While not everyone agrees that this is the best course of action, everyone who spoke at a five-hour public hearing Wednesday night said that since redevelopment now looks like it is going to happen, the process must be open to everyone from politicians, neighbors, artists, and planning professionals.
With this goal in mind, the City Council unanimously approved an advisory committee with two council members and a yet-to-be-determined number of local residents to advise the council and the city's planners about what the public would like to be built on the properties.
How the story started
For the past seven months, the lynchpin for Mayor David Roberts' $72 million budget has been the sale of the city municipal garage. He needed to sell it to the HCIA, a county agency, and lease it back in order to get $7.9 million in revenue to plug a budget gap.
Along the way, the four-member council minority protested the sale. They argued that selling city assets was a bad idea, and that this was a back-door loan, which could be a violation of state budget statutes against taking out loans to pay operational expenses.
This sale/lease back deal in its original form needed six votes, and Roberts only had five. So he had to look for alternative methods to sell the garage.
One of these alternative proposals was to "up-zone" the garage neighborhood to make it residential, which would make it more attractive and lucrative when sold to developers.
But according to the city's Director of Community Development Fred Bado, to get around spot zoning issues, the up-zoning would also have to include the Neumann Leather building, which is across the street.
But would it really? That matter, among others, generated some controversy Wednesday night.
Artists' building
The maze-like Neumann Leather Building, which is almost 150 years old, is a vibrant relic of Hoboken's industrial past. In the nooks and crannies, more than 100 artisans, web designers, and small business owners crank away. The building is about 95 percent occupied.
One of the occupants is even a member of the family of Hoboken-born crooner Frank Sinatra, and the Sinatra family placed an ad in the Reporter last week urging city officials not to put the building in jeopardy.
The proposed up-zoning would have allowed for 14-story residential buildings in the neighborhood. That would be an incentive for the owner of Neumann Leather to sell it to a developer and reap the big rewards.
As soon as this "Plan B" was first announced, the artists and tenants of Neumann and the surrounding neighbors mobilized and protested, saying there were enough tall residential buildings in Hoboken already - but not enough artists remaining.
Roberts reacts with redevelopment
Reacting to the public outcry, Roberts proposed placing the Neumann Leather Building and the Municipal garage into official redevelopment areas.
Redevelopment, by state law, is a zoning term that means there is an area within the municipality that is not being used to its full potential. Designating a redevelopment site can allow special zoning. It can also mean letting the designated developer(s) get tax abatements or make special in-lieu-of-tax payments to the city.
The advantage to redevelopment is that it puts a large amount of power in the purview of the city's governing body, which in Hoboken's case is the City Council. This means the City Council pools a large area of property together, even if the land is owned by multiple private owners, and then zones the property as they wish.
They can also use eminent domain to take over certain properties if they need to.
According to Roberts, through redevelopment, the city can also place conditions on new developers, like asking for parks or affordable housing - or in this case, requiring that the developer preserve the building's current mix of uses.
"By creating a redevelopment plan for the Neumann Leather building, we will have as much time as we need to properly zone and properly come up with a redevelopment plan that protects the artists, artisans and architecture of that building," Roberts said Monday.
Roberts added by using redevelopment plan, the city is now able to take the up-zoning proposal is "now off the table."
At Thursday's council meeting, by a 9-0 vote, the council voted down the up-zoning ordinance for the municipal garage and Neumann Leather.
Council starts redevelopment
On Monday, the City Council had authorized the Planning Board to conduct a preliminary investigation into the possibility of redeveloping the Neumann Leather Building property. That vote was 5 to 4, with the council members who normally support Roberts voting in the affirmative.
Thursday morning, Roberts criticized the council minority for voting against starting the redevelopment process. "I don't know how you protect the artist by voting no to creating a redevelopment study area for Neumann Leather building," Roberts said. He said that with the current anarchic industrial zoning, the artists are in much more jeopardy of being evicted than with a redevelopment plan.
He added that his opposition has a strategy to "to create a train wreck" in order to further their political ambitions.
Members of the minority said they didn't vote to start the redevelopment development process, because it is a resolution that's being rushed through for the wrong reasons.
They said that major planning and zoning decisions should not be motivated by budgetary problems. They added the redevelopment might be the right way to go, but it needs to be better thought out than this plan.
For the garage property
Then, on Wednesday, the City Council dusted off a 1988 redevelopment plan which at one time included the municipal garage property. The council voted to reinsert that property into that redevelopment plan. One advantage to this is that the land has already been blighted, which is one of the first steps of redevelopment planning.
The city's planner will now make recommendation about how the 1988 redevelopment plan could be amended. This vote also fell along Roberts/anti-Roberts lines.
This means that the Neumann Leather and municipal garage are now in separate, but adjoining redevelopment areas.
A political strategy?
The uncovering of a 1988 redevelopment plan that included the municipal garage does bring up some interesting questions.
Were the artists dragged in for no real reason? This is what the council minority was asking Wednesday night. It seemed that from the beginning, the garage could have been in a separate zone.
The council minority argued that the administration just wanted to sell the garage. When they couldn't get the six votes to go the HCIA route, the administration proposed the up-zoning of the garage property and Neumann Leather together.
The administration said their reason for including the Neumann Leather building in the up-zoning was that they needed to get around spot zoning problems. But if a 1988 redevelopment plan existed all along, couldn't the council just have amended that plan in the first place, and leave the Neumann Leather building out of the discussion?
"There was absolutely no reason to ever bring the Neumann Leather building into this discussion," Councilman Tony Soares said.
Councilman Michael Russo later added that this was just a calculated political strategy by Roberts' administration to whip up the artists into a frenzy.
Bado completely denied Thursday that it was the administration's intention to purposely "open a can of worms" and incite the artists of the Neumann Leather building. He added that, simply, at the time the administration felt the up-zoning idea was the best way around a spot zoning problem, and that was the only reason why Neumann Leather Building was included.
He added that as soon as the artists spoke out against the rezoning, the administration realized that it was an unacceptable alternative and are now happy to take it off the table.
"It was never our intention to upset the artists," Bado said.
Sooner or later
Roberts, however, noted that the Neumann Leather building could have been sold by the owner sooner or later anyway, and at some point, it would have been necessary to take steps to protect it. It is in a choice area not far from the PATH station.
"Only through redevelopment planning, which will take some time, will we be able to figure out what would be best," he said. "But what we do know is that these artists are now better protected than they were a couple of weeks ago."
Roberts added that he is committed to collecting the public's input as to what they suggest should be developed. Some said that Roberts created the emergency, so he really shouldn't be seen as the savior of the Neumann Leather building. According to the council minority, Roberts' pursuit to fill a budget gap drove him to propose this up-zoning alternative.
"The mayor can't endanger these artists in first place, and then step in and be their savior," Marsh said. Leah Healey, a Hoboken resident and a lawyer who specializes in redevelopment law, said that redevelopment might be, in the future, the way to go, but now the city is being overly hasty and entering into the redevelopment process for the wrong reasons.
Some support from artists' group
Tom Newman, a former Hoboken 1st Ward councilman who operates a woodworking and cabinet making studio in the building, last year founded a lobbying group called the Hoboken Arts and Industry Preservation Project (HAIPP) with the goal of protecting and sustaining Hoboken's diminishing "arts and industry" community. Newman said Monday night that creating a redevelopment plan is the best way to protect the artists. If the archaic industrial zoning is left in place, eventually a developer is going to try and buy the property and aggressively pursue variances before the city's Zoning Board of Adjustments, he said.
By pursuing redevelopment, he said, the city can pick and choose how it wants the property developed. "The city should be proactive," said Newman. "We do believe that going down the redevelopment zone route is in our best interests in the long run."
But he added that it is imperative that the tenants of the Leather building be included in the debate about what the development plan will include.
"Right now there's a spotlight on this project," he said.
Neighbors drawn out
The Wallace School auditorium drew about 100 audience members for the meeting Wednesday.
Carlos Figueiredo of 415 Newark St. said that he doesn't support rushing into a redevelopment plan.
"This shouldn't be done so quickly, and not in such dire times, before an election," said Figueiredo, who was one of about a dozen 415 Newark residents that spoke at the meeting.
Figueiredo added that now that the redevelopment process has started, it is imperative that area neighbors are part of the discussion.
"Now it's time for us to be involved so that we have a voice," he said. "We have to have a seat at the table." Councilman Russo and 1st Ward Councilwoman Theresa Castellano presented a resolution that would create an advisory committee to be filled by two council members, and at least two members of the public, but likely many more. The resolution had the full support of the council.
City Council President Richard Del Boccio and Castellano will be the council liaisons on the advisory board.
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