April 1999

Editorial: Putting the Brakes On Over Development

The Coalition for a Better Waterfront

The residents of Hoboken are witnessing the frenetic pace of new construction throughout town. Along the waterfront and at the north and south ends of Hoboken, high-density, high-rise buildings have been approved and are under construction. Thus, historic Hoboken, built on a human-scale at the turn of the century, is now being surrounded with buildings 12 to 16 stories high with massive parking garages at their bases. But before any of these large-scale projects is completed and occupied, the impact of the increased traffic and increased demand for parking is being felt throughout town. And people are angry.

The community of Hoboken, including a number of elected officials, are now saying it is time to reassess the City's development policies. The City of Hoboken has received considerable good advice from planners, architects and traffic engineers over the past several decades. It is time to take that advice to heart and adopt it as municipal policy. The following items would be logical starting points:

1. Draw clearly defined boundaries for residential development. These boundaries should preserve the industrial districts for office, retail, light industry and most especially parking. No use variances should be granted for residential development where it is not a permitted use. In all zoning districts, the density requirements should be strictly enforced. Currently, density is regulated by building height and lot coverage. No variances should be granted for either. If the Zoning and Planning Boards do not understand the consequences of granting variances that result in greater densities, additional safeguards need to be written into the zoning code such as limits on floor area ratio (F.A.R.) or dwelling units per acre.

2. The City of Hoboken needs to develop a proactive planning strategy. Urban planning and design of the best quality need to be developed with professional assistance and community input for any remaining major sites prior to accepting any development proposals. On the waterfront these sites would include Maxwell House, the Stevens Institute property between 5th and 6th Streets and 1600 Park Avenue. The guiding principle for these plans should be less is more. (For open space, of course, this principle would not apply.) Much work has already been done by the Hoboken Waterfront Corporation on several of these sites; thus, it would not be a matter of starting from scratch.

3. A comprehensive parking and traffic plan needs to be developed. Again, the City needs to rely on professionals who have had success in similar cities. The perimeter parking strategy, with satellite garages at the north and south ends of town has been recommended in the past. This would allow traffic to be captured before it spills through the streets of Hoboken. Jitneys could shuttle people from the garages to their homes and offices. Forcing people to get out of their cars and walk is a good policy. The policy of ground floor parking beneath residential structures does the opposite -- it encourages car use and car ownership. It also blights the city's streetscape. Ground floor garages result in blank walls, curb cuts and garage doors instead of stoops, front doors and windows and retail stores at street level. The city needs to move quickly to enable cars traveling through Hoboken to by-pass the residential neighborhoods. The last thing we need is more cars along the waterfront, on Hudson, Washington, Bloomfield, Garden, Clinton and the other residential streets.

Over development is an issue that is not going away. It is imperative to act now before the problem becomes intolerable.