Dear Editor:
When elected officials are oblivious to the will of its citizens, the State of New Jersey provides a means for correcting this injustice. This tool is a referendum election that permits the local voters to accept or reject an ordinance adopted by the local governing body. Opponents of the Millennium Towers mega high-rise project in Jersey City have succeeded in submitting more than the required number of signatures to force a referendum vote. If the City Council does not rescind their ordinance permitting a 20-year tax abatement for this project, the voters of Jersey City can exercise their democratic right to determine the fate of this multi-million dollar subsidy.
There are a number of reasons why this ordinance should be defeated. One of the most obvious reasons is that real estate tax abatements are no longer needed to stimulate development in Jersey City. Our economy is thriving, hundreds of projects are springing up along the Hudson River waterfront (most without any subsidies) and the prohibitive cost of building in New York City has caused many companies to come to New Jersey. Clearly, there is no longer a need to subsidize developers, especially the super-wealthy corporations who are relocating to the Jersey City waterfront. These developers must pay their fair share of taxes.
In addition, the developers of Millennium Towers, United Diversified, L.L.C., are not the type of builders that any city should want doing business in its community, let alone granting them huge subsidies. The only person with extensive development experience in this company is Joseph M. Lucarelli. In 1989, Lucarelli masterminded a $16 million scheme in a building just a block away at 689 Marin Boulevard. Lucarelli was convicted of bank fraud and served nearly two years in federal prison..
The tax abatement ordinance provides a huge windfall gain to the Millennium Towers developers, worth tens of millions of dollars. The City’s amendments to the redevelopment plan, allowing a 300 percent increase in allowable building heights specifically for the Millennium Towers site, provided another multi-million dollar windfall to these developers. With an investment of several million dollars and very little work, these developers could now reap a profit of $30 to $40 million by simply flipping the property. And what is the City of Jersey getting in return – absolutely nothing. The ordinance should also be defeated because the Millennium Towers project itself would be bad for Jersey City as well as its neighboring municipality, Hoboken. The 43-story towers would stick out like two sore thumbs. Views to and from the Palisades would be forever marred. The excessive density would result in too much additional traffic on two important thoroughfares linking Hoboken with Jersey City. Public planning, which provides the basis for changes to the City’s zoning, has been totaling lacking for this site.
In 1990 and 1992, referendum elections in Hoboken defeated massive waterfront development schemes proposed by that City and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Democracy prevailed over an impervious local government. Now there is an opportunity for the same to happen in Jersey City. It is time for the Mayor and Council of Jersey City to wake up to the fact that the people of Jersey City count. Big money should not be the driving force behind politics. The public should be that driving force. (For more information on this and other local stories, visit our website at www.betterwaterfront.com.)
Coalition for a Better Waterfront