Without air conditioning, the City Council Chambers were unbearably hot during Wednesday night’s council meeting.
And the issues were almost too hot to handle – particularly the question of using the Sixth Street Embankment for a nature trail, and possible salary hikes for the mayor and city department heads.Sixth Street Embankment not a sure bet
The City Council passed an ordinance to authorize the city’s government to purchase or condemn the former Sixth Street Embankment, which is the elevated stone railroad embankment.
Will it become part of a long nature trail, or home to condos? That all depends.
The embankment was once the location for railroad tracks that were part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system that was the premier American railway in the early 1900s. It is constructed of sandstone and granite blocks 400 feet long and 100 feet wide. The embankment reaches a height of 27 feet at its western end near Brunswick Street but is accessible on its other end near Marin Boulevard. Steel girder bridges connected each segment, but were dismantled in 1996 by Conrail.
Jersey City has been in talks to acquire the embankment by eminent domain from Conrail. The embankment would then be transformed into a nature trail that would be part of the Jersey City link in the 92-mile New Jersey portion of the Greenway that would go from Pennsylvania and New York.
But for the City Council, the situations leading up to passing the ordinance have not been easy. Negotiating with property owner
Conrail had been in negotiations with controversial property owner Steve Hyman, who considered buying the embankment from them.
At a City Council meeting on March 10 last year, Hyman said he could then sell the city Sixth Street Embankment in exchange for the council passing an ordinance to approve a 20-year tax abatement for a 3.75-acre property known as the Flintkote property in Downtown Jersey City, which Hyman had planned to sell to Hoboken-based developer Dean Geibel for $25 million.
But the council criticized the impromptu deal and immediately voted down the ordinance at that meeting. In September 2004, the City Council approved the ordinance for the abatement.
At last week’s meeting, as the council was ready to vote, Hyman’s lawyer Carmine Alampi proceeded to warn the council members that going through with the condemnation of the Sixth Street Embankment property would cause the city problems with Hyman, who is still in the process of purchasing the embankment.
Alampi also detailed what the SLH Group, of which Steve Hyman is a principal partner, would plan to do with the embankment.
“We are going to seek the removal of the walls. What we seek are fully conforming building lots to be divisible, and to be housing two-family homes,” said Alampi. “We know that they are [tax revenue producers], we know these will be consistent with the pattern of development in the neighborhood, and we know they will be fully conforming with your ordinances.”
Alampi added, “Perhaps you should wait out the process to see what the advantages of developing the site by the private developer are rather than condemning the property.”
City Council President L. Harvey Smith criticized Hyman’s past impromptu deal and maintained that Hyman and the city should find “a common ground” in order to facilitate the purchase of the embankment.
Other councilmen criticized Hyman and Conrail for impeding the acquisition of the embankment.
Ward D City Councilman William Gaughan pointed out to Alampi that Hyman “has not built in all the years” that he has invested in Jersey City, and he leveled criticism at Hyman for not meeting with Downtown Jersey City residents about his plans to build.
Ward C City Councilman Steve Lipski defended Hyman, first stating that he was a “friend of Steve Hyman,” and then saying that Hyman had met with residents working to preserve the embankment, but there had been no agreement reached.
However, the City Council went ahead and voted 8-0 in favor of the condemnation with an abstention from Lipski. Those pesky salaries
The City Council also tabled an ordinance Wednesday night to raise the salaries of top city officials.
At the previous City Council meeting on May 18, the council introduced an ordinance to amend the Jersey City code pertaining to salaries of the mayor and various heads of city departments.
The mayor would be raised from $98,363 to $127,500. The salaries of the fire department and police department directors, as well as the corporation counsel, would be raised from 95,568 to $120,000.
The city clerk would see a hike from $92,582 to $120,000.
The tax assessor and the directors of the Finance Department, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce, Department of Public Works and the Department of Recreation would see a salary rise from $89,562 to $110,000.
However, there had criticism from the public about possible salary hikes at a time when the city was facing shortfalls in several city departments such as the Department of Public Works, the Jersey City Parking Authority and the Municipal Utilities Authority.
However, the City Council had made the case in recent weeks that the salary raises would keep top employees in the city, especially if they could find work in other municipalities such as Newark, which pays their mayor more.