March 2001

Court Victory for Neighborhood Groups Fighting Millennium Towers

689 Luis Marin Boulevard has sat vacant for the past ten years since Joseph M. Lucarelli abandoned the property, leaving behind over 20 million dollars in unpaid debts.

Mayor Schundler's effort to put the controversial 43-story Millennium Towers project on a fast track came to an abrupt halt yesterday. Superior Court Judge Jose Fuentes vacated the Jersey City Planning Board's actions that permitted the approvals for this oversized 551-unit project on the Hoboken-Jersey City border. Judge Fuentes determined that six out of eight members of the Jersey City Planning Board were not lawful, bona fide members when they voted to recommend that the City Council amend the Jersey Avenue Redevelopment Plan to permit building heights for the Millennium Tower site to increase from 110 feet to 440. The Judge also determined that the Board was not comprised of a quorum on June 20, 2000 when they granted site plan approval for the Millennium Tower project.

In his ruling, the Judge writes: "The failure of the Mayor to fill these vacancies as the term of office expired or, as in the case of Commissioner Sita, to appoint individuals who meet the legal residency requirement, can only be attributable to a deliberate plan to frustrate the Legislative plan embodied in the Municipal Land Use Law." The term of one Planning Board member expired in 1994, another in 1996, two in 1997, two in 1998 and another in 1999. Plaintiffs Coalition for a Better Waterfront and the Riverview Neighborhood Association, through their attorney Michael Pane of Hightstown, New Jersey, argued that the holdover status of so many Board members gave Mayor Schundler, who aggressively pushed this project through the approval process, undue influence over a Board that is supposed to be independent. Judge Fuentes agreed, stating, "Without fixed terms of office, members are reduced to an 'at will' status, serving at the pleasure of the Mayor."

The City of Hoboken joined these two civic organizations as plaintiffs in this suit. The City of Hoboken raised concerns about the traffic from this project that would spill onto two of just three heavily used north-south thoroughfares, Grove Street and Jersey Avenue, that link Hoboken to Jersey City. The civic groups have fought the project every step of the way. In October of last year, they submitted over 3,300 signatures to the Municipal Clerk of Jersey City in an effort to put to a referendum vote the 20-year tax abatements granted by the City of Jersey City for this project. In this case decided three months ago, however, the same Judge Jose Fuentes ruled against the referendum petitioners, determining that redevelopment plans are not subject to referendum elections.

In his decision, granting summary judgment to the plaintiffs, the Judge ruled that the City of Jersey City must also pay codefendant Millennium Towers costs incurred in the prosecution of its site plan application before the Planning Board and any legal fees associated with this case. Judge Fuentes described Millennium Towers, L.L.C. as an innocent third party, that in the name of fairness, in entitled to some relief.

Joseph M. Lucarelli, vice president of operations for United Diversified, LLC, was convicted and sent to federal prison in 1995 for defrauding North Jersey Savings and Loan out of $16.3 million for a failed development project just a block from the Millennium Towers site. In 1989, Lucarelli through two of his companies, L.B.J. Management and Realty, Inc. and Joseph M. Lucarelli & Sons--Construction Division, Inc., defaulted on the mortgage and two construction loans which left that property at 689 Luis Marin Boulevard a vacant eyesore for the past ten years. Shortly after failing to reclaim these funds, North Jersey Savings and Loan was declared insolvent.

Lucarelli also stiffed numerous contractors and building suppliers on the Luis Marin Boulevard building with debts totaling more than $385,000. Since the principals of United Diversified have little experience as real estate developers, they sited Lucarelli's record as a developer to gain approvals. Disclosure statements submitted to the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, however, failed to divulge Lucarelli's criminal past and multi-million dollar fraud schemes.

Two weeks before the new ordinance was legally in effect, the Jersey City Planning Board approved the preliminary site plan application for Millennium Towers on June 20. At the May 9, 2000 meeting, the Planning Board Chairman, Gerald Sheehan, contended that the amendments to the ordinance were not in response to any particular application. The Court pointed out in the factual findings, however, that the development application for Millennium Towers was dated on February 9, 2000, over a month before the Planning Board first took up the issue of amending the redevelopment plan.

Court decision: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/fuentes/hoboken316.htm