Dear Editor:
There is finally good news for the Coalition for the Preservation of the Palisades Cliffs, a citizen group that seeks to overturn approval for creation of a strip mall at the base of the Palisades in North Bergen by going to the County Freeholders for a hearing.
Thanks to the decision of Superior Court Judge Mark Baber on Friday, Feb. 19, the right to appeal the Hudson County Planning Board favorable decision to the Freeholders has been upheld. In so doing, the judge was tactful in not deriding the Freeholders for ignoring the request for a citizen appeal. Instead he put the focus on the incorrect legal guidance the Freeholders received from a consultant. The big question now becomes, how will the Freeholders respond?
One Freeholder (though as we all know, one does not speak for all) is known to have “instructed” citizens that they must appear with “experts” and lawyers if they want their opposition to a proposal to be heeded. This particular Freeholder feels completely justified in ignoring public comment unless supported by a phalanx of experts. This kind of attitude assures that the voice of the public, its insights, its on-the-ground experience, will never be taken seriously; that it will be lost.
The Freeholders as a group now have 45 days from Feb. 19 to hear the appeal and an additional 30 days to approve, reject or send the case back to the Planning Board. Each Freeholder will ultimately have to vote and in so doing will have to be clear-headed and sufficiently independent to resist the pressures from prominent politicians that will be placed on them. Each Freeholder will have an opportunity to show his or her courage, intelligence and independence.
This decision confirms not only the right of CCPC to appeal to the Freeholders but for every nonprofit organization to request a review and decision thereon concerning cases that have been decided by the Hudson County Planning Board.
The citizens of Hudson County will be watching.
Helen Manogue , Coordinator
Hoboken Quality of Life Coalition