The following combines reports by NJ.com and the Hudson County View
The State House Commission on Thursday approved a 60‑year lease that lets a private marina operator build a massive boat-warehouse on Liberty State Park land — and saddles taxpayers with $30 million in bulkhead repairs.
Despite the heated objections of park preservationists, the State House Commission voted 5-2 to effectively extend its lease with Suntex Marina Investors until the year 2086, even though the current agreement wasn’t set to expire for another 21 years.
The deal also commits up to $30 million in taxpayer funds to replace the deteriorating bulkhead that shields those million-dollar yachts.
Opponents argue the lease amounts to a taxpayer-funded giveaway of public land in Liberty State Park.
“It is an undemocratic, shameful sham for the DEP’s very unpopular and severely harmful new 60-year marina lease allowing a gargantuan boat storage warehouse to be on the agenda on Thursday, just five days before Gov. Sherrill takes over,” said Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty Park.
“This is the biggest betrayal of public lands in New Jersey history,” said former NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel. “The Statue of Liberty doesn’t say Give us your tired, your poor, and millionaires’ yachts.”
“It (Liberty State Park) doesn’t belong to the DEP. It belongs to history and the public,” argued state Senator Raj Mukherji
“I think Liberty State Park is not surplus land. It ought not be … a balance sheet item … There were no public hearings to consider this new design. The public should be heard, and it should be more than perfunctory,” Mukherji added.
“I want to echo my disappointment that this is not a true public meeting. It should be rescheduled,” newly seated Assemblywoman Katie Brennan, a Hudson County Democrat, said during her remarks.
The commission voted 5-2 to approve the proposal without any explanation, and the meeting abruptly concluded after about three-and-a-half hours.
Assad Akhter, Gov. Phil Murphy’s Deputy Chief of Staff on Legislative Affairs, and his designee, Deputy State Treasurer Aaron Binder, state Office of Management & Budget Acting Director Tariq Shabazz, state Senator Anthony Bucco and Assemblyman John DiMaio all voted in the affirmative.
State Senator Vin Gopal and Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin voted no.
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