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Stevens plan would add turning lanes and provide overly wide vehicular lanes that encourage speeding traffic. The latest Stevens Institute scheme also maintains Sinatra Drive as a speedway around Castle Point. (January 2010) The Hoboken Zoning Board has had a long history of usurping the authority of the City Council by granting numerous exceptions to the municipal zoning ordinance. One [...]

Stevens Institutes proposal for Fifth Street to zigzag through their property. (September 16, 2009) Stevens Institute’s latest waterfront garage proposal is fraught with problems. They are proposing to reroute a public street through their property so that it leads to the entrance of their parking garage. They are adding turning lanes and preserving an overly wide Sinatra Drive thus ensuring [...]

Stevens Institutes surface parking on prime waterfront land between Sinatra and Castle Point Park. (April 8, 2009) “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” So said famous architect and urban planner Daniel H. Burnham. His words aptly pertain to the latest waterfront scheme proposed by Stevens Institute of [...]

Photograph of site viewed from Sinatra Park looking west shows plans for garage (superimposed on image) approved by Zoning Board. Babbio Center above right, (November 8, 2007) In a dramatic reversal, Stevens Institute of Technology publicly unveiled a revamped waterfront parking garage proposal at last night’s Hoboken City Council meeting. Instead of a bleak parking structure facing Hoboken’s waterfront, Stevens [...]

Stevens excavation site in April 2002 making way for massive waterfront parking garage. Operation sent asbestos from serpentine rock into the air. (July 2007) Today, a three-judge panel of the Appellate Division of New Jersey Superior Court affirmed major portions of the trial court’s dismissal of claims by Stevens Institute of Technology that statements and actions by a local advocacy [...]

Massive parking garages on Hudson St. serve to deaden the streetscape and contradict Hoboken’s scale. Stevens’ proposed garage would have a similar impact on Hoboken’s waterfront. (March 2006) On May 17, 2005, Appellate Court Judges Howard Kestin and Steven Lefelt heard oral arguments in the case of Township of North Brunswick vs. North Brunswick Board of Adjustment. A month later [...]

(October 2005) In June 2005, the New Jersey Appellate Court upheld a challenge by the Township of North Brunswick to multiple variances for height, density and use granted by its own Zoning Board for a luxury apartment complex. The Court reversed the Zoning Board approvals stating, “The Board’s action . . . blatantly rejected the Township’s zoning plan and improperly [...]

Date: Friday, May 13, 2005 Time: 1:30 P.M. Place: The Brennan Court House, 583 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, New Jersey The Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) and Stevens Institute of Technology are back in court again. On Friday, Superior Court Judge Hector Velazquez will listen to arguments from FBW’s attorney, Michael Garofalo, that the 18 variances granted by the [...]

FBW Board with family and friends celebrating court victory at Quays on Hoboken’s waterfront (February 15, 2005) Critics of real estate development breathed a sigh of relief on February 9, 2005 when New Jersey Superior Court Judge Frederick Theemling threw out the final count of a two-year old case against the nonprofit organization, Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW). Throughout [...]

(October 2004) For the past three years, the Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW), a local advocacy group, has locked horns with Stevens Institute of Technology over its waterfront development proposals and excavation of asbestos-containing rock on the campus. The conflict continued last week as FBW appealed the Hoboken Zoning Board’s approval of a massive 725-car parking garage for Stevens [...]

Excavation site in April 2002, where 35,000 tons of serpentine rock containing asbestos was blasted and carted away by Stevens. First Amendment right to engage in public debate upheld; but one count “of last resort” remains July 21, 2004 Yesterday, Judge Camille Kenny of New Jersey Superior Court dismissed the defamation count in a lawsuit brought by Stevens Institute of [...]

Excavation site in April 2002, where 35,000 tons of serpentine rock containing asbestos was blasted and carted away by Stevens. (July 2004) On June 30, Judge Camille Kenny of New Jersey Superior Court heard oral arguments regarding a series of alleged defamatory statements in the case of Stevens Institute v. Hine. After 18 months of contentious litigation, the Judge considered [...]

JERSEY JOURNAL — by Michaelangelo Conte (June 23, 2004) HOBOKEN – Fund for a Better Waterfront officials are backing a city zoning official’s decision to “shut down” construction of a Stevens Institute of Technology construction project. “It is our position that zoning officer Joel Mestre’s determination was correct, and should be sustained,” stated the letter issued by FBW attorney Stuart [...]

Land use attorney Michael Garofalo has represented the Fund for a Better Waterfront in Stevens garage application before the Hoboken Zoning Board. (February 2004) In a January 30th news story, George Crimmins told the Jersey Journal that his year-long consulting job with Stevens Institute included work on the university’s 725-car waterfront parking garage. George Crimmins, the former Business Administrator for [...]

Since March 11, daily blasting has created a massive hole at Castle Point to make way for unapproved 800-car parking garage. April 9, 2002 — For the past four weeks, a contractor for Stevens Institute of Technology has blasted and excavated the serpentine rock that comprises part of Castle Point at Hoboken’s waterfront. A recent test by a Stevens’ consultant [...]

(February 26, 2004) From the beginning and with the knowledge that serpentine rock may contain trace elements of asbestos Stevens took the proper actions. April 15, 2002 e-mail from Roger T. Cole, Vice President of Facilities and Support Services for Stevens Institute of Technology. Fact: For the past three months, Stevens has known about the presence of asbestos in their [...]

The Multinational Monitor The following are excerpts from an interview with Barry Castleman that appeared in the September 2000 issue of Multinational Monitor. Mr. Castleman is the author of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, which is the standard reference for understanding the history of asbestos-caused diseases. (April 2002) MM: What are the health effects of exposure to asbestos? Castleman:The main [...]

Serpentine rock at excavation site south of Castle Point at the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology. April 22, 2002 (Earth Day) — Stevens Institute of Technology created a company that removes arsenic from drinking water in Bangladesh. They have initiated a study that explores the relationship between UV radiation and skin cancer. After the World Trade Center attack, Stevens, [...]

Serpentine rock carted from Stevens Institute in Hoboken at the foot of Washington Avenue in Carlstadt, New Jersey. New Jersey Meadowlands Commission issues cease and desist order to Carlstadt property owner Empire, Lmt. (April 2002) On April 24, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission ordered Empire, Lmt. to stop dumping and remove asbestos-containing rock at their property in Carlstadt, New Jersey. [...]

Experts who examined samples from the excavation site at Stevens Institute found high levels of asbestos in the serpentine rock and in the dust resulting from drilling and blasting. (February 2004) On January 15, 2003, Stevens Institute filed a defamation lawsuit against the Fund for a Better Waterfront. The university has described this litigation as an opportunity for them to [...]