UNION CITY AND BEYOND – Union City Mayor and state Sen. Brian Stack recently sponsored the “Save the Hudson River Palisades Act” bill which, if passed, would prohibit any proposed development that would cut into the cliff slope or base. It would also prohibit development within a buffer area to be determined b the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in consultation with the Department of Environmental Protection.
One local town that has seen increasing development on or near the cliffs is nearby North Bergen, where activists have opposed several projects.
“The Palisades were around long before we were,” Stack said Tuesday. “They are a part of our history, and as an open space they are a part of who we are. They should not be further destroyed in exchange for commercial development or profit.”
The bill would enforce severe penalties for those attempting to further compromise the 200 million-year-old cliffs and any violation would be treated as a fourth degree crime. Those in violation would face up to 18 months in prison and up to $10,000 in fines, in addition to a civil penalty between $500 and $1,000 for each offense.
“The effort to preserve the Palisades goes way back to the 1970s, and there is a lot of interest in the development of the area,” Stack explained. “I have always been a supporter of the effort. We simply cannot afford any further deterioration.”
He added that, optimistically, the bill could be up for consideration in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee by June 30.
To read more about the legislation, read this weekend’s edition of the Reporter. – Gennarose Pope