Hoboken Mayoral Candidate Beth Mason said today that reports by Acting Mayor and Council President Dawn Zimmer had succeeded in getting a potentially damaging bill withdrawn from the state legislature were: “either purposely misleading or are a demonstration of Ms. Zimmer’s naïveté when it comes to dealing with Trenton powerbrokers.”
The bill would give NJ Transit more rights to develop what they want in the towns they serve. In Hoboken, that could mean a massive development that NJT has slated for the city’s southern border, near the train station. Many Hoboken residents have said the project is out of scale for the city. If a pending bill passes in the state legislature, the city will have less control over the project.
“If Dawn Zimmer thinks she can derail a bill of this magnitude by simply talking to a state Senator, she probably also believes in the Tooth Fairy,” said Mason.
Mason said she will mobilize statewide opposition to the state legislation, which would give NJ Transit the power to supersede municipal zoning laws.
Mason said the bill would pave the way for massive, high density, high rise development in Hoboken and other communities in which NJ Transit owns property.
The bill, S2972, is sponsored by State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36).