After a two year hiatus, the Hoboken City Council voted unanimously to appoint a new planner for the Southwest Rehabilitation Area this past Wednesday. The area is one of several singled out by the city as in need of revitalization through zoning changes and property condemnation. The city will pay Red Bank-based Maser Consulting up to $65,400, $50,000 of which is covered by a Department of Community Affairs post-Sandy assistance grant.
The appointment of a new planner for the southwest is part of a new flurry of redevelopment activity in Hoboken after years in which little was accomplished. Maser was selected to produce a new plan for the Western Edge Redevelopment Area in May, four years after a previous draft plan fell to public resistance. The first public meeting for that new plan took place last month.
In July, the city also sought bids for a planner for the North End Rehabilitation Area. The post-industrial zone north of 14th Street is home to the parcel on which Mayor Dawn Zimmer alleges she was pressured to allow development earlier this year by members of the Christie administration.
With the addition of the southwest, Maser Consulting is now the designated planner for three of Hoboken’s redevelopment zones. In her pre-meeting memo to the City Council, Zimmer cited Maser’s work on the Neumann Leathers redevelopment and “familiarity with the issues of the area” as key qualifications for its selection.
Zimmer said she hoped property owners would “see that having a nice park adds value to the whole area.”
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Southwest delays
The Southwest Rehabilitation Area constitutes a roughly triangular section in the city’s southwest corner bounded by Paterson Avenue, Jefferson Street and Jersey City. Once part of Hoboken’s bustling industrial periphery, the neighborhood has been underutilized for decades, and was first designated as a potential redevelopment zone in 2006.
Zimmer was one of five residents who challenged that initial designation because they believed it did not call for enough open space. The successful lawsuit was her first big foray into Hoboken city politics, opening the door to a run for the 4th Ward City Council seat and, eventually, the Mayoralty.
In May 2012, the southwest zone was finally designated as an area in need of rehabilitation following a study by the planning firm Clarke Caton Hintz. Appointing a planner is the next step in the process.
Zimmer said a number of factors prevented the city from doing so until now, including a lawsuit by property owners challenging the designation that was settled last year and the long process of acquiring Block 12 within the area for a planned Southwest Park.
Eminent domain still on table
Designating the southwest for rehabilitation rather than redevelopment means Hoboken cannot grant tax abatements or use eminent domain to give property to private developers within the zone.
Using eminent domain to capture property for public uses like parks is still permitted, and Zimmer said Thursday that she was open to that possibility in order to expand the footprint of the Southwest Park beyond Block 12, which is only roughly 1 acre.
Zimmer said a judge had already assigned evaluation commissioners to determine the fair market value of parcels in the southwest. The results could be delivered as soon as the end of October. Fair market value is what the city must pay property owners in any eminent domain taking.
Zimmer said she valued the deliberative nature of the redevelopment process. However, she blamed “unreasonable expectations from property owners” for derailing past efforts to move forward in the southwest.
New public process
When public meetings on the southwest finally resume, they will likely be inundated with passionate input from both open space advocates and property owners. After the city released its southwest study in January 2012, its first scheduled public meeting had to be cancelled because too many people showed up.
When the Southwest Rehabilitation designation was approved in May 2012, the Planning Board was only 15 percent of the way through gathering testimony on the study.
Zimmer emphasized that the city wanted to hear from all of the Southwest’s property owners through meetings with Maser.
She said she hoped property owners would “see that having a nice park adds value to the whole area.”
On Thursday, Helen Manogue of the Hoboken Quality of Life Coalition said she was generally happy with the recommendations of the 2012 southwest study, but would be watching the new public meetings closely.
Park process
Also on Wednesday, the City Council voted 7-1 to approve a contract with Starr Whitehouse to conduct the final design, permitting and engineering for the new Southwest Park. Earlier this year, the city secured final acquisition of Block 12, on which the park will be built.
When fully realized, special rainwater retention features should allow the park to retain over 200,000 gallons of water in the event of a catastrophic rainstorm or hurricane, in a neighborhood that chronically floods during heavy rainfall.
Starr Whitehouse is the same firm that produced the original conceptual design for the park. Its new responsibilities will include determining how much environmental remediation is necessary for the parcel.
Based on the city’s specifications, the firm will aim to have Block 12 ready for park construction in July 2015 and completed by that December.
The city’s one-year deal will pay the architecture firm up to $358,551. A grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior will be used to cover $250,000 of that total.
HoLa’s other expansion
The expansion of the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa) to seventh and eighth grade has become a lightning rod of controversy at the school board, triggering a legal challenge now before a New Jersey Appellate Court.
Before the City Council on Wednesday, however, HoLa’s expansion in another, related context elicited none of the rancor it has in past school board meetings.
The council unanimously passed a resolution allowing HoLa and the Boys and Girls Club to apply for a zoning variance to expand their shared property at 123 Jefferson St. to add two rear additions and a third floor. The additions will accommodate 13 new classrooms for the current students and future expanded grades.
Councilman Jim Doyle made clear that the resolution was not an expression of city support for HoLa’s application, but rather a necessary procedural step. Still, several council members took the opportunity to express their own personal support for HoLa’s mission and its efforts to add more class space, including council members Mello and Occhipinti.
On Thursday, Zimmer also spoke in support of the proposed physical expansion, saying she wanted HoLa to stay in its current space.