BREAKING: Monarch development hearing moves to Hoboken; will be held Oct. 28

HOBOKEN—This coming Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 6 p.m., the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders will meet to decide whether to allow a controversial plan to build residential towers on a pier in northern Hoboken to go forward.
Instead of its typical home in Administration Building Annex in Jersey City, the board will meet in the gymnasium of Wallace Elementary School at 1100 Willow Avenue in Hoboken, according to the Freeholders’ Clerk’s office.
Shipyard Associates LP is required to secure approval at the city, county, and state level before it can move ahead with a development featuring two 11-story towers on the empty pier adjacent to Weehawken Cove and Fifteenth Street. The project has seen significant public opposition, particularly after the developers elected to place a second building where they had previously agreed to build tennis courts.
In 2012, the Hudson County Planning Board rejected Shipyard Associates’ application. The firm appealed the decision in Hudson County Superior Court, which remanded the appeal to the Board of Freeholders in July.
The freeholders’ hearing on the Monarch appeal was originally scheduled for Sept. 23, but was postponed after the board could not muster a quorum.
Though the upcoming meeting will be held in Hoboken, Anthony Romano, the freeholder who represents Hoboken and Jersey City Heights, will not attend or vote. Along with Freeholder Doreen DiDomenico, Romano has recused himself due to his position as a current member of the Planning Board.
2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason had pressed for the move to Hoboken, speaking about it at the county freeholder meeting.
The proposed development, known as the Monarch at Shipyard, needs county approval because it abuts county roads and sewers. According to the Fund for a Better Waterfront, an activist group that has been involved in several Monarch-related court cases, Planning Board commissioners at the 2012 hearing questioned why Shipyard had classified the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway as a street.