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 [...]
On December 2, 2011, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued a waterfront permit to the Shipyard Associates to build two eleven-story residential towers on a pier, thus subverting a condition of its August 1997 permit requiring the restoration of this pier as open space, accessible to the public. The original permit [...]
Excerpt from Reclaiming the Waterfront - A Planning Guide for Waterfront Municipalities by the Fund for a Better Waterfront, Craig Whitaker contributing author, published August 1996. After the Second World War, many Americans left the city for the suburbs. For much of this suburban development, municipal land planning functions have been [...]
Imposing gates at Weehaken, NJ's Riva Pointe send message: public keep out. FBW | October 20, 2011 Thanks to Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park, a small privately owned "public" park, has become a household name. The plaza bonus provisions provided by New York City’s 1961 zoning created a proliferation of private spaces that [...]
London planetree grove in Pier A Park. FBW | June 2001 Ten years ago, Pier A at Hoboken’s south waterfront was slated for a 1.1 million square foot, 33-story office complex to be built over the Hudson River. Today it is a five-acre award-winning public park that people flock to on a [...]
FBW | August 2004 The new Goldman Sachs tower on the Jersey City waterfront designed by Cesar Pelli caught the attention of architecture critic Paul Goldberger. In a July 30, 2004 The New Yorker article, Goldberger writes that this building, "is New Jersey's tallest skyscraper, and, with its graceful profile and elegant glass facade, [...]
In 1996, the Hoboken Planning Board approved the Shipyard Associates’ planned unit development (PUD) for 1160 units at Hoboken’s north waterfront. This massive project is fully built, but apparently 1160 units are not enough for developers Michael and David Barry. The Barry brothers now want to add two 11-story towers at the pier at [...]
Pier A Park at Hoboken's south waterfront. (October 20, 2010) In 1990, the Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) came out with a plan for the Hoboken waterfront. The plan called for a continuous waterfront park along the water's edge. The key to successfully executing this concept was to extend Hoboken's public street grid, thus [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Fund for a Better Waterfront's design for Maxwell House Park in 2001. September 19, 2007 Yesterday, Hoboken Mayor David Roberts cut the ribbon to officially open the waterfront park at Maxwell Place. What has been in the works since early 2001, prior to Roberts being elected Mayor, is now becoming a reality. The first phase [...]
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 [...]
Team Roberts campaign headquarters at 231 Washington Street during the 2005 race for mayor and council-at-large. (April 2007) In 2005, Mayor David Roberts and his Council running mates raised $1.4 million to soundly defeat Carol Marsh and her team who came up with a fraction of that amount. After his re-election, Roberts enjoyed the support [...]
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 [...]
(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 [...]
