FZ, have you ever tried to exit/enter Hoboken via Observer Highway during rush hour? This area is already utterly clogged now, just think what would happen with 8 more 40-story condo buildings (with thousands of additional cars) along Observer Highway (which is what the original plan by NJ Transit called for if memory serves me right)! You got to be out of your mind to think that this scenario is desirable to the current residents of Hoboken!

Don't feed the Beth Mason political operatives. That includes FinBoy the stink breath from Weehawken.

If you thought rush hour was bad now, wait until dozens of trucks loaded w/ materials start showing up and double parking down there, hundreds of construction workers show up and once those buildings are done, thousands of workers and residents start driving around down there at rush hour. That area will be a complete nightmare.

One of the reasons I bought in Hoboken is because it is not downtown Jersey City. I like Hoboken 100% more than Jersey City, because of the tall buildings.

Claire, Thank you for correcting your post. :-)

Don't listen to the anyone but mayor garbage from Beth Mason political operative trolls. Sad, pathetic and that's how they roll.

Nobody builds anything for free. If we wanted a tunnel, they'd want an 80 story building. Better to give them nothing and let them build nothing.

It is unreasonable to think the NJT's fifty plus acres of property will either not be built upon or that low buildings will be built. Many of the buildings on the north side of Observer are at the 12 story height already.

What is resonable is to bring to the table is a realistic plan that fullfills some of the wants and needs of both parties.

This plan is a horrible plan and I still fail to see why NJT needs to build anything. It is a transit agency. We should not have to deal w/ even the slightest inconvenience or burden so they can make a profit playing developer.

Preserving the character and scale of Hoboken and innovation are not mutually exclusive and I think comming up with a plan that does both should be everyones goal.

Do you find this statement from the city's Master Plan to be ironic? "Hoboken's historic character is one of the City's selling points, but it is eroding as landmarks such as the Maxwell House factory are lost." i miss the smell of roasting coffee in the morning, but i think a small dose of economic reality may be in order.

Indiecom, I don't think developing the NJT site is bad for Hoboken if it is done well.

Jersey City has already decided that building super high rise is the way they want to go and will most likely continue to do that right up to the border of Hoboken. NJT owns property on the Jersey City side of the tracks too.

What this plan puts forward is a realistic plan to start negotiations that tries to maximizes the positives and minimize the negatives of what will be a massive project and at the end of the day that is a win for Hoboken.

Will NJT try to leverage their politcal connections in Trenton ? Sure, but that is the world we live in and to expect anything different is unrealistic.

It will not be done well for a few reasons.
1. the only way it is economically feasible is if they build large buildings far taller than what is already down in that area
2. NJT wants to make a profit, a large profit that will be used to shore up their pension plan
3. Every politically connected hack at the state, local level and county will demand a taste
4, As you already have pointed out, they plan on building real big tall ugly buildings right up to the city border which is not what someone looking to work w/ the city of Hoboken would do

I am more optimistic.

NJT presented thier plan last night and it most likely intentionally made too tall and too dense to give them some negotiating room, however it is a far cry from what they originally wanted to build.

I think they now understand that they do not have the legal right to build whatever they want and must work with a much more demanding Hoboken.

NJT will use all of it's political influence to their advantage but that is to expected.

Taller buildings don't need to be ugly. One of the things Hoboken should be stipulating is a higher standard of design for all the buildings . Better design would also be beneficial to NJT looking to market their properties.

Hoboken can only try regulate what is built in Hoboken and if as expected the skyscrapers will be built on our Jersey City border this plan will also serve as a transition between the two cities.

I don't disagree and as we have seen in the past many of the OLD GUARD politicos are more than willing to put their own self interests ahead of the best interest of Hoboken.

while I don't disagree with trying to cut this off at the pass, if they are able to contemplate between 2 million and 3 million square feet of space with both residential and commercial zoning in place, then the value of the parcel is far too high to get under eminent domain, given an annual budget of $100 million a year. Maybe if we had NYC's budget, we could consider a buyout.
First and foremost, however, we should make sure that any construction on this site is brought online with a full tax bill from day 1, or well contracted givebacks to the city with an escrow held before they can get a CO. This is not the space for PILOTs.

I believe w/ no bonding for engineering studies, there will be no Observer Highway redesign or any grant money to pay for that redesign. That happened the meeting before. Thank the minority for that one.

I don't see the Observer redesign alleviating traffic congestion, and I don't think it's meant to. As I see it, its purpose is to make that corridor more pedestrian and bike friendly. What will improve traffic flow is a traffic circle where Newark and Observer intersect (between the firehouse and gas station) and a bypass road that routes Paterson Plank Road away from and behind Hoboken, greatly lessening the cut-through traffic.