Friends of Liberty State Park President Sam Pesin says legislation introduced by Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto that modifies a new law merging the state Meadowlands Commission and the Sports and Exposition Authority still does not protect the park from potential commercial development.
“The new bill’s language is unconscionable and outrageous, and the language is just as dangerous to Liberty State Park’s future as in the first bill, since the Meadowlands Regional Commission still gets the power to approve and implement plans for Liberty State Park,” Pesin said.
A new law merging the agencies – to reduce bureaucracy and associated costs to the state, to eliminate a tax revenue sharing arrangement some Meadowlands municipalities consider unfair, and to allow the newly-formed Meadowlands Regional Commission more say in some of the operations at Liberty State Park – was recently signed into law by Gov. Christopher Christie.
At the time, the law’s sponsors, Prieto of Secaucus and Bergen County state Sen. Paul Sarlo, said they’d address the concerns of environmentalists and the park’s advocates who fear the new law opens the park for development.
“This change was something the DEP asked for.” – Phil Swibinski
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Prieto’s proposed amendment to the law would clarify that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will retain control of the park, and that the new Meadowlands commission may only review plans for the park at the DEP’s request.
Pesin: that’s just not good enough
“The new bill still says the commission shall ‘approve and implement any plan – presented by the DEP Commissioner’— so the new bill is just as dangerous as the first bill,” he said. “The only difference from the first bill is that the commission shall approve and implement any plan submitted by the DEP Commissioner instead of any plan that they come up with themselves. Bill also still states that any approved bill is a project of the Commission and will be in the Commission’s Master Plan.”
While the new bill stressed the DEP would retain ownership, Pesin said this wasn’t an issue.
“The danger is not ownership – it’s 99 year leases from the DEP or from the commission to private developers,” he said.
He called for public hearings on the changes.
The park’s operations have been overseen by a division of the state Department of Environmental Protection. The language granting the newly established Meadowlands Regional Commission that authority was added shortly before final passage and did not go through the usual legislative committee process.
Reassurance from Swibinski
Phil Swibinski, spokesperson for Prieto, said Prieto’s changes in the bill have to do with structural changes brought about by combining the two commissions. Historically, the Meadowlands Commission operated as a subdivision of the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
“Because the Commission operated under the DCA, the DEP would use the commission to review plans, “Swibinski said.
“Setting up the new commission, the state had to make it clear the DEP could continue to act in the same capacity as before. This is why the language for reviewing plans was included, Swibinski said.
“This change was something the DEP asked for,” Swibinski said.
Out from under a tax burden
The law Christie signed is desirable to towns in Hudson and Bergen counties in the Meadowlands region because it replaces a 40-year tax burden they consider unfair. Decades ago, when the Meadowlands Commission was formed to regulate development of the Hackensack River wetlands, some towns were allowed to continue development and build a large property tax revenue base, while other towns lost large tracts of land from their tax rolls.
The towns allowed to develop have been forced to pay millions in property tax revenues into a tax sharing pool to compensate towns not allowed to develop.
Under the new commission, that formula would be scrapped and revenue would come instead from money generated by sports and other programs, including a new 3 percent tax on all hotels within the 14 towns currently overseen by the Meadowlands Commission. Seven of those towns are in Hudson County, seven in Bergen County. Any excess funds generated by the new tax would go into promoting tourism in the region.
“North Bergen’s payment [to the tax formula] would have gone way up this year,” Swibinski said.
“Hotels in the Meadowlands District have a high occupancy rate and are less expensive than those in New York, so this will have a minimum effect on cost to guests,” Swibinski said.
This would not affect the existing municipal hotel tax, but would be in addition to it.
The DEP has been looking for ways to use the park such as for concerts and other events.
“These would be to utilize the grounds but not change them and not harm them in anyway,” Swibinski said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.