December 1999

Roseland's Mega-Development

Roseland's project slated for this site at Weehawken's waterfront

After a eight-month review process, Carl Goldberg, Vice-President of Roseland Properties, submitted his revised scheme for the waterfront to the Weehawken Planning Board. The Planning Board began hearings on this application on October 14, 1999. This massive development totals 3.9 million square feet. This includes 1,643 residential units, a hotel, and 1.3 million square feet of office space. The hotel and seven other office and residential towers would be 10 to 12 stories high. Most of the remaining open space (the "green" portion reserved for a public park) would be confined to a contaminated parcel of land below the Lincoln Tunnel vents.

Roseland Properties' project would increase Weehawken's population of 12,500 by around 3,500 people, that is, by nearly thirty percent. In addition, an estimated 8,000 new workers would be employed as part of the 1.3 million square foot commercial portion of this project, thus, doubling the number of people who live and work in Town.

The traffic and congestion created by this massive plan would be added to the scores of cars generated by the countless other development projects up and down the Hudson River waterfront. The Roseland traffic study found that more than 1 in 10 Weehawken intersections currently experience poor to severe congestion during rush hour, and that this will increase to 1 in 3 by the time their development is completed. In other words, data in their traffic report suggest that congestion could quintuple, increasing the 10-minute drive across town to 50 minutes.

This new plan was the developer's response to a "review" process which was conducted privately by the developer, Mayor Turner, Planning Board Chair, Mark Gould, and representatives of the Weehawken Environment Committee (WEC). In a March 20, 1999 Jersey Journal article Mayor Turner stated, "The project would also have no impact on traffic, police or fire protection, and scarcely change the township's view of the river."

Prior to the October 28th hearing, FWW staged a protest rally. A spirited crowd of seventy-five Weehawken residents marched, led by a base drum, from Hamilton Park to the high school where the hearing was held. Demonstrators entered the hearing chanting "8-6-4-2, don’t let Roseland steal our view." At the hearing, FWW’s attorney James Segreto began his assault on Roseland’s development proposal.