Dear Editor:
Thursday night, February 20, I went to Jersey City to attend a meeting of the Jersey City zoning board. The occasion was the request for a variance by a developer who was planning to build a new housing development on Paterson Plank Road; the developer, interestingly enough, being the same one who is building the nearby Gateway Towers at 101 Marshall Drive, the project my group has been fighting against.
This project, known as “Cliffside”, calls for the conversion of a pre-existing warehouse into 128 residential units, five stories and 70 ft. in height, with 88 parking spaces. The variance was for height, the project as proposed exceeding the zoning requirements by one story.
What transpired was a parade of ‘expert’ witnesses hired by the developer trotted out to tell the audience gathered, and more importantly the zoning board, what a wonderful, beneficial, and innocuous project this would be. The attorney for the developer stressed repeatedly that to deny the variance (which apparently would reduce the project by one story and 32 residential units, thus leaving it a 96 unit project) would be a ‘hardship’ for the developer.
Then it was time for the public to question the witnesses and/or make comments. Citizen after citizen raised objections to the project. Several individuals from Hoboken were treated with thinly veiled contempt by the board and particularly by the board’s attorney, I guess for daring to attend a Jersey City meeting. Apparently the fact that this project is in spitting distance of Hoboken, and indeed proposes to hook up to the Hoboken sewer system, which has a nasty tendency to flood in that neck of the woods, and therefore might be an issue of concern to Hoboken residents, did not seem to be grasped by the board. Jersey City Heights residents expressed extreme concern that the project will require the drilling of 100 steel rods up to 20 feet long into the rock face of the Palisades in order to stabilize the cliff; aside from the extreme noise, dust, and vibration caused by this operation, there is the fear that this could well damage the foundations of their homes, most of which are very old.
When every citizen had spoken, each one objecting to the project in question, the city planner got up and praised the project. The members of the zoning board, who all appeared to be in an extremely cheerful mood, then proceeded to unanimously approve the project, but not before several of them went out of their way to praise both the developer and the project.
Let us review. A construction project is proposed for a community by a developer. Every single person from that community and the neighboring community on whose border the project is located who testifies is opposed to the project. Those citizens have no interest in the project other than very serious and legitimate concerns that it may damage their homes or degrade their community. For their trouble, they get to be disrespected and dismissed by public officials with condescending attitudes, i.e. the JC zoning board, the board’s attorney, and the city planner, as they UNANIMOUSLY approved the variance, because it would be a ‘hardship’ on the developer to deny it. Hardship? What a joke. A hardship is not knowing where you’re next meal is coming from. That’s a hardship.
This zoning board meeting was an utter mockery of the concept of representative government.
Eric R. Volpe
President, Hudson County Alliance