The City Council has taken its boldest step yet to overhaul the city’s confusing and much-maligned parking regime, approving a $5 million bond to install automated meters throughout the city, including residential areas, at a meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 15.
Expanding and modernizing the city’s parking meters was one of the recommendations included in the Parking Master Plan prepared by nationally-recognized planning firm Arup.
Currently, visitors can park for free for up to four hours a day in unmetered “Permit Parking Only Zones,” but will be booted or towed if they remain parked anywhere in the city any longer.
Under the new smart meter system, which has existed as a pilot program in northern Hoboken for the past year, the “Permit Parking Only” sides of streets will become metered, and those who stay too long will incur overtime fines rather than be booted. “Resident Parking Only” sides will remain in effect and unmetered around the city.
In a letter to the City Council that advocated for the bond, Mayor Dawn Zimmer said more meters would remove the ambiguity that led to booting in the past.
“Visitors to any city know that when they see a parking meter, they are required to pay the meter,” she said.
Most of the council hailed meters as a way to free up on-street parking without harm to residential permit holders, who can park at them for free. Given a hypothetical choice between expanding meters citywide and raising the residential permit price to $300, Councilman Michael Russo said he “would go with asking our visitors every day of the week.”
“Visitors to any city know that when they see a parking meter, they are required to pay the meter.” – Dawn Zimmer
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“We are penalizing the people who shop here, we are penalizing the businesses,” said Councilwoman Theresa Castellano, who owns the City Discount House on Washington Street. “People don’t want to come visit the people that are living here.”
Currently, visitors to Hoboken can park at meters for a total of two hours per day. However, Zimmer and members on the council transportation and parking subcommittee have said bonding for meters was just the first step, with adjustments to prices and time limits at meters likely to follow.
Zimmer also promised to reinvest the additional revenue raised by meters into street resurfacing, parking garage upgrades, and new garage construction.
The bond ordinance passed by a vote of 6-3, with council members Tim Occhipinti, Beth Mason, and Castellano in opposition.
In other developments related to Hoboken’s master parking plan, the council approved a $149,000 contract with T&M Associates to design and engineer wayfinding signs around the city that would direct drivers to parking garages with available space.
The project is funded by an $879,000 grant from the state Economic Development Authority and will also cover the design of streetscape improvements on First Street.
Larger, but greener
Also on Wednesday, the council approved amendments to the Northwest Redevelopment Plan to allow local developer Frank Pasquale to build a seven-story, 10-unit luxury condominium building at Eleventh and Adams streets.
The council had approved a redevelopment agreement with Pasquale at its Sept. 3 meeting after significant debate, but the additional amendments were necessary because his proposed development, known as Lorien Lofts, exceeded the height and lot coverage permitted by the Northwest plan.
Pasquale conceived the complex as a truly cutting-edge green building, fulfilling not just the requirements for LEED Gold status but also the much more stringent Passive House standard, which aims to create homes that heat and cool themselves naturally.
The project offers nine three- and four-bedroom apartments, which are much in demand as city officials seek to encourage families to stay long-term.
In turn, Pasquale asked for approval to build six stories over a floor of parking instead of the permitted five and a half stories, and to forego required yard setbacks, filling 100 percent of the lot on the ground floor. In an interview after the meeting, Pasquale said these variances were necessary because the property is only 5,000 square feet, roughly half as large as the standard lot size for the Northwest Redevelopment Area.
Residents of the Fifth Ward, where the building will be located, spoke out against using green technology to justify a slide into formerly prohibited development.
Cunningham ‘embarrassed’ about meeting
For Jason Silverglate, the exceptions given to Pasquale create a legal precedent that will justify taller buildings in the future, even if the council opposes them.
“We live in this ward because we like the heights the way they are, we like the community the way it is,” said Silverglate. “Technology is great…but technology should not be done at the price of community.”
Silverglate also criticized the lack of public outreach regarding Lorien Lofts on the part of the city. Fifth Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham did not hold a community meeting on the project until last Thursday, a week before the redevelopment plan amendments were voted on this past Wednesday.
Cunningham entered city government on a promise to rein in height-happy developers, but he voted in favor of Lorien Lofts’ variances Wednesday, calling an extra half floor of height a “good trade” for the environmental benefits of the building, along with Pasquale’s $40,000 contribution to the city’s affordable housing fund.
“The overall benefit to the community I think far exceeds what could have been done as of right,” added Cunningham. He did, however, mention he was “embarrassed” for not holding a public meeting on the development sooner.
Not everyone on the council was swayed by Lorien’s green benefits. According to Occhipinti, the developer should have given more to the city in terms of open space funding and created actual affordable units instead of just contributing to a fund.
“I think that the developer put ten units in this building so that he wouldn’t have to trigger the affordable housing requirement,” said Occhipinti. However, Council President Jennifer Giattino responded that affordable housing requirements did not apply in redevelopment zones.
Ultimately, the council voted 6-3 to amend the Northwest plan, with Occhipinti, Mason, and Castellano in opposition.
Neumann Leathers
Also on Wednesday, the Neumann Leathers complex and surrounding lots were redesignated as an “area in need of rehabilitation.” The former tanning factory between Newark and Observer Streets is home to dozens of artists and boutique manufacturers, and was recently sold by long-time owners who had hoped to replace it with an upscale residential developer.
On Sept. 23, a state appellate court overturned the city’s 2011 designation of the property and surrounding blocks. According to the court, the council had every right to designate the land as requiring rehabilitation but misrepresented a portion of the statute justifying its actions. The difference came down to the use of ‘or’ instead of ‘and’ in linking two clauses about the physical conditions that qualify an area for rehabilitation status. Zimmer called it a “minor technicality.”
At its last meeting on Oct. 1, the council voted unanimously to send a resolution redesignating the site – with the correct conjunction – to the Planning Board.
On Oct. 7, the Planning Board duly approved the recommendation of the council, opening the door for the action taken this past Wednesday.
9/11 memorial
According to Councilman James Doyle, a council subcommittee will meet with Health and Human Services Director Leo Pellegrini this coming week to continue discussions on the 9/11 Memorial. Thirteen years after the 9/11 attacks, Hoboken remains without a permanent memorial to the tragedy, even though more people from the 07030 zip code died in New York on 9/11 than from anywhere else in America.
Over a month ago, Zimmer said she would move forward with a new bond ordinance for a permanent 9/11 memorial in Hoboken after it was revealed in a council meeting that there were enough votes to support it. The current proposed memorial calls for two symmetrical, semicircular platforms adorned with rows of vertical glass panels near Sinatra Drive in Pier A Park.
An engineering firm has told the city that panels purchased by the administration of former mayor Dave Roberts could not sustain hurricane-force winds. This past Wednesday, Zimmer said the city is seeking a second opinion from another firm before it moves forward with a bond request. If both firms agree, the bond will include the cost of new panels.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.