After losing their latest attempt to stop a high-rise development they say will block their views and reduce their property values, the Bergen Ridge Homeowners Association has asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to hear their case.
Last month, the homeowners of Bergen Ridge, a development built more than a decade ago into the Palisades cliffs, lost their latest battle in their four-year effort to stop construction of three luxury towers they say will block their river view. They plan to appeal.
The homeowners had a trial-like hearing to stop the developers, Riverview Development LLC, from getting a state Department of Environmental Protection waterfront development permit. The judges on the State DEP appellate panel ruled that the homeowners’ right to a skyline view was not constitutionally protected, according to court documents.
The DEP panel decided they had no specific right to their waterfront view.
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As planned, Riverview Development, LLC will sit on several vacant lots that were purchased from the town of North Bergen in 2005. They plan to invest $200 million for 34 townhouses and three 95-foot high residential towers, which they say will raise property values for North Bergen and generate $5.5 million in property tax revenues for the township’s coffers.
Drawing the line
The appellate panel ruled that the Bergen Ridge Home Owner Association’s case had issues due to “line-drawing.”
“To trigger a hearing right, is it enough that a unit owner’s view of the New York City skyline and the Hudson River is only partially blocked?” they asked.
They continued, “Blocked from a unit’s bay window in the family room but not from a side window in the dining room? Blocked as to lower Manhattan but not as to Midtown? Blocked for a person under six feet tall but not as to a taller person? The possibilities are endless.”
Bergen Ridge Homeowner’s Association Attorney John Lamb said that last Friday they filed a petition for certification to request the New Jersey Supreme Court to take up the case.
He said that if their views are blocked, homeowners may lose 20 to 25 percent of their properties’ value. According to one website, a Bergen Ridge home sold in October for $750,000, while a more recent listing was $689,000.
“This is a quality of life issue,” said Lamb. “I think they are committed to taking all responsible steps necessary not to allow overdevelopment to ruin their views and have a project that really hurts their property values.”
Residents had wanted a park
This is not the first time the Bergen Ridge Homeowners Association has been thwarted in their attempt to stop the development.
Early on, the Bergen Ridge Association filed suit to try and stop the township from selling the parcels, claiming the sale had not been properly completed. While an appellate panel agreed with them, they let the development proceed, stating that the developer had already put a considerable amount of funds into the project.
More than two years ago, the homeowners told the North Bergen Planning Board the waterfront land had been designated for open space and/or public parks more than 20 years ago by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Lamb said that in the 1980s, the state began to utilize foreclosure proceedings so that they could use the area as a park and that for “some unexplained reason they never finished foreclosure action.” He said that the Hudson County Master Plan also has the area listed as open space.
Lamb said that they are not taking the position that the space should be a park, but that the developer should build something on a smaller scale.
Continuing to fight
Representatives from the Hudson-Meadowlands Sierra Club Charter have also argued that the average family should have more access to the waterfront and that they would continue to fight for the land.
For Alice Hennigar, a resident of Bergen Ridge who rents her unit, she said that the view is one of the main reasons people live there.
“I don’t think that it is fair,” said Hennigar. “They buy these homes with a reasonable expectation that they’re not going to be boxed in. [Riverview] will have the view, but we’ll lose ours.”
A few months ago, members of the Sierra Club spoke out against the high-rise development and brought a rendering of a prospective park drawn by a North Bergen resident to the township commissioners.
Mayor Nicholas Sacco said that the proposed development site was now valued at around $21 million and that the township would not buy the parcel back. He said they were looking into creating a small waterfront park.
“I am hopeful that my client will be able to use his property consistent with the local zoning,” said Riverview Development attorney Scott Rekant.
Many attempts
According to court documents, Bergen Ridge sought a hearing from the DEP in January 2007, arguing that the agency had not made “adequate factual findings (or any factual findings) that address the evidence presented by [Bergen Ridge],” which included that their views were “protected” and that more traffic in the area would be detrimental, according to court documents. The panel concluded then that they either needed a “statutory right to a hearing or a constitutionally protected property interest affected by the permit,” which they concluded the Bergen Ridge residents did not have.
“We think the law is clear, that because they don’t have a property interest, they are not entitled to a hearing,” said Rekant.
When appeals followed, the DEP panel once again decided on the same grounds that they had no specific right to their waterfront view.
Yet Lamb and the association are not deterred. He said that through his research, he discovered that one lot on the property is not owned by the developer, but by the county. He said that this caused the Hudson County Planning Board to dismiss their first application and that now the case is playing out in court. Rekant said he would look into that issue but did not have a response in time for publication.
Tricia Tirella may be reached at TriciaT@hudsonreporter.com.