From the moment Mayor Dawn Zimmer called a special meeting to vote on a resolution issuing bonds for a wet weather pump station in northeast Hoboken this past Monday, the event appeared destined to become the earliest showdown of the 2015 election cycle, as six City Council ward seats are up for grabs in November.
The meeting had been triggered after two Zimmer opponents, Councilwomen Beth Mason and Theresa Castellano, voted to block one of the cornerstones of the Mayor’s flood prevention blueprint on Feb. 18, reversing their earlier votes on the project. Zimmer’s allies quickly issued press releases condemning the duo for “provid[ing] lip service…when it comes to flooding solutions.”
In the end, Monday’s special meeting did provide its fair share of political intrigue.
Rumored council challengers rose to criticize their would-be opponents, current council members sniped among themselves, and one angry resident was escorted out by police.
But despite the controversial context, the vast majority of parties seemed to get what they wanted Monday. The bond resolution for the flood pump passed by a vote of 7 to 2, satisfying Zimmer and her allies, the North Hudson Sewerage Authority (NHSA) that will build and operate the pump, and the rain-soaked northwest Hoboken residents the pump will ostensibly help.
Although the pump is set to relieve flooding in low-lying northwestern Hoboken, the apparatus will be placed in the northeast part of town near the river, and that upset some residents who live along 11th Street in the Maxwell Place condo complex.
Residents there — whose concerns about safety and cost Mason and Castellano cited as the basis for their vote flip — got a nearly three hour public hearing with clear answers to their remaining questions.
Residents who wanted the pump moved to a new location were undoubtedly disappointed, but the assurances given Monday were enough to convince Councilwoman Castellano to now vote in favor of the pump. Mason maintained her negative vote and was joined in opposition by Councilman Michael Russo.
What lies beneath
The paramount concern of the 10 Maxwell Place residents who spoke on Monday was which potential contaminants lay in the ground where the flood pump would be built.
In a 2011 deed restriction for the streets surrounding Maxwell Place approved by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), the areas of Eleventh Street where NHSA has indicated it will build its pump station and electrical vault were not indicated to contain any known contaminants. However, nearby areas of Eleventh Street contain known levels of nickel, lead, PCBs, volatile organic compounds, and industrial solvent trichloroethylene beneath a layer of clean fill.
These chemicals and heavy metals are remnants from the Maxwell House coffee plant that once operated on the site.
Richard Wolff, the executive director of the NHSA, emphasized last week that his contractors could not even break ground before a Licensed Site Remediation Professional was appointed and developed a detailed plan, which itself had to be approved by NJDEP.
As for the actual construction, NHSA engineer Fredric Pocci said potential air contamination could be controlled by hosing down the worksite while digging or cutting to prevent dust from escaping.
Although NJDEP does not require air quality testing for the planned site of construction, the NHSA agreed to conduct tests in its shared services agreement with the city, and Wolff said Monday he was open to making the readings available to the public.
An equally important question was who would be legally liable and financially responsible for the remediation of any contaminants found in the site. From its construction until Jan. 29 of this year, 11th Street between Hudson Place and Frank Sinatra Drive North was owned by Toll Brothers, the developer of Maxwell Place, then the Maxwell Place Home Owners Association. That’s because it was built by Toll Brothers as part of a massive planned unit development.
After the NHSA held a meeting with the Maxwell residents in November to request an easement for the street, Wolff said the Maxwell Place Board of Trustees decided in December not to grant an easement.
In January, the NHSA filed to take the street through eminent domain, offering $523,000 for the land. Though the Authority received the easement on Jan. 29, its lawyers are in ongoing negotiations with the Maxwell HOA’s lawyers over what the final price will be and who will be responsible for any clean-up.
Tina Hahn and Tamara Robinson, two members of the Maxwell Place Board of Trustees, said Monday that the board should not be liable for paying any costs triggered by remediation, and all of the City Council members who spoke on the issue agreed.
Wolff explained that the assessed value of the easement ultimately determined by the eminent domain process would be used to pay for any remediation necessary, and said he had instructed his lawyers to tell Maxwell’s lawyers that they were open to capping the HOA’s liability at the amount of the easement cost.
Along with other council members, Councilman James Doyle said he would support the city stepping in to cover any remediation costs above the level of the easement price, should a liability cap for the Maxwell HOA not result from negotiations.
“They stepped up for us; we should step up for them,” he said.
Managing the perception game
Many people, including some of Zimmer’s allies on the City Council, said the public outreach regarding this project was inadequate and abbreviated.
Despite receiving preliminary authorization from the City Council to apply for a state-sponsored loan for the flood pump in March 2014, the Zimmer administration and the NHSA did not realize that the section of Eleventh Street they planned to build the pump underneath was owned by the Maxwell Place Homeowners’ Association until August, and did not hold a meeting with the HOA until November.
As late as Monday, the city was still being corrected on the legal status of the street. Hahn and Robinson pointed out that an FAQ released by Zimmer inaccurately stated that the city paid for street cleaning and snow plowing on the relevant section of Eleventh Street.
Several of the Maxwell Place residents who spoke on Monday expressed disappointment with what they described as a cursory outreach by the city and Sewerage Authority.
“We haven’t had enough time to ask questions, to really understand why the placement is where it is,” said Maxwell resident Jennifer O’Neill. “You did an entire study on the traffic flow on Frank Sinatra [Drive] and you allowed people to comment. Why are we not getting that same chance?”
Councilman Doyle later sought to show a difference between discussion over the Eleventh Street pump, which would not be feasible in another location, and public meetings over street redesigns or new parks.
“When you’re talking about whether we have oak trees or maple trees in a park and/or a dog run here versus there, those are aesthetic things that we have choices [over],” he said.
Still, Tamara Robinson, the Maxwell board member, warned the council that “unmanaged perception becomes reality.”
“People perceive, and rightfully so,” she said, “that because there was no dialogue earlier on in the process, that this decision that was made…to move forward with placing the pump in Maxwell Place was the poorest decision that could be made.”
Councilman David Mello, a Zimmer ally, echoed Robinson, criticizing the city and NHSA for what he called a “tremendous failure to communicate.”
“I’m very disappointed with how this has gone down,” said Mello. “Whether this is voted down or up, that communication has to be increased going forward.”
On Monday, NHSA Executive Director Wolff said he was proud of the amount of public information about the pump his organization had shared on its website, and was happy to provide frequent updates to Maxwell Place residents once construction got underway.
In an interview on Tuesday, Wolff said he wished he had started reaching out to Maxwell Place residents earlier. Still, he doubted that even the most robust process would have satisfied all of Maxwell’s residents.
“We’ve been asked the same questions multiple, multiple times,” said Wolff, “we’ve been answering questions about the location since August, and our answers haven’t changed. Some people just don’t want it there, and we’re never going to give them an acceptable answer.”
Asked if she regretted not starting the outreach to Maxwell Place sooner, Zimmer said she was comfortable with the level of responsiveness her administration had displayed regarding the Maxwell Place residents.
Zimmer emphasized that the air testing requirement included in the city’s shared services agreement with the NHSA went above and beyond what the DEP mandates.
In light of the robust discussion over the pump on Monday, Castellano stood by her negative vote on Feb. 18, even as she reversed her position this past Monday.
“If it brought out this much discussion and it brought out this much information, it was the right vote to take,” she said.
Councilman Tim Occhipinti appeared to indicate on Monday that had he been at the previous council meeting, he would have been the sixth vote needed to pass the bond resolution.
“I am 100 percent serious about ending flooding in this city,” said Occhipinti. “The residents on the western edge of this city have to wade through God knows what when it rains during a summer rain storm at high tide…We can’t allow that to continue. That’s why this vote is, for me, it’s an easy one.”
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.