Known in the 1800s as the capital of the American oil industry, Bayonne saw the flight of many companies to other parts of the country or even out of the country over the last few decades. This not only left a vacuum of employment as many jobs vanished, but also left huge tracts of land that the companies seemed to have forgotten about.
"You can understand, with huge corporations like Chevron Texaco [owning] so many properties around the world, how a tract here in Bayonne might be forgotten," Lo Re said recently. "But for us here in Bayonne, it is a huge problem, because we see it as a valuable piece of real estate in one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. And it is lying fallow."
Pleas for the company to either redevelop the property - which once held scores of fuel tanks - or sell it fell on deaf ears.
Lo Re likened the requests to letters lost on some high level corporate officer's desk, insignificant to a company that has global concerns to worry about.
City Planner John Fussa - who was recently authorized to begin work on two additional redevelopment sites, one for the Route 440 corridor and another for the section of Town Center between 19th and 21st streets - was asked to create a redevelopment plan for the Texaco site, said Councilman and Planning Board Member Ted Connolly. "We don't want to use eminent domain," Connolly said during one interview. "We would much rather have the property owner come to us with a plan. But Texaco was vacant for so long and we could not get the company to pay attention to us. We had to do something that would get their attention. And we did."
Connolly said the property had lain dormant for more than a decade, so the city had to respond.
"We tried to reach out to them again and again, but got no response," he said. "Finally, when we declared it as a site for redevelopment, the company came up with some plans."
Would rezone
By declaring the Texaco site a redevelopment zone earlier this year, the city forced Chevron Texaco to come up with a plan of its own. Whether or not the company will proceed with a plan has yet to be determined.
Connolly said Chevron Texaco hired Kaplan Industries about six months ago to formulate a redevelopment plan for the company.
The property has some environmental issues, since it had stored oil for so long, and the cleanup would have to figure into any future plans.
At this point, the 71 acres contain only a few small structures, including a warehouse near First Street. A crumbling pier is situated near the shore line, but has little value.
"Bayonne is unique in that we're a peninsula," Connolly said. "We have water on three sides of the city. In this part of the country, waterfront property is extremely valuable, and to have a piece of property as large as this sitting undeveloped is a problem."
In establishing the new Master Plan in 2000, the city of Bayonne looked to the waterfront as a key means of re-energizing the city's economy by contributing public open space such as a waterfront walkway, new residential and commercial spaces, and recreation facilities.
"To see this land sit unused is a cold slap to our community," Connolly said. City officials hope that the plan that the company intends to present will provide an adequate solution to a negative situation.
Bayonne is a new place
The redevelopment of Bayonne is born out of a City Master Plan passed in 2000, which set forth the city's future development goals. It attempted to take into account the massive changes Bayonne had undergone and to map out a new future based on retail, residential and professional property, rather than the industrial uses that once existed there.
As Fussa pointed out, redevelopment - until the Broadway proposal - had existed only at the fringes of the city. While this is a very positive sign for the city's health, if left without some improvements to the city center, it could have negative consequences - creating an economic ghost town out of the Broadway shopping district as residents shop in the discount big box stores along the highways.
Both Connolly and Lo Re said city officials had hoped for redevelopment to occur without overt actions from the city, but this did not happen, despite changes made to zoning codes in 2000 to encourage it.
The new Master Plan acknowledged the loss of heavy industry and the need to redevelop these former sites for more modern uses, Connolly said.
"Those industries are gone forever," Connolly said. "They are not coming back, and we have to look at property like Texaco's or Standard Tank with the idea of what people need and want. In this part of the country, people in urban areas want to live on or near the water. We are a community that is directly across from New York City, and that makes these properties extremely valuable."
Connolly said Bayonne is looking to model some of these properties after redevelopment done in places like downtown Jersey City, Hoboken, and Elizabeth - although Mayor Joseph Doria has also routinely said any redevelopment would require a significant amount of affordable housing to accommodate people already living and working in this community.
Connolly and Doria have both emphasized the need for light industry or a commercial element in redevelopment plans, clean industries that will provide good paying jobs. Recently, Manhattan Chocolate moved into Bayonne. Connolly said he hoped to see other similar food industries move into places such as the former site of Best Foods on Avenue A and other sites nearby.
For Bayonne, each of the larger properties provides city planners with a chance to build new neighborhoods from the bottom up, designing a landscape of housing, stores, recreational fields and local streets that will meet the needs of future residents.
In designing a community, Connolly said, city officials envisioned neighborhoods where residents would have local markets and other services nearby.
Any redevelopment project will require a study of traffic flows, especially when it connects to other developments like Boat Works and the development of the former bus sites.
City has its own plan
The city has its own conceptual plan for the Texaco site, which also uses two adjoining properties, The Starting Point Bar & Grill and the Williams Industries Warehouse & Moving Company. Fussa said the grill owners have asked to be relocated into the area if and when the city's redevelopment project takes place.
The redevelopment area - which is situated along Newark Bay and the Kill Van Kull - has about 13 parcels accessed at about $13 million. This generates about $600,000 a year in taxes, many times less than what the property would generate if redeveloped.
One of the key advantages to redevelopment would be that it would bring massive flood relief - allowing existing residents relief for the first time.
The city's proposal would include an equal mix of one- and two-family homes as well as two- and three-family attached townhouses. These would be similar to the Boatworks development just up Avenue A from the redevelopment zone.
The zone could also accommodate senior citizen units or assisted living units. Residences would include 10 percent affordable housing units - though half of these could be constructed in another portion of the city or received as a cash contribution to the city's affordable housing trust fund.
The plan would also fit into the city's open space needs and provide a section of the waterfront walkway plans that the city has for Newark Bay.
Concern over underused properties
Forcing private owners to sell their property to the city under "eminent domain" has become controversial. Traditionally, eminent domain was limited to specific projects for specific public uses such as a highway or bridge. But over the last decade, the use has expanded, allowing the government to take over private property when it fails to conform to a higher standard or does not generate enough tax revenue.
Mayor Joe Doria frequently points underutilized pieces of property as wasted potential, and he said that by pushing for development on sites like Texaco, the city and its residents benefit because the value of the land increases, new taxes are gathered, and the property serves a useful function such as providing sites for businesses or housing.
The Supreme Court is considering a ruling on whether it will be constitutional to declare eminent domain on a property just to aid a city's tax base. Abuses in Atlantic County as well as elsewhere in the state have seen eminent domain used to take property for specific redevelopment such as the creation of townhouses benefiting particular developers.
There may not be as much controversy over the properties along the Route 440 corridor and at the Texaco site. More controversial is the redevelopment proposed for the section near Broadway, which could displace existing residential properties as well as businesses. Area residents have been awaiting word on the next phase of the city's plans.
Contact Al Sullivan at: asullivan@hudsonreporter.com
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