Dear Editor:
Seda Fretz is correct in her letter of March 24 that many people deserve credit for the successful battles that have been fought over the Hoboken waterfront. To put the agreement between the Port Authority and the City of Hoboken to a vote was Dan Tumpson’s brainchild in 1989. The Coalition for a Better Waterfront (CBW), formed the following year, enjoyed widespread support throughout Hoboken that led to the election victory in July of 1990. Seda Fretz, Steve Busch, Tom and Annette Illing, Augusta Przygoda and many others were an integral part of that success. Ms. Fretz writes a long, detailed history in her letter. I certainly take issue with many of her assertions too numerous to mention.
But the fact is, after 12 years of advocacy on the part of local residents, Hoboken now has by far the most successful waterfront along New Jersey’s gold coast. The key to this success has been a waterfront plan put into place by CBW and its nonprofit sister organization the Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) after the 1990 referendum victory. The centerpiece of that plan is a continuous waterfront park from the Erie Lackawanna Station to the Weehawken Cove. To ensure that this park is undeniably public and not simply the minimum state-required 30-foot path threading its way through private land, the plan calls for a clear delineation between the public waterfront and upland private development. Frank Sinatra Drive provides that line of demarcation. The key to protecting this principle is to ensure that buildings, other than small park-like structures be located west of Sinatra Drive. The victories in 1990 and 1992 that defeated massive buildings on Piers A and C and more recently in 2000 that defeated private residential enclaves on piers at Hoboken’s north waterfront have preserved the opportunity to complete Hoboken’s waterfront public park without interruption.
But today, with the park 70% built, Stevens Institute of Technology now threatens to destroy that opportunity. Stevens has proposed to locate their 400-foot long wave tank building on the river-side of Sinatra Drive between Frank Sinatra Park and Castle Point Park. (Picture in the park a building whose length is equivalent to the height of a 40-story high-rise tower!) At Union Dry Dock, Stevens has proposed a massive private athletic facility. At Maxwell House they have reintroduced the defeated idea of building on the piers, greatly diminishing the amount of public open space that could be created east of Sinatra Drive.
At Maxwell House, FBW has worked hard to secure five acres of land and piers at the water’s edge as public parkland. This proposal for a complex land conservation transaction is now at risk due, in part, to Stevens’ proposal for this land that they do not own. Contrary to the assertion by Ms. Fretz and others, the parkland is not being offered to us. FBW’s goal, however, is to ensure that Maxwell House Park be preserved as public open space in perpetuity. An integral means of assuring the success of this park is to ensure adequate funding for its construction and maintenance. We seriously question the Stevens’ proposal in terms of its overall design and also its economic viability.
We have developed alternate plans for Stevens and the City of Hoboken to consider that would preserve this academic institution’s need for expansion, including the construction of parking, the Center for Maritime System and more, but at the same time preserve the opportunity to complete the continuous mile-long waterfront park. This alternative will lead to a waterfront available to all, for generations to come. And if we succeed in this noble endeavor, the Mayor and Council of Hoboken, the President of Stevens and the residents of Hoboken will all deserve credit.
Sincerely yours,
Ron Hine