HOBOKEN – The controversial proposed Monarch at Shipyard development will be heard before the Hudson County Planning Board on Jan. 18 at 6:30 p.m.
The meeting will be held at the Freeholder Chambers at 167 Pavonia Ave. in Jersey City on the third floor.
Ironstate Development wants to erect two 11-story residential towers just east of the Hudson Tea Building at 15th and Hudson streets. Ironstate, a division of Applied Development in Hoboken, owns the property. The project has raised concerns of Hudson Tea Building residents who could lose sight of the Manhattan skyline, and of open space activists, who point out that the city’s master plan calls for the area to be used for open space. The buildings would be constructed on inland piers.
The project has to go before the county Planning Board because a portion of the project is on county property.
The Hoboken City Council, Mayor Dawn Zimmer, and other officials have opposed the project for months. In response, an attorney for Ironstate Development wrote a letter to Hoboken’s Planning Board on Dec. 22 complaining that city officials have prejudged the company’s project. The mayor and her designee have recused themselves from formal discussions on the project, and did so before the letter was delivered. Zimmer said in an interview earlier this month that despite her and the council’s statements, she “trusts that the Planning Board will do an independent evaluation.”
The Hoboken City Planning Board is expected to address the Monarch Project on Feb. 7, according to an email from the Hoboken Residents for a Public Waterfront, but the date is not yet final.
For more on this issue, see the links below. – Ray Smith