Hoboken Council majority adopts Garage B Plan, turning a deaf ear to public opposition and Planning Board advisement

FBW | March 26, 2025

Hoboken residents overwhelmingly spoke in opposition to the City’s Redevelopment Plan for Garage B at the March 19th City Council meeting. Clearly, the potential behemoth that could result from the 250 foot height allowance, sparked an outcry from those who have come to love the city for its human scale and historic character. 

“We have just an incredibly intact 19th century walkable city here and every time we build something like that we chip away at something that cannot be regained,” FBW Chair Kate Valenta stated in her remarks to the Council.

Hoboken resident Sylvia Schwartz also addressed the project’s excessive height: “In this particular case, we really do need to think about something that is more in keeping with the scale of that block.”

Seventy-five percent of the public speakers who were Hoboken residents urged the City Council to vote no, equivalent to the 76 percent in the FBW survey who preferred building heights to be 14 stories or less. The voice of the people, however, fell on the deaf ears of the five Council members who voted to adopt the measure: Emily Jabbour, Joe Quintero, Phil Cohen, Ruben Ramos and Michael Russo. 

Liz Urtecho referenced a meeting that took place just two days earlier: “The Planning Board, a board that is a body that this council relies upon to give guidance on development, absent of political agendas, determined that Garage B’s plan is inconsistent with the Master Plan.” Of the  seven Planning Board members in attendance, all agreed that the scale of the project was out of sync with the surrounding neighborhood. Just one member, a City Hall employee, voted against the Board decision.

The few residents who spoke in favor supported the plan’s purported goal of providing workforce and affordable housing. Liz Ndoye agreed with this goal, “I believe with every fiber of my being that affordable housing for all is a right that government should provide.” But she went on to criticize the plan, “I believe it is not in keeping with the streetscape of Hudson Street and the overall unique aesthetic of our incredible city.”

Others opposing the plan also voiced their support for addressing the housing crisis but expressed skepticism as to whether this is a viable scheme that would actually provide the 20 percent affordable units and 80 percent workforce housing, along with a state-of-the-art 810-car parking garage, a possible school and ground-floor retail on the one block.

Paul Presinzano who represents the First Ward on the City Council where the project is located has been opposed to the plan from the beginning and has been especially dissatisfied at the truncated public process. He was joined by 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher and Council President Jim Doyle in voting no.