Developer sues Weehawken over ‘unreasonable’ permit denial

115 Hackensack Plank Drive Weehawken 3
Aerial view of the proposed development at 115-117 Hackensack Plank Drive denied by the Weehawken Zoning Board. Rendering by Nastasi Architects.

By Chris Fry, Jersey Digs

A company that has been trying to develop a plot of land near the Lincoln Tunnel for years has taken its frustrations to court in a new lawsuit that is looking to finally obtain its long-sought approvals.

The company’s earliest proposals looked to build a five-story, 18-unit project on the land, but the lawsuit claims those plans were scrapped after the zoning board made initial recommendations in 2018. The latest scheme was drawn up by Hoboken-based Nastasi Architects last year and looked to construct a four-story building with 10 units and 12 off-street parking spaces.

115 Hackensack Plank Drive Weehawken 1
The most recently proposed design. Rendering by Nastasi Architects.|

The properties are located in an R-4 zone where multi-family buildings are allowed, but the company’s plans were seeking six total variances. The most significant was for 49 feet in height where 40 are allowed, for lot coverage of 68% where 55% is allowed, and for providing 12 parking spaces where 18.5 are required under current zoning.

The zoning board eventually denied the company’s application on November 10 last year, writing in their resolution that the variances sought “would be a substantial detriment to the public good.” The board specifically claimed the proposed parking was “insufficient for the proposed number of units and the limited public parking in the area.”

ET Management & Investors claims in its four-page lawsuit that they “presented credible evidence to support the grant of the site plan” to the board and that the denial of their application was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.” They are asking the court to reverse the board’s decision and approve the application.

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Lantana Affordable Redevelopment Rises in Newark

By Chris Fry,  Jersey Digs

Lantana 109 119 Broad Street Newark Groundbreaking
Ground has finally broken on the development Lantana at 109-119 Broad Street in Newark. Photo provided by a Jersey Digs reader.

Montclair-based RPM Development quietly broke ground earlier this year on a project located at 109-119 Broad Street. The property spans over 0.76 acres and is nestled in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood just a short distance from Branch Brook Park.

Lantana 109 119 Broad Street Newark Construction Progress 1
Steel beams are up. Photo via RPM Development Facebook.

RPM was the company behind Jersey City’s Whitlock Cordage revitalization and their latest Newark endeavor is dubbed Lantana. The company purchased the property way back in 2010 and the endeavor has taken years to come together, heating up in 2018 after it was awarded tax credits from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.

Patch reported last September that Newark awarded additional federal funds through the HOME Investment Partnerships Program to Lantana and an eagle-eyed reader sent Jersey Digs some images earlier this year that showed the project breaking ground. The five-story complex is set to include 60 affordable units and the development registered for LEED Certification late last year.

Lantana 109 119 Broad Street Newark Construction Progress 2
Decking is down. Photo via RPM Development Facebook.

RPM recently provided an update on the progress of Lantana via its social media accounts. Structural steel and decking at the site have been completed and workers are now preparing for the podium slab installation.

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Bill introduced to stop use of federal funds to buy Chinese solar panels

Solar Power

From Business Standard

A group of Republican senators has introduced legislation to prohibit federal funds from being used to buy solar panels from companies based in China, allegedly using forced labor in Xinjiang.

The Keep China Out of Solar Energy Act’ requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to develop standards and guidelines to prohibit federal funds from being used to purchase solar panels manufactured or assembled by entities with ties to the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).

It also requires the Comptroller of the US to submit to Congress a report on the amount of solar panels procured by federal departments and agencies from covered entities.

The bill requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to conduct an independent study of the domestic market of solar panel production and the global supply chain and workforce involved in solar panel production.

Beijing has made it clear that to do business in China, you must leave American values behind, Senator Marco Rubio said.

As the Chinese Communist Party is actively committing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities, it forces American companies to look the other way while profiting from its egregious human rights violations, including forced labour, Rubio said.

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EPA dismisses dozens of key science advisers picked under Trump

The Biden administration says it needs to restore trust in the agency by “resetting” membership on two key science advisory panels
EPA Administrator Michael Regan is purging two scientific advisory committees of outside experts appointed by President Donald Trump. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)


By Dino Grandoni Washington Post
March 31, 2021 at 11:33 a.m. EDT

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will purge more than 40 outside experts appointed by President Donald Trump from two key advisory panels, a move he says will help restore the role of science at the agency and reduce the heavy influence of industry over environmental regulations.

The unusual decision, announced Wednesday, will sweep away outside researchers picked under the previous administration whose expert advice helped the agency craft regulations related to air pollution, fracking and other issues.

Critics say that, under Trump, membership of the two panels — the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) — tilted too heavily toward regulated industries, and their positions sometimes contradicted scientific consensus.

“Science is back,” new EPA administrator says

The Biden administration said the move is one of several to reestablish scientific integrity across the federal government after what it characterizes as a concerted effort under the previous president to sideline or interfere with research on climate change, the novel coronavirus, and other issues.

“Resetting these two scientific advisory committees will ensure the agency receives the best possible scientific insight to support our work to protect human health and the environment,” Regan said in a statement.

Environmental advocates cheered the decision, saying thatremaking the composition of the panels is necessary after the Trump administration illegally barred academics who received EPA grants from serving on them.

Under Trump, the EPA had argued scientists who received research funding from the agency would not be able to offer impartial advice. But environmental and public health advocates, along with some former career officials within the agency, said the policy effectively elevated experts from industry while muzzling independent scientists.

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Court fight over Delaware River fracking ban heats up

Lawmakers in the Pennsylvania Senate square off in federal court over the fracking ban approved by the Delaware River Basin Commission.

By John L. Micek, Editor, Pennsylvania Capital-Star

In a local story with national implications, Republicans and Democrats in the state Senate are waging legal war over a regional regulatory agency’s decision to impose a de facto moratorium on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin.

On Monday, Senate Democrats announced they’d been granted a motion to intervene in the January lawsuit filed by Sens. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, and Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, along with the Senate Republican Caucus, challenging the Delaware River Basin Commission’s decade-old policy, arguing the agency had usurped the Legislature by imposing its moratorium. 

“My colleagues and I are participating in this lawsuit to preserve the authority of the Delaware River Basin Commission to protect the drinking water of more than 13 million individuals,” Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Bucks County Democrat whose district runs along the riverfront, said in a statement “Working within its authority, the DRBC has been taking critical steps to protect both the waterways in the Delaware River Basin and our land from the harmful effects of fracking.”

Some background:

After imposing its de facto moratorium in 2010, the commission voted Feb. 25 to formally ban fracking in the basin, StateImpact Pennsylvania, an environmental news outlet, reported at the time. All four of the commission’s member states: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, joined in the action. 

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