Nearly 100 people gathered at the Multi-Purpose Center at Second and Grand streets Thursday night to learn more about the city’s building guidelines as part of the hearing process on the proposed new master plan.
A master plan is a document that details guidelines for development, growth, redevelopment, and enhancement of a community. It usually contains three general components: What a community is, what it wants to be, and how it will become what it wants to be.
It has been 16 years since Hoboken’s last master plan was written. While not everyone agreed Thursday on which way the city should go in the future, the meeting allowed interested parties to give their input and be part of the process.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Beth Mason, chair of the Master Plan Subcommittee of the Planning Board. “All of these people are here talking about and learning about zoning.”
Anyone with suggestion on how to improve the city’s zoning should e-mail Paul Grygiel of Abeles, Phillips, Preiss & Shapiro (APPS), at Hoboken@appsplanning.con or call (212) 475-3030. In the spring, the urban planning firm signed a $270,000 contract to guide the city through the daunting process of overhauling the master plan.
The following is a brief summary of Hoboken’s current zoning regulations.
How is Hoboken zoned?
According to Grygiel, zoning is the legal tool for regulating development. In general, he said, zoning ordinances control permitted uses, intensity, and bulk, which include how far a building must be set back from the street and how high it can go.
The New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) permits municipal governing bodies, in Hoboken’s case the City Council, to adopt a zoning ordinance. According to the MLUL, a zoning ordinance generally must be “substantially consistent” with the municipality’s master plan.
According to Grygiel, permitted uses in New Jersey include principal uses (the primary use of the property), accessory uses (only permitted in conjunction with a principal use), and conditional uses (permitted only if certain criteria are met).
Grygiel says the structure of the Hoboken Zoning Ordinance seems relatively straightforward. There are three residential districts, two industrial districts, and two review districts, which will be described later. However, he said, there are also two residential subdistricts, one industrial subdistrict and three review subdistricts.
The residential districts
Hoboken has three residential districts, commonly called R-1, R-2 and R-3. Residential buildings and retail businesses and services are permitted principal uses in all the zones. Additional uses such as schools or restaurants are permitted in these zones as accessory or conditional zones. The heights for these zones are four or five stories or 40 or 50 feet, depending on the zone. Most of Hoboken is made up of residential zones. All of the areas with brownstone lined streets, such as most of Bloomfield and Garden streets, are in the residential zones.
But there are also two residential subdistricts, which are the R-1(CS) which is the Court Street Subdistrict, and the R-1(E) Subdistrict which covers the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology. Heights in both of these subdistricts can vary from those in other residential zones.
The industrial districts
According to Grygiel, the I-1 industrial zone covers most of the northwest corner of Hoboken, although a large portion of it is superseded by the Northwest Redevelopment area, which is slated for homes and a supermarket. This district permits industrial uses, office buildings, research laboratories, warehouses and utilities. The maximum permitted is four stories or 80 feet.
The I-2 zone is located along most of the entire southern border of the city. The permitted uses are similar to that of the I-1 but the maximum height is two stories or 40 feet. There is also an I-1(W) Subdistrict, which includes the entire northeast waterfront. That zone permits manufacturing, office buildings and research laboratories as well as permitted “planned unit developments,” which may include a mix of residential, commercial, industrial, public, or quasi-public uses. The old Maxwell House factory, the Shipyard Project and Union Dry Dock are all in this subdistrict.
Review districts
The city’s two review districts are the Central Business Zone (CBZ) and the Waterfront (W) zones. The CBZ encompasses the approximate boundaries of Hoboken’s central business districts, generally located south of Fourth Street between the middle of River Street and the west side of Washington Street. According to Grygiel, a wide variety of commercial and residential uses are permitted in that zone. The maximum permitted height is the 16 stories or 160 feet.
The waterfront district includes the Hoboken Terminal and the subdistrict covering the area on the east side of Sinatra Drive underneath Castle Point. Much of this zone is regulated and superceded by the Southern Waterfront Redevelopment Plan.
Redevelopment areas
Redevelopment is a technical zoning term that means that there is an area within the municipality that is not being used to its full potential. The governing body can rezone the area, designate a developer and make plans to clean the area up.
There are currently three redevelopment areas in Hoboken. The first is the Northwest Redevelopment, an area that covers all or part of the 22 tax blocks west of Clinton Street and between Seventh and 14th streets.
The second is the South Waterfront Redevelopment Area (see cover), which incorporates three blocks located between Hudson River, and Fourth streets and well as the public lands east.
The third is the Observer highway Redevelopment Area, which includes portions of two blocks fronting Observer Highway from Bloomfield Street to Park Avenue. Two high-rise residential buildings were the result of that redevelopment area.