Dear Editor:
After living here for 16 years, last month was the first time I was truly disappointed in Hoboken. I fully understand the situation members of the Planning Board found themselves in on December 23 when they voted to approve the Maxwell House Project. However, it’s our lack of foresight and action that gave them no choice. The process to update the Master Plan is just getting underway. The city zoning ordinances haven’t been updated in over 20 years. And, the majority of tax-paying residents continue to pay little or no attention to what is happening around them. Planning Board member Beth Mason in a statement made before casting her vote said, “there is one tangible thing that best symbolizes the culture of a community. And that one thing is its architecture.” What is this project going to leave Hoboken known for?
Currently on the site are Bauhaus style buildings that are among the first of their kind in the US and have been recognized by an international group of architects and historians who’ve authored a registry entitled Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement. These buildings have been so much a part of the fabric of Hoboken that they are featured on the official seal of the city. This is who we are today.
Developers, Gans and Vallone recognized the value of the architecture when they first signed onto the project in 1999. Earlier versions of their site plans called for retaining and restoring key buildings. The current plan however, calls for all buildings on the site to be razed replacing historical treasures with dense, contrived, Disneyesk interpretation of townhouses and high-rises. Is this how we’ll be known in the future? Is this really the best we can do? This 14-acre site is probably the single most valuable piece of property on the eastern seaboard. It’s the last remaining piece of waterfront that hasn’t been sliced and diced in over-development. I am in favor of developing the site, but I think we need to demand more from and for this prime location.
We have one more opportunity to change the coarse that has been set. The Department of Environmental Protection will be evaluating the site and the project. They will be reviewing both the environmental and historical impact of the plan. If you feel as I do that the time has come to raise the bar, that to have higher expectations are not unreasonable, then please take the time to call or write the DEP, Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell, PO Box 402, 401 East State Street, Floor 7, Trenton, NJ 08625-0402; 609-292-2885.
Ann Holtzman