Update Fall 2001....
"Simply put, you shouldn't reach into the taxpayers' wallets without first getting their permission," the letter said, echoing the points Mr. Schundler stressed in a Monday news conference and in full page newspaper advertisements. ( Schundler Repeats Call for Referendum on Arena, 8/22/01, Ronald Smothers, NYTimes)....... Hey Bret how about taxpayers deciding whether you can give away 20 and 30 year deep, discounted tax abatements while the inner city pays full freight, the City is broke, laying off personnel and desperate for money aggravated by your mismanagement???? What's good for state voters should be good enough for JC voters... We only wanted the same freedoms that you're always preaching in "Empowering the People".... Once again it's Bret's LIAR! LIAR! syndrome....
UPDATE: AUGUST 2001
The Millennium Towers behemoth is not dead yet. The developer has appealed to the Appellate Division Judge Jose Fuentes's decision in March. Help drive another nail in the coffin of this monster by mailing your contribution to our legal fund today. Send your check to the Riverview Neighborhood Association, 232 Ogden Avenue, Jersey City, New Jersey 07307 or Coalition for a Better Waterfront, P.O. Box 1965, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030.
It will be very difficult for the developer to prevail in this case. But to secure our
victory, we must continue our legal battle in the Appellate Court. Please help make
this possible by contributing generously. The Riverview Neighborhood Association is a
tax-exempt, non-profit organization; your contribution to RNA may be eligible for a
corporate match from your employee.
More information is available on our website www.betterwaterfront.com
or call 201-217-0500. Thank you so much to those of you who have already contributed.
In a decision handed down, March 29, 2001, Mayor Schundler's effort to put the controversial 43-story Millennium Towers project on a
fast track came to an abrupt halt. 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 to 440
feet. 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 Carmelo Sita, to appoint individuals who didn't
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."
For more information: Court decision: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/fuentes/hoboken316.htm
Visit The Coalition For A Better Waterfront's website http://www.betterwaterfront.com/
The City of Jersey City was also ordered to pay all of the costs incurred by the MT developers, United Diversified. This is a remarkable decision that certainly vindicates the MT activists for our valiant efforts in opposition to this horrendous project. Great job on the part of attorney Michael Pane. Many thanks for the legal and financial support from our co-plaintiffs the City of Hoboken.
In August 2000, the Dept of Labor filed charges against Commissioner Carmelo Sita for taking money from four unions funds of which he was the administrator; the Laborers' Welfare Fund, Vacation Fund, Pension Fund and Annuity Fund. Sita was also the President of Laborers Local 325 and Business Manager of the Hudson County District Council of Laborers, another union organization. In typical intimidation style fined tuned by the Schundler administration, the City Council Chamber was filled with rowdy, aggressive union members wearing shirts with Millennium Towers imprinted on them. Acting Chair that night Commissioner Sita did nothing to control the crowd who continually tried to intimidate the anti-MT speakers, the residents and taxpayers from JC.
What really angered the activists was when Acting Chair Sita stood up and screamed like a madman at Yvonne Balcer when she, rightfully so, asked Commissioner Sita to abstain from voting since there was a conflict of interest in his being affiliated with the unions and his voting on the revision to the plan. That scene encouraged the activists to dig into Sita's past and research his residency. Several of us felt the game plan was for union money to finance the MT project, as one of the union officials mentioned, on the record. No bank would. Coincidentally on June 14th, the FBI charged 120 people in a mob related securities fraud case involving a NYC police detectives' union official who controlled $300 million in union pension funds. Those union guys following orders to intimidate us, didn't realize, but our fight against MT probably saved their pensions!
September 2000, the City approved a 20-year tax abatement for
Millennium Towers Urban Renewal LLC. Several Heights neighbor groups including Riverview Neighborhood Association, Sgt. Anthony's Neighborhood Assoc., Hoboken's Coalition for a Better Waterfront, HART and numerous other groups (activists) opposed the project. They opposed the 330-foot increase in height easement, obstruction of views and that the developers had not paid their back taxes of $1.1 million until publicized by the activists. They took title to the property in August 1998 with over $900,000 of back taxes and the City was in the process of foreclosing on the property. But nonetheless, the Schundler administration negotiated their 330 foot increased height easement and a 20 year tax abatement before they paid their taxes! (See THE BULK LIEN SALES - Tax Levy Sale for how the residential taxpayers are treated.)As of February 2001, Millennium Towers LLC hasn't paid their August, November 2000 and February 2001 tax bills totaling $38,700 plus 18% interest due. They're required by their tax abatement to make an advance tax payment of $2, 370,259 to the City on or before April 1, 2001. That's the tax bill for an entire year up front. What do you think the chances are of that? What do you think the city will do? These advance payments before a building is built is another issue and exemplifies how desperate the city's fiscal situation is. Schundler has been requiring advance payments from 25% up to 100% in this fiscal year to plug this year' budget which only exasperates future budgets holes but what does he care.... he just wants to get elected Governor! (follow-up: MT LLC never made the $2.3 million payment and didn't pay a dime's worth of FYE 2001 taxes until right before the June 2001 tax sale, when a lien would have been sold on their property if they didn't pay! How old habits did hard! This is another example of the caliber of business people Schundler surrounds himself with during a real estate boom.... )
One of the principals, Joseph M. Lucarelli, of United Diversified, which is headquartered in a beauty salon/supply business in Bayonne, is a convicted felon who did time for defrauding the North Jersey Savings Bank in the late 1980s' for a project just 2 blocks away. The partners had to borrow to pay their back taxes before they were foreclosed on. Does this sound like a developer who has the wherewithal to finance a $170.5 million project? The activists who needed 2,470 signatures from registered JC voters collected over 4,000 for a referendum vote on the ballot and filed suit against United Diversified. The City of Hoboken, which shares a border to the project, has also filed suit.
In January 2001, the developer and the City sought an injunction, which would prevent the City Clerk from holding a referendum election as to whether the public wants to give a twenty-year tax abatement to the Millennium Towers project. The superior court judge, Jose Fuentes, decided January 22nd, that it would be improper to hold a referendum on this question. His reasoning is that although the law does permit referenda about ordinances, he believes that the legislature did not intend to permit a referendum in this situation. That is, as referendums are statutorily prohibited from questioning many land use decisions and as tax abatements are used in real estate development matters, no referendum should be permitted to question the twenty-year tax abatement. This decision has been appealed to the Appellate Division and may have to go to the New Jersey Supreme Court. What has essentially been decided is that the municipality may violate the principles of tax equity and give away millions of tax dollars without public hearings and without any input or objections from the public at all.
If you are interested in contributing to our legal defense fund, for our appeal process, please
email Bob Duval. See Hoboken's Coalition for a Better Waterfront's website for numerous articles and information on MT.(Bob Duval, an activist, Sgt. Anthony Neighborhood Association officer, and an attorney who argued the case before Judge Fuentes, contributed to this article)
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