The Stevens Institute of Technology’s new 436-space garage, to be located near Sinatra Drive facing the waterfront, is designed to blend in with the rocky area and the Hudson River.
Initial construction of the Babbio Center actually got started in the winter of 2002-2003 after Stevens received zoning board approval. Although the Babbio Center was complete in fall 2005, the garage portion was stalled shortly afterward due to “legal challenges.” The school did finish 144 of the parking spots. After receiving preliminary approval for the newer version of the project in 2009, Stevens filed an application with the Hoboken Zoning Board of Adjustment this past Sept. 8 to build the first phase of the expanded garage.
If the first phase is approved, the garage will be completed by the first half of 2017, the same year the school plans to have the Academic Gateway Complex on Hudson Street completed, officials said. (Stevens is currently seeking zoning approval on that project too, which will put two four-story buildings containing new classrooms, offices, and labs on Hudson Street.)
“The unfinished state of the garage project has been a sore spot within the community and also for Stevens in the past. We’re really pleased to be able to move forward with this project,” said the Director of Community and State Relations Beth McGrath in an interview last week. “There’s been a long delay but we’re hopeful this will proceed expeditiously.”
The school, which also offers parking lots for its students, will offer the additional 296 spaces to students, staff, faculty, and visitors, thus alleviating spots taken up by those groups and by visitors in the surrounding area.
The school doesn’t plan to make the spots available to Hoboken residents, although the Zoning Board typically asks applicants for givebacks during the process.
Why do they need zoning approval?
The Babbio garage received preliminary approval in 2009, according to officials, but it still needs final approval of the new phasing before it can move forward.
It can sometimes take significant time and money for an applicant to get approval from the city’s Zoning Board, not to mention support from the city’s environmental and other activist groups. School officials said they have already spoken with officials from groups such as the Fund for a Better Waterfront and Quality of Life Coalition, and the Hudson Street Alliance. The latter group was founded to address the Gateway Complex application.
“There’s been a long delay but we’re hopeful this will proceed expeditiously.” – Beth McGrath
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When asked whether Stevens officials were concerned about getting through the zoning process, McGrath said, “It would be naïve to say it’s not a concern. However, we feel we have gone above and beyond to get community input, to share where we are with the process and to seek feedback.”
Richard King, a senior associate with Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC (the architecture firm contracted by Stevens), said community groups raised concerns about access to the waterfront and creating a positive experience for pedestrians.
With these factors in mind, the first phase of the garage will include replacing the old wooden staircase that connects the waterfront to the Sixth Street campus, and adding a bicycle ramp. This phase will cost approximately $12 million and the school will finance the cost by issuing bonds, said Maffia.
The second phase of the project, which has not been drawn out yet, will mainly consist of a “wraparound” building on the garage, thus eliminating the temporary façade. Currently, there is projected to be an approximate five-year gap between the project’s two phases.
“This [project] allows an opportunity for Stevens to manage its own parking needs and complete an unsightly, unfinished structure,” said McGrath.
Other ways to minimize traffic
According to Maffia, Stevens’ various efforts to minimize traffic on campus and the city as a whole have had a radical impact.
“In the past four years, we’ve gotten a 1.2 percent reduction in requests for hand tags [that students need to park on campus], even though our population has increased on campus by 10.2 percent, and that’s encouraging to us because that tells us that our other programs we’re putting in place for alternatives to driving to campus are working,” Maffia said.
Officials noted that students who live in the dorms are not able to get Hoboken resident parking permits unless they are also residents, so they are not taking a lot of street parking. Only students who live off campus can apply for the permits.
Stevens has also instituted new programs such as expanding their shuttle service, which started in 2008, and various routes, including bringing students from Hoboken terminal to the campus. They began offering about 200 rides a day and currently offer 2,000 rides daily via four shuttles, with demand for service increasing. That means students will not have to drive and park as often.
The school has also expanded the number of bicycle spaces on campus to 254 with an additional two racks slated for installation. Students also use Hoboken’s car share program.
Academic complex also awaits approval
When the school first presented their Gateway Complex proposal in February, the Hudson Street Alliance blasted the plan, saying Stevens disregarded the character of the surrounding neighborhood. They prompted the school to reduce the height of the complex by 25 feet, redesign its façade, abandon a pedestrian plaza concept, and relocate a floor’s worth of mechanical equipment underground.
The original proposal included a two-building 90,000 square foot academic complex. The new plan consists of two four-story buildings on the north and south sides of Sixth Street where it meets Hudson Street, connected by a two-story sky bridge.
The school foresees the 10-year strategic plan for the complex as addressing an increase in the student population by 2,000 with 11 new classrooms, 10 labs, and 45 offices.
SIDEBAR:
Garage offers firefighters place to train
Although the Babbio garage is considered in need of an upgrade, Hoboken firefighters have found it a fitting environment to hold training drills.
Spearheaded by Stevens’ fire safety coordinator and a former battalion chief for the Hoboken Fire Department, Daniel Cunning, the idea was brought to the table a year ago and a resolution on the agreement of services was authorized at a City Council meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
According to the director of public relations for the college, Danielle Woodruffe, “The Fire Department often has to conduct their fire training in empty lots because there are not many buildings to do drills in…Stevens is allowing the Fire Department to use two floors (third and fourth) of the Babbio garage for a few hours when they need it to conduct these trainings.”
The situation allows the firefighters to have an ideal setting within town borders. It also allows the department to better familiarize itself with the campus in case of an emergency in the future.
Steven Rodas can be reached at srodas@hudsonreporter.com.