Steve Hyman’s New Hearing to Demolish 6th Street Embankment Begins
By Dale Hardman • Sep 2nd, 2010 • Category: Blog, News
The latest turn in the ongoing fight over the future of Downtown Jersey City’s 6th Street Embankment began last night at a hearing before the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), as developer Steve Hyman makes another attempt to tear down the elevated rail line.
The initial applications for Certificates of Appropriateness and Certificates of Economic Hardship to demolish the Embankment were denied by the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) last spring. Subsequently, the ZBA denied Hyman a hearing based on the HPC’s ruling and recommendation.
Hyman filed suit, arguing that he deserved a fresh hearing on his applications, and that he should have been allowed to present his evidence and state his case before the ZBA. Earlier this summer, Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli agreed, ruling that the ZBA “was required to determine the case ‘completely anew,’ and, while giving due deference to the findings and conclusions of the HPC, it was not necessarily to be controlled by them.”
At last night’s hearing, Hyman’s attorney Michelle Donato suggested the ZBA go a step further and not use any of the HPC’s findings, instead “starting from scratch” with this hearing.
Donato got the change to interview just one of her six or seven witnesses, Hoboken architect Dean Marchetto. (She will interview the rest as the hearing continues in the coming month.) Marchetto, who has worked with Hyman over the years on possible development designs, testified regarding both the status of the Embankment and its aesthetic appropriateness.
The structure, Marchetto said, is “an abandoned utility construction … an embarrassment and an eyesore.”
Donato, presenting a 1998 City Council resolution opposing the Embankment’s preservation, allowed Marchetto to explain his work on the project over the years.
Marchetto presented a number of presentations, posters and graphics of proposed plans he said he’d prepared in consultation with both the Embankment Preservation Coalition and “various city officials” over the years. There were a number of design comparisons — to the High Line in New York City, the promenade plantée in Paris — as well as talk of connecting the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan to the waterfront via the Embankment.
The hearing will continue later this month, on September 22, at 6:30 pm, in City Hall
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Dale Hardman is a writer/poet whose group, "BrightMoment" has performed in NYC at 55 Bar, St. Marks, Village Corner and singularly at Art House, Brennan Court House, and Victory Hall. His work has appeared in downbeat, Musician, Jazz & Soul, Changes, Hittin' the Note and Greenwich Village Gazette.
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