacked Siegel with roughly $17 million in fire code violations. But the Jersey City Construction Board of Appeals, a group of private citizens appointed by the mayor, whittled those fines down to roughly $137,000. And Siegel is challenging those fines in court.

After an epic battle in 2006, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and the City Council pushed through a redevelopment plan for the PJP landfill to allow a warehouse to be built on 47 acres of it owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.

But the only other permitted uses for the site are "light assembly," in keeping with what's already there, or open space, city officials said.

Siegel has sued the city to buy his piece of the landfill on the grounds that zoning changes have so devalued his property that the city should be forced to compensate him at pre-zoning change prices.