NJ Transit and its developer LCOR will be permitted to build up to 2.3 million square feet of new mixed-use development, with the highest buildings up to 24 stories or 330 feet, under the final draft of the city’s proposal for the Hoboken Yards Redevelopment Area.
The plan covers 36 acres of railyards and land owned by NJ Transit near the Erie Lackawanna Terminal along the city’s southern border with Jersey City.
After years of negotiations between the transit agency and the city, the proposal was released by the city to the public Tuesday, Oct. 28. It must be approved by the Hoboken Planning Board and the City Council.
NJ Transit has sought for years to build on underutilized land in Hoboken’s southeastern rail yards, which are owned by the state but also fall under a 2006 city designation as an area in need of redevelopment. In 2008, NJ Transit and the administration of Mayor David Roberts produced a joint plan for Hoboken Yards that called for 9.2 million square feet of new space, including a 70-story office tower and a 50-story residential tower.
This proposed development was projected to add 7,300 residents to a city of approximately 50,000. At the time, Roberts argued that Hoboken should benefit from the tax windfall from tall buildings that would otherwise go to neighboring Newport in Jersey City, which has no height restrictions.
However, concerned residents and public officials, including Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who was then the 4th Ward councilwoman, spoke out strongly against the plan’s size and density, and it ultimately did not move forward.
In 2012, both the city and NJ Transit produced separate but similarly scaled-down draft plans for the rail yards. NJ Transit’s plan called for a 27-story office tower and 1,155 residential units, while the city’s plan called for a 19-story office tower and 475 residential units.
But a month after the 2012 plan was finalized, Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Hoboken and caused massive flooding.
The 108-page final draft released on Tuesday is based on Hoboken’s 2012 plan, with revisions shaped by outreach to various stakeholders and taking into consideration the dangers of a 100-year flood like the one triggered by Sandy.
The right mix?
The city focused on a number of key factors to lay out the contours for new construction. One focus, according Councilman-at-large David Mello, the chairman of the council subcommittee that helped to produce the report, was to get the right mix of uses.
The new plan dictates that development in the Hoboken Yards zone be 68 percent office, 25 percent residential, and 7 percent retail. In comparison, the initial 2008 Hoboken/NJ Transit plan called for 47 percent office, 46 percent residential, and eight percent retail.
If the developer had no clear guidelines, said Mello, the Hoboken Yards might have been entirely one and two-bedroom apartments, perpetuating the conception of Hoboken as a bedroom community for Manhattan commuters.
Mayor Zimmer says the Hoboken Yards Redevelopment Plan will be presented to the City Council on Nov. 5 as an ordinance for first reading.
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The Hoboken Yards Redevelopment Plan mandates that 20 percent of the residential units built under its jurisdiction be three-bedroom apartments, something coveted by families in town. Of these units, half must have at least 1,500 square feet of net floor area and half must have at least 1,800 square feet. In addition, 10 percent of the residential units must be affordable housing.
If NJ Transit achieves LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and demonstrates “significant architectural creativity to reduce negative impacts to light and air,” the transit system will be allowed to add two additional stories on the three tallest office buildings in the project.
According to Director of Community Development Brandy Forbes, NJ Transit would have to show the city its application to the U.S. Green Building Council and a checklist of green improvements during the redevelopment negotiation process in order to get its extra stories.
What Hoboken gets
One area that would receive significant renovations under the city’s plan is Hudson Place, the street that passes alongside the Hoboken Terminal between Hudson Street and Sinatra Drive. Zimmer said the street is currently “like the wild West,” with pedestrians, buses, bicyclists, and taxis all jockeying for position. The atmosphere, said Zimmer, is not what the city wants to project for the gateway through which thousands of people enter the city every day.
Under the new plan, the section of Hudson Place that currently serves as the taxi stand for the Hoboken Terminal would become, at least partially, a pedestrian plaza. The current parking lot east of Hudson Place would be converted into additional open space.
Though closed off to cars, this new plaza would include the eastern end of a bicycle path the city hopes to build along Observer Highway, and potentially a path through which NJ Transit buses can exit their terminal onto River Street. Zimmer made clear that NJ Transit has the final say on what is feasible for its buses, but suggested that there was already a consensus to expand a pedestrian plaza in the area.
In addition, the city’s plan requires that NJ Transit make a contribution to Hoboken’s open space fund, which Zimmer said the city would use to fund additional acreage for its proposed Southwest Park. The first portion of the planned park was acquired earlier this year.
Getting to yes
In hopes of building a coalition of support for its plan, the city of Hoboken has held three years of meetings with the public, specially created focus groups, NJ Transit, and LCOR.
Nobody, including NJ Transit, is still trying to build a project as large as the one proposed in 2008. Still, questions remain about how much development and what mix of residential and commercial real estate is necessary in order to make the multi-million dollar project feasible for NJ Transit.
For its part, the city hired Freeman/Frazier & Associates to conduct an economic analysis. The analysis said the plan laid out this past week is feasible.
In response to a request for comment, a public relations representative for LCOR said the firm is “encouraged to see the administration and City Council advancing a redevelopment plan for the Hoboken Terminal and Rail Yard, and we look forward to future productive conversations as plans are finalized and implemented.”
The new plan may have impressed Zimmer, but it is not yet known whether it is scaled down enough to satisfy local development watchdog groups.
On Thursday, Hoboken Rail Yards Task Force member Terry Pranses sent a letter to Zimmer and the City Council that questions, among other things, the maximum potential building height allowed under the plan. Pranses noted the tallest building could potentially top the W Hotel, which stands at around 280 feet tall.
Mello emphasized that the Hoboken Yards plan looks at development holistically, with limits on height and density and mandated lot setbacks. If height was the only limitation enforced on developers, said Mello, all new buildings in would be bulky boxes that completely filled their lots to maximize space.
In addition, said Mello, none of the buildings allowed in the new Hoboken Yards plan would have a larger square footage than the largest buildings currently in existence on the south waterfront, like the Waterfront Corporate Centers.
Next steps
According to Mayor Zimmer, the Hoboken Yards Redevelopment Plan will be presented to the City Council at its next meeting on Nov. 5 as an ordinance to be introduced. Then, the council will vote on a resolution to send the plan to the Planning Board. If this resolution is affirmed, the Planning Board will then hold a hearing, followed by its own vote on the Hoboken Yards plan.
If the Planning Board recommends the proposal for approval, it would return to the City Council, which would have its own hearing, then vote on whether to enact the ordinance.
If approved, the plan would serve as the framework for negotiations between the city, NJ Transit, and LCOR over a redevelopment agreement, which would establish exactly what the developer can build on the Hoboken Yards.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.