FBW | June 17, 2015 The Hoboken Planning Board denied their application as did the Hudson County Planning Board. The City of Hoboken filed suit to force the developers to honor their earlier agreement to provide open space at this pier. The City of Hoboken amended its flood ordinance effectively prohibiting residential buildings on [...]
Map of the City of Hoboken from the late 1800s showing the expansion of Col. John Stevens original street grid for Hoboken of 1804. This article is an excerpt from Reclaiming the Waterfront, A Planning Guide for Waterfront Municipalities published by the Fund for a Better Waterfront in August 1996. [...]
Hoboken Reporter | November 30, 2014 Dear Editor: The Rail Yard Redevelopment Plan at the southern gateway to Hoboken will have a profound impact on our community. With over 10 acres of new development, it will be one of Hoboken’s largest building projects ever. To make the project a great addition to our community, [...]
UPDATE: On February 10, 2015, United States Magistrate Judge Mark Falk issued an order allowing the Hudson Tea Buildings Condominium Association to intervene in Shipyard Assocs. v. City of Hoboken. The parties to this case are currently conducting discovery. The developers of the Monarch towers project, proposed over a pier in the Hudson River, have [...]
The Hoboken Planning Board will review the Rail Yard Redevelopment Plan and hold a public hearing on Tuesday, December 2 @7 p.m. in City Hall. FBW | November 18, 2014 Hoboken residents will often point to the high-rise towers at Newport in Jersey City looming to the south of town, saying, “that’s not the [...]
FBW | October 9, 2014 When Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer came into office in 2009, she promised to be a strong advocate for creating public open space. Yet, after five years in office, her administration has made little progress. The southwest parks plan will yield less than an acre once the court rules on [...]
Jersey Journal Guest Editorial | September 26, 2014 On September 15, the City of Hoboken and its consultants unveiled plans for the redesign of Sinatra Drive at the central waterfront from 4th to 11th Streets. These plans fall woefully short of the high standards set at Hoboken’s South Waterfront. The beautifully landscaped Pier A [...]
FBW | July 18, 2014 In 1990, FBW began to develop its Plan for the Hoboken Waterfront. The first step in the planning process was to extend Hoboken’s traditional street grid to the waterfront. Designating where streets will be located is the fundamental first step of any rational city planning process. It determines the [...]
FBW Executive Director Ron Hine speaking at the MWA 2014 Waterfront Conference April 24, 2014 This year’s Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance conference designated five civic groups in the metropolitan region as Heroes of the Harbor for the community-designed waterfront plans that they developed. The directors of these groups also served on [...]
Hoboken Reporter | FBW letter to the editor | April 27, 2014 Dear Editor: For most of the last century, Hoboken was a bustling port city and maritime industries flourished on its waterfront. But by the 1980s, the ocean liners, merchant marines and ship repairers had nearly all disappeared, leaving an abandoned, derelict waterfront. [...]
FBW | March 2, 2014 Recent controversies swirling over the Christie administration’s involvement in pushing a mega-development in Hoboken have focused attention on one of the last frontiers for redevelopment in this mile-square city. The North End Redevelopment Area is a 19-block portion of town that is currently zoned for industrial use and is [...]
FBW | January 24, 2014 Superior Court Judge Nesle A. Rodriguez ruled yesterday that the Shipyard Associates application to build the Monarch project, two high-rise towers on a Hoboken pier, is automatically approved. The judge based her decision on the Hoboken Planning Board’s failure to hold a hearing on the merits of the case [...]
FBW | September 11, 2013 10/23/2014 Update: FBW honored Craig Whitaker at its Connect the Waterfront event, presenting him with the FBW Riparian Award, in recognition for his lasting impact on the Hudson River waterfront. Mr. Whitaker has guided the advocacy work of FBW through planning principles that have ensured a continuous, public waterfront [...]
June 21 update: Judge Patrick Arre denied the motion for summary judgment filed by City of Hoboken and other plaintiffs on Friday, June 21 at the William J. Brennan Court House in Jersey City, New Jersey. The court ruling means that the Hoboken Planning Board must now hold hearings and rule on the Monarch [...]
Gated entrance to Shipyard's Pier 13 sends message to public that this is "private property." FBW | May 8, 2013 In 1820, a New Jersey man was collecting oysters along the shores when he was challenged as a trespasser by the upland property owner. The dispute reached the New Jersey Supreme Court, where [...]
In the 1980s Bryant Park was redesigned following the recommendations of the Street Life Project. FBW | March 19, 2013 Given the fact that the Municipal Art Society released the remarkable study entitled The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces in 1979, this film review is somewhat late. The clothing and hairstyles of [...]
FBW | January 30, 2013 The National Flood Insurance Program collects annually about $3.5 billion in premiums. Four times in the past eight years, however, claims paid out have exceeded premiums collected. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, claims totaled $17.7 billion. The claims paid for superstorm Sandy are expected to reach $7 billion. In [...]
FBW | January 30, 2013 The newly released Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps place 79% of Hoboken in a flood zone and the city's entire Hudson River coastline within FEMA’s “coastal high hazard” zone. Although data from super-storm Sandy was not factored into FEMA's new maps, they appear to conform closely to [...]
Excerpt from Putting the Public Trust Doctrine to Work, Coastal States Organization. In 1820, a New Jersey man was collecting oysters along the shores when he was challenged as a trespasser by the upland property owner. The dispute reached the New Jersey Supreme Court, where a justice expressed surprise [...]
1909 Hoboken map showing Hudson Square. (Credit: Hoboken Historical Museum) FBW | May 3, 2012 It began with a plan. In 1804, Col. John Stevens hired surveyor Charles Loss to create a plan for the new City of Hoboken. Col. Stevens owned 564 acres that would become much of the city as it is [...]
