Veterans Field closed. Now what? 71 parking spaces

[tcm256]

Looks like 71 parking spaces, according to the latest article in the Edgewater View, in addition to a dog run & park, and new playground. Do you know how much space 71 parking spaces take up?!!!

Awesome--so the 'field' is being turned into a parking lot. Awesome.

"...Santos (Stephanie Santos of Neglia Engineering) outlined a plan that would add a dog run, a new playground and a parking lot with 71 extra spaces. Memorial trees, bought and dedicated by Edgewater residents to their loved ones, will be removed, balled up, preserved and then replanted. Existing exercise equipment will be removed and reset while new picnic tables, grills, bleachers and dugouts will be installed..."

http://www.northjersey.com/topstorie..._clean-up.html

[Sky Warrior]

Originally Posted by tcm256

Looks like 71 parking spaces, according to the latest article in the Edgewater View, in addition to a dog run & park, and new playground. Do you know how much space 71 parking spaces take up?!!!

Awesome--so the 'field' is being turned into a parking lot. Awesome.

"...Santos (Stephanie Santos of Neglia Engineering) outlined a plan that would add a dog run, a new playground and a parking lot with 71 extra spaces. Memorial trees, bought and dedicated by Edgewater residents to their loved ones, will be removed, balled up, preserved and then replanted. Existing exercise equipment will be removed and reset while new picnic tables, grills, bleachers and dugouts will be installed..."

http://www.northjersey.com/topstorie..._clean-up.html

A $10-million dollar taxpayer "PARKING LOT", well that certainly is an acceptable "BOZO investment". It ranks right up there with our 2011 - 2012, taxpayer saving, spending plan; $28,000.00 outside exercise equipment, the $785,000.00 dreadger, $500,000.00 foreign investor tax break, our $285,000.00 donation to the Boggia Law Firm fund and our $40-million dollar school construction project. At this rate, Edgewater will be surpass the national debt.

[Valory Bardinas]

Maybe the 71 parking spaces will help with the new ferry site in Edgewater (favored developers property, north end) that will be considered as major transportation initative for the twin 47 story high density buildings that are proposed for developed in Fort Lee.

[Valory Bardinas]

There is a very important Mayor and Council meeting on Monday, March 5, 2012, at the Edgewater Borough Hall, at 7:00 p.m. The council will vote to decide if Developer Fred Daibes should receive a tax abatement on his propose development on Winterburn Place.

Historically, tax abatements were used in blighted communities to encourage development and stimulate employment (Downtown Jersey City, East Orange, ect..), howerver, studies have proven that tax abatements place an unfair burden on residents, because they preclude the payment of taxes to the town's school system and County. Therfore, property owners must make up
the difference with the burden of paying higher property taxes to offset the loss of revenue to our schools and the County taxes. EDGEWATER IS NOT A BLIGHTED AREA IN NEED OF REDEVELOPMENT.
Recently, the Mayor of Fort Lee refused to consider a tax abatement for a development in Fort Lee, stating that he would not allow any developer or development hurt Fort Lee's school system.

While our many of Edgewater residents are struggling to pay their mortages and property taxes, our elected officials are considering granting a reduction in property taxes to one of their deep pocketed developer friends. Haven't we paid enough already for their mismanagement.

Enclosed is a synopsis of the report by Matthew Boxer, of the State of New Jersey Office of the Comptroller. The comptroller also wrote two reports on the aforementioned mismangement of Edgewater's tax dollars. The first was in regards to Borough Attorney Phil Boggia, the second was in regards to Edgewater's loss of tax dollars due to the former tax assessor's decision to lower the assessment of waterfront property hundred's of thousands of dollars for an investment company with headquarters in Baharan. NO records of the basis of the assessor's decision exist.



State Comptroller report highlights flaws in NJ’s municipal tax abatement program
Report finds school districts lose out when abatements are awarded; program oversight severely lacking
New Jersey’s municipal tax abatement program is pulling critical funding away from school districts and leaving taxpayers to pick up the costs, according to a report released today by the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC).
The report found that abatement practices go largely unmonitored by the state and that municipal governments have little incentive to comprehensively assess whether an abatement is necessary to attract development, whether the type of development is needed in the first place or whether the abatement ultimately achieves its desired economic development goals.
Specifically, the report noted municipalities often receive more funds by granting tax abatements because they arrange for payments in lieu of taxes. School districts, however, receive no share of those payments and therefore lose out on the municipality’s new wealth. In some cases, the result is schools’ increased reliance on state aid.
New Jersey’s abatement laws empower municipalities to exempt developers from paying property taxes in order to encourage development that otherwise might not have taken place. Each year, local governments in New Jersey forego hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue through reductions or exemptions from such taxes.2
“Tax abatements are a tool that can be used and have been used to create jobs and revitalize communities that are struggling economically,” State Comptroller Matthew Boxer said. “However, when abatements are awarded for a project already set to occur, or a project that isn’t needed, the result is an unnecessary giveaway of the public’s money.”
The OSC report notes that municipalities have little incentive to turn away developers seeking the tax breaks because the abatements can lead to automatic profits for those towns. Under long-term abatement arrangements, property tax collections on development – which normally are split among several government entities – are eliminated and replaced by payments in lieu of taxes, known as “PILOT” payments. Of the negotiated PILOT, 95 percent is kept by the municipality, only 5 percent goes to the county government and school districts do not receive any share.
Despite the impact on their funding, school districts and counties are afforded no role in abatement decisions and, according to OSC interviews with local officials, are often unaware when abatements are being considered or are granted.
The financial impact can be dramatic, particularly on schools. The Hoboken school district, for example, will not receive at least $3.5 million in revenue this year due to municipal tax abatements. While Hoboken and other school districts experienced substantial reductions in state aid this year, the $3.5 million figure is actually more than double Hoboken’s state aid reduction.
“When the entity in charge of deciding who receives a tax break knows it will profit from its decision regardless of its merits, that’s a recipe for poor decision-making,” Boxer said. “Abatements should be granted only when the public at large will come out the winner.”
Boxer noted that municipal incentives for granting abatements may continue to increase since funds collected from PILOTs are not subject to property tax caps.
OSC’s report identified the 20 New Jersey municipalities that have used development-related abatements to a significant extent. Inquiries at those locations revealed, on a fairly consistent basis, a number of troubling practices that jeopardize the benefits of such abatements.
Among the examples cited is Gloucester Township which, in a span of six months from 2007 to early 2008, granted three separate short-term abatements to three Wawa stores that were expanding into Super Wawa’s. The three establishments were each within two to four miles of the other and located within a five-mile radius that included a total of 22 Wawa locations. The report questioned the prudence of an abatement program that hands out tax breaks to spur business development in such circumstances.
3
The report also found the state does not monitor the granting of individual tax abatements. While some abatement documents are required by law to be sent to the state, those documents are received only sporadically and are not being reviewed, analyzed or catalogued because of staffing limitations.
The report notes that some municipalities are making substantial efforts to strengthen abatement review. For example, the City of Millville requires annual certifications from abatement recipients that address agreement terms, such as a list of jobs created. Millville’s recent abatement agreements also include provisions that make clear that if a developer fails to fulfill the terms of the agreement, it can be rescinded.
The OSC report also found that:
Abatements artificially depress the ratable property base in a municipality, leaving neighboring municipalities to shoulder county tax burdens or grant their own abatements, triggering a “race to abate.”
Standards for designating “redevelopment areas” eligible for abatements are loosely applied and rarely reviewed. In some cases, local officials reported that areas designated for redevelopment actually have not been in need of redevelopment for a decade or more.
Developers seeking abatements may, without repercussion, overpromise benefits that do not materialize.
Information concerning abatement agreements is not published in a transparent manner or centralized location for the public to review and analyze.
The report makes 12 recommendations for improving New Jersey’s abatement program, including giving school districts, counties and the public greater roles in the abatement process; structuring PILOT arrangements to encompass the interests of counties and school districts; ensuring that a comprehensive and detailed cost-benefit analysis occurs before awarding an abatement; and conducting periodic reviews and reclassifications of “areas in need of redevelopment.” The report also details best practices for granting tax abatements from other states.
The OSC study was undertaken to examine broad issues underlying tax abatement implementation in New Jersey and to inform taxpayers about this complex development tool. Boxer said he hoped the report would jumpstart a public dialogue on this important topic.

[tcm256]

So do the citizens of the town get any say on what we want and don't want changed in the park? The engineer suggested it, but doesn't the new plan, since it's changing the current design, have to be voted on? I can't imagine anyone wants the field to turn into a parking lot.

It just seems all so hopeless.

[Mike]

Since they don't listen to their own council members, it's unlikely they'll listen to residents. The waterfront development permit application is in the DEP's hands and you can try contacting them. The contact is Linda Fisher (linda.fisher@dep.state.nj.us). Reference 0213-05-00​04.2 wfd120001.