The city of Hoboken will offer chemical giant BASF Corporation $9.7 million for three empty lots it hopes to eventually turn into a signature park for northwest Hoboken that would also be a cornerstone of the legacy of Mayor Dawn Zimmer. The offer letter, along with the city-ordered appraisal report upon which it is based, was approved by the City Council this past Wednesday.
Depending to the outcome of future negotiations with BASF, this official offer is the next crucial step towards either an amicable purchase or an eminent domain condemnation of the three parcels totaling 6.1 acres between Madison and Adams streets in Hoboken’s Western Edge.
Carving out park space in an increasingly dense city has been one of Zimmer’s quintessential issues since she entered politics as an advocate for neighborhood park space in southwest Hoboken. Earlier this year, the city secured final acquisition of Block 12 at the other end of town. The roughly 1-acre site near Observer Highway is intended to be the anchor of a piecemeal Southwest Park.
In negotiations with BASF, the city has the chance to secure a much larger swath of potential parkland in one fell swoop. The three sites are separated by Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, but the largest contiguous lot is a full 4.27 acres.
“These parcels…will be a significant centerpiece of open space for the city of Hoboken for decades to come.”—Peter Cunningham
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Peter Cunningham was first elected as 5th Ward Councilman in 2007 on a platform of bringing parks to the northwest, and he predicted that the BASF site will be a “significant centerpiece of open space for the city of Hoboken for decades to come.”
Zimmer said the city will continue good faith negotiations with BASF, and she expects the company to generate its own appraisal of the property. If both parties cannot agree on a price, however, Zimmer said “the city will ask the courts to help establish a fair market price for the property through the condemnation process.”
The BASF property will be purchased with money left over from a $20 million bond for open space acquisition minted in 2011.
Under previous administrations, the property had been considered as a potential site for a new middle school-high school complex.
Taking it all in
Under the doctrine of eminent domain codified in the U.S. Bill of Rights, local governments can condemn property for a legitimate public use as long as they provide “just compensation” to the owner. In modern times, the just price or “fair market value” of a property is established through often long and laborious legal proceedings.
Zimmer says the BASF site will serve not one but three public uses—flood mitigation, parking, and open space. Aided by a $500,000 technical assistance grant from the RE.invest Initiative, the city has been working on a state-of-the-art design for the future park that will include 300 parking spaces and a 5-10 million gallon water storage tank.
Zimmer remains hopeful that Hoboken and BASF can come to an amicable deal, though she noted that the two sides “have not reached an agreement” after years of discussions. Ultimately, Zimmer said she was fully prepared to use eminent domain, as she did with Block 12, in order to obtain the BASF land. Indeed, she has had the City Council’s express consent to do so since June 2012.
The looming prospect of eminent domain did not sit well with Councilwoman Theresa Castellano, who voted against the resolution in 2012 and abstained on the BASF offer letter vote on Wednesday.
Castellano said she could only support the use of eminent domain if the property owner was open to selling and in agreement on the fair market value. “As a property owner myself,” said Castellano, “I don’t want somebody to come here and tell me, ‘well, we’re giving you this money and you have to take it and you have to leave.’”
Castellano pointed to the city’s two-year legal fight with Ponte Properties, the previous owner of the Block 12 property, as a spot lesson of how onerous and expensive the eminent domain process can be.
In 2012, Ponte challenged Hoboken’s condemnation complaint for Block 12 in court, arguing that the $2.9 million it had been offered was far less than the value given to the lot by a city appraiser in 2008.
Hoboken won the Ponte case this past February, but it was forced to pay land use lawyer Edward Buzak $123,500 in 2013 alone to represent it, $50,000 of which came from the Open Space Trust Fund.
Reassessment may be reassessed
In a letter to the City Council this past week, Mayor Zimmer opened the possibility that she might reverse or alter her decision to continually adjust property values through a rolling reassessment over the next four years, as reported on the cover of this newspaper last week.
“We are currently further evaluating the financial impact of various options,” wrote Zimmer regarding the program. “Whatever approach we take, we must ensure that we do not permit the situation that our city faced from not doing a revaluation for 25 years to occur again.”
“While we continue to believe that a rolling reassessment is the best way to maintain tax fairness on an ongoing basis from a public policy standpoint,” she continued, “we also need to address the very real apprehension that so many of our taxpayers have about conducting an ongoing rolling reassessment process in light of the substantial increases that resulted for some taxpayers from the recently completed revaluation.”
Still, city spokesman Juan Melli made clear that the rolling reassessment program has not been cancelled as of yet.
If Zimmer ultimately elects not to halt the program, members of the City Council may try to do it for her. On Monday, the four Council members unaligned with Zimmer—
Castellano, Beth Mason, Michael Russo, and Tim Occhipinti—issued a joint press release condemning the rolling reval. They promised to present a resolution cancelling the city’s contract with Appraisal Systems, the company conducting the rolling reassessment, at the Dec. 2 Council meeting.
However, all four voted unanimously in favor of the Appraisal Systems contract when it came before the council in September. A Mason spokesperson said she was under the impression that the September contract was for measures related to the revaluation that Appraisal Systems had completed for Hoboken in March.
Sick leave ordinance under anesthesia
Hoboken’s proposed paid sick leave ordinance for local businesses, carried over at the Nov. 5 Council meeting, has been pulled indefinitely, according to its sponsor Councilwoman Castellano. In its place, the council passed a non-binding resolution Wednesday in support of “continued exploration and discussion of earned sick leave…by the New Jersey Legislature.”
In January, identical bills were introduced in the state Senate and Assembly guaranteeing workers one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Hoboken’s ordinance was similarly written, although only employers in the city with less than 10 employees would not be required to pay employees for their guaranteed sick leave.
On Oct. 27, the Assembly sick leave bill was passed by the Labor committee, with one of Hoboken’s Assemblymen, Raj Mukherji, voting in favor. District 33’s other Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia is also a co-sponsor of the bill.
“We’re going to have to abide by whatever decision they come to, so it’s in our best interests right now to say ‘keep doing what you’re doing,’” said Castellano.
“I support this resolution being passed at both the state and local levels,” said Councilwoman Mason, the other sponsor of the Hoboken ordinance.
If New Jersey passes its sick leave law, it will be only the second state to do so after Connecticut. In the mean time, six New Jersey city governments have already passed local sick leave laws, including Newark and Jersey City.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.