The controversial property located at the site of the old Sier-Bath gear factory is listed for sale with a North Bergen real estate office, with the notice saying 27 lots are available, but local residents are concerned as to whether the sale calls for individual lots or all of them in one sale package.
If the lots, currently owned by North Bergen One Properties, Inc., were sold individually, then it would mean a victory for the local activists, who have been fighting rigorously to maintain the character of the neighborhood. They are hoping that individual homes will be built on the property.
But according to real estate agent Robert DeRuggiero, who is handling the sale for North Bergen One, the listing, valued at $3.5 million, is being sold as a package and not individually.
“We’re the ones who sold the property to the current owners and now we’re handling this sale,” DeRuggiero said. “It would be much tougher to sell if there were 27 individual lots. We’re looking for a developer who would be willing to buy it all in one piece.”
For years, neighbors of the old gear factory, located at 92nd Street and Kennedy Boulevard, have opposed any multi-story, multi-family development on the site, because it would cause massive traffic and parking problems, as well as disrupt an area that features mostly one and two-family homes.
In fact, the area is currently zoned for strictly one and two-family homes. An amendment was made back in the 1940s to allow the factory to be placed there, in order to produce gears used in the war efforts. But there has never been any re-zoning that would call for multi-unit development at the site.
The battles have been taken to court in the past.
Eugene McCrohan, a local resident, filed a lawsuit, citing the township and Mayor Nicholas Sacco as plaintiffs, in an attempt to block any such development. Superior Court Judge Jose Fuentes heard McCrohan’s complaint and ruled that the township was wrong in trying to secure an ordinance to re-zone the area, in order to permit construction of a multi-family development.
After the ruling, the prospective developer, Carter Sackman Associates, decided to withdraw its application with the Planning Board to build a multi-family development.
Carter Sackman’s decision to pull out of the project put the sale of the property in its current state of limbo, until the recent listing with DeRuggerio Real Estate.
Local activist Rocco Arciola did not know what to take from the new listing.
“I don’t think they will sell the lots individually,” Arciola said. “They want to sell the whole parcel. If they were selling it individually, then they would have to put out deed restrictions on each lot, saying that the land is clean. But if it is sold as one parcel, then they don’t need to tell, because the state DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) has already stated that there are no contaminants on the site. A potential developer needs to know what he’s buying.”
Representatives from the state DEP maintain that the site meets all standards and requirements necessary for reconstruction. They also maintain that they have dispatched several DEP agents to examine the site on several occasions and found nothing.
But Arciola said that while the DEP has said the current topsoil for the whole parcel is clean, an individual homeowner digging under a particular plot might find contaminants.
“If they get another developer to build an apartment complex on the site, then there’s no need to reveal anything,” Arciola said. “For now, we have to wait and see what develops.”
In more ways than one.
DeRuggiero said that he has already been contacted by several developers who are interested in purchasing the land and building 27 one-family homes at the site. If that takes place, then that would make the local neighbors very happy.
“It’s what we’ve always wanted in the first place,” Arciola said. “We’re not against development at the site. We just want to assure that the character of the neighborhood remains, that there is sufficient parking and that the land at the site is safe and free of contaminants.”