BAYONNE — Two conditions in the city’s contract to sell a portion of the peninsula to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for a container port make it possible that the $235 million the city may collect on the sale could be reduced by as much as $50 million if those conditions are not met.
Both conditions contain complications, but a former city official with intimate knowledge of the deal and the controversy over moving the 9/11 monument confirmed the implications in the contract for The Bayonne Community News.
One condition of the contract requires the city to permanently close the walkway on the peninsula because operations at the container port would make it unsafe for pedestrian traffic. But because state law requires any waterfront development permit to include plans for a waterfront walkway, the city would have to obtain a waiver to remove the walkway from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The second condition concerns the controversial plan to relocate the 9/11 monument. “To Struggle Against World Terrorism” is a 100-foot high statue by world-renowned artist Zurab Tsereteli. A gift to the United States from the people of Russia, the monument features a single silver tear which – according to Tsereteli – is shed perpetually for the victims of the terrorists’ attacks.
The city must bear the cost of moving the monument, which so far no-one has estimated. Complicating the relocation is a requirement in the state Green Acres statutes that demands that for every acre of park land developed with Green Acres funds that is moved, three acres of new space must be provided. The monument area is about one acre, so any new location it is moved to would have to be three times as large.
Also, there is the possibility, as yet unconfirmed, that the monument cannot be moved because a federal law that protects monuments of “national significance” may apply to it. – Al Sullivan