In approving additional money on Jan. 15 for more parking near train stations along various routes leading into the Secaucus Transfer Station, New Jersey Transit has not yet made plans to build more parking in Secaucus itself, local officials said.
For the last year, NJ Transit has boosted parking at various train stations to help accommodate the increased ridership expected with the opening of the Secaucus station.
The latest parking project approved was for Ramsey. Secaucus Transfer is scheduled to open weekends this fall and on weekdays after a temporary PATH station is built in Lower Manhattan in winter 2003-04.
The primary purpose of the Secaucus Transfer Station is to allow people who live along the Main/Bergen/Pascack lines to change trains and travel to New York Penn Station. This will be much faster than going to Hoboken and taking PATH’s 33rd St line. But the transfer station will also allow people to make intrastate trips (e.g., Ridgewood to Newark).
Early opponents of the transfer station predicted that sections of Secaucus would become a vast park-and-ride for the train station, and petitioned the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission to incorporate restrictions in the original approvals.
While no restrictions have been placed on the project, very little parking was submitted with the plans – only parking enough to accommodate workers at the station and its commercial element. The train station currently has only 40 parking places planned.
“This was raised during the first public hearings on the station,” said Mayor Dennis Elwell, “in response to demands of local residents that Secaucus would not become a park-and-ride and clog our streets with cars. To my knowledge, at this point, there is no planning for any parking in that area.”
But Elwell said this could change in the future as regional demands make the transfer station a critical means of accessing Manhattan.
“I know NJ transit is looking at it,” he said “But nothing has been approved, and to my knowledge no plans yet exist.”
Elwell, whose veto of improvements to Croxton Yards has resulted in the approval of vast road improvements and the construction of a new traffic bridge over rail lines in South Secaucus, said he would not rule out parking areas in the area of the station – especially with the availability of private land there and the recent agreement by NJ Transit to conduct an Transit Village Study for the area. A Transit Village is a zoning distinction that would encourage development for around the transfer station that would allow easier access to the trains. This could include second down town district, the construction of residential housing and parking.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is currently constructing an exit that will provide traffic access to the train station and vast roadway improvements in the area – including the extension of Seaview Drive. Traffic would exit the Turnpike at the foot of the rail bridge at Seaview Drive and Meadowlands Parkway. Since NJ Transit is currently negotiating with the town for the purchase of a tract of land there, it is possible a parking lot might be envisioned.
In conjunction with the opening of the transfer station, NJ Transit has nearly completed redirecting trains from its Bergen County line – which stops at the existing Harmon Cove train station – to connect with the Main Line a few hundred yards south. The Harmon Cove station will be closed, and residents who currently use it will be shuttled to and from the Transfer Station instead.
“NJ Transit has already given us two shuttle buses to transport Harmon Cove residents,” Elwell said.
But approvals for the commercial portion of the transfer station, generally known as Allied Junction, also call for providing free bus transportation to the station for all Secaucus residents.
Allied Junction, envisioned as four tall towers to be constructed above the transfer station, does not have to open when the transfer station does, leaving town officials to ponder options.
Private property owners also could seek approvals from the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission before installing parking areas near the transfer station.
Hudson County also owns a significant amount of land in the area, which could be sold for such a purpose.
“The town itself might consider setting up parking lots,” Elwell said. “This would provide us with revenue and would allow us to control a lot of what is being developed for that purpose.”
If the town was to move into the parking business, it would have to set up a parking authority, similar to one that existed for years in Hoboken until it was disbanded a few months ago.
“If we did consider creating parking, we could also monitor shuttles – even designing a shuttle bus just for local residents,” Elwell said.
Such a venture would pay for itself with fees for parking, and the revenue could be dedicated towards paying police, fire and ambulance service costs, as well as for providing addition shuttles.
First step towards forming a parking authority?
The Town Council is expected to establish the position of a traffic coordinator at its Jan. 28 meeting. While ostensibly the position would help set up and monitor scheduling of an existing fleet of medical escort route and shuttle services, the role could be a precursor to a parking authority in the future.
Town Administrator Anthony Iacono said the town is looking to have someone to be responsible for overseeing the growing fleet of vehicles that are currently operating.
“We are looking for a person to be responsible for the medical escort and bus service,” he said.
The council is also expected to approve a 60-day extension to its contract for ambulance service with the Jersey City Medical Center, while a new arrangement is considered.
Currently, the town pays JCMC a fee of $200,000 a year to provide an ambulance service to the town. This means one ambulance must be parked in Secaucus 24 hours a day seven days a week with a backup unit provided whenever the first ambulance is called into service. JCMC also charges insurance carriers a fee.
“This is a large amount of money,” Iacono said, noting that the town had looked into providing its own service, but could not justify the purchase and operation of two vehicles and crews.
“We’re currently working out some details on the billing end of the operation,” Iacono said. “That’s why the council will be asked to extend the contract at the current rates.”
Two factors could change the town’s position on providing its own service, however, Iacono said.
“If the state approves a hotel tax which will dedicate money to paying for emergency services, we might be in a better position to make that move,” he said. “We also have to see how big a demand the opening of the transfer station will make. Right now, we can’t justify having two ambulance crews on all the time. But that could change.”
Gov. Jim McGreevey is considering approving a 6 percent hotel tax, half of which would go to towns. Secaucus currently has in excess of 2,000 hotel rooms.
“This would have no impact on local taxpayers,” Elwell said. “But it would go towards public safety.”
Town and Board of Ed. to meet over land
The Board of Education and representatives from the Town Council are scheduled to meet shortly over proposed sale of school-owned land near Harmon Cove to New Jersey Transit.
Conflicting appraisals of a 16-acre tract along the Hackensack River have put board member Tom Troyer at odds with Mayor Elwell, not merely on the price, but as to who should get the money.
Elwell in pursuing the sale, the money would be put into an escrow account until the two public bodies could work out an agreement.
The town is proposing to sell the property to New Jersey Transit. The Board of Education claims ownership to the property. The value of the land varies on which appraisal one believes: NJ Transit’s, the town’s or the Board’s, ranging from $1.8 million to $2.2 million.
The town would like to use the money to build a new recreation center. Troyer said the board should be the body to decide the use of the cash.
Troyer believes the value of the land will rise with proposed development in that section of town, and believes NJ Transit may be seeking the property to construct a parking facility to accommodate the Secaucus Transfer Station.
“If anyone should build parking, we should be the ones to do it,” Troyer said. “It is the Board of Education’s land, and we should profit from its use.”