Grand Street properties in danger

Caught in the web of plans the Jersey City Board of Education has for the construction of a new elementary and middle school, three businesses may be turned into prime parking for teachers. The Newport Pancake House, 434 Jersey Ave., received a letter last month from an agency representing the Board of Education that threatened the diner’s future in its current location. To make room for the new No. 3 School, slated to be built across the street at the intersection of Bright Street and Jersey Avenue, the 32-year-old restaurant is in jeopardy of becoming a parking lot. The Pancake House’s neighbors, a semi-gutted warehouse and a gas station, also received similar letters from the Hoboken-based Stack & Stack insurance firm. The contents of the letter, sent without warning, said that because of “a school expansion and improvement project” the two buildings would be demolished, and the land turned into a free parking lot for future teachers at the school. Since the letters were delivered, the business owners, who declined to be interviewed for fear of making the problem worse for themselves, headed straight for City Hall. At the Feb. 9 meeting of the City Council, the matter was brought to the legislative body’s attention. Longtime councilman Jamie Vazquez, who brought the matter up during his public speaking portion, said that the letter came without warning, calling for the property to be seized through an eminent domain clause that would allow the Board of Education to pull property out from under its owners. “This is a bad way to go about this,” Vazquez said. “It makes people worry.” Eminent domain allows a governing body, in this case, the Board of Education, to take land from its citizens, in this case, restaurant owners, for public use. Council members pointed out that condemned buildings have been seized in the past, freeing up space for projects that will enhance and benefit a community, but wondered if this was really a comparable situation. The question was raised as to just how beneficial a parking lot is toward community welfare. Council members questioned why teachers working in a school that would be a one block walk from a Light Rail station could not park their cars in one of the thousands of parking spaces available at the Park and Ride lots located along the rails. Since the announcement that the Board of Education wants to turn the restaurant into a lot as flat as the pancakes now made there, many community figures and organizations have come to the aid of longtime owners Peter and Irene Bournias. Members of the Board of Education’s No. 3 School planning team attended a meeting of the local neighborhood action group, the Van Vorst Park Association, last Tuesday, promising to hear alternative suggestions for the parking lot. Acting Board of Education Business Administrator Joann Gilman was at that meeting and gave the Van Vorst Park Association until April to come up with alternative suggestions. “We’re willing to listen to any suggestions that people may have,” Gilman said. At the first meeting, the park association recommended erecting a multilevel parking deck, reasoning it would require less land so that some of the Grand Street properties could be saved from the bulldozers. The Van Vorst Park Association also suggested using land in other areas. Gilman said that the Board of Education has given a commitment to the Van Vorst Park Association to field suggestions, though she does not anticipate that the Board of Education will come up with any of their own. Gilman said that before any of this hit the fan, the Board of Education gained the proper approval from the Jersey City Planning Board to claim eminent domain and raze the buildings on the Grand Street property. Gilman said that the Board met with city planners at “numerous meetings.” In addition to the January meeting, at which plans for the school and the parking lot were presented, the two agencies met “once or twice” more and had a series of “informal meetings with [Planning Director] Bob Cotter,” according to Gilman. Following the planning pow-wows, the Board of Education received the necessary approval to go ahead with the plan. No. 3 School construction is scheduled to be completed by September 2003.