Original Post 1/26/2011:
WTF? Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner Shows up at Hoboken Zoning Board Meeting with Bus Loads of Constituents!
Last night at the special Hoboken Zoning Board Meeting to hear the case of the application of Hoboken Unleashed to apply for zoning variances at 1714 Willow Avenue Weehawken Mayor Turner showed up to oppose this application with busloads of Weehawken constituents and he even provided the bus presumably on the taxpayer dime. Question: What is a Weehawken Mayor doing at a zoning board meeting in Hoboken? Read below for the answer. At least Tina and Ike didn't show up. :)
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| Mayor Turner with about 50 Weehawken constituents at the special Hoboken Zoning Board Meeting last night. |
Phil Cohen, a zoning board appointee for over a year remarked that this was the largest crowd he had seen at a zoning board member. The large crowd size was no doubt due to Mayor Turner's guerrilla marketing efforts as shown in this flyer below:
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| Here is the flyer Weehawken Mayor Turner used to get his constituents up in arms over the Hoboken Unleashed proposal. |
Mayor Turner had previously partnered with Mayor Dawn Zimmer on a shared services plan for the municipal garage plan but that fell through when it was discovered that the owner of the property already had a prior lease with none other than Hoboken Unleashed. The City of Hoboken in addition to the dual lease landlord of 1714 Willow was sued and the City of Hoboken vacated the premises after using it as a temporary municipal garage site for less than two months.The question of the evening was for me whether Mayor Turner really objects to the use variance as a "doggy day care facility" or just really wants it to be used as a Municipal Garage for Weehawken or some sort of shared services agreement as proposed before.
According to the Hoboken Patch article covering last night: "Turner said that if the building is a municipal garage, Weehawken controls the traffic flow."
I think we pretty much have our answer to that question.
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| Mayor Turner sure knows how to get his residents to zoning board meeting. He even brought a priest! |
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| The besieged Hoboken Unleashed owner Michael Stigliano who has been trying to get his "doggy day care" business a new home. He is running out of options. |
The meeting began with some legal issues of whether or not the meeting was sufficiently noticed for about one hour and a motion was made to continue stating that the meeting was sufficiently noticed.. That motion passed 6-0-1 with new zoning board member Michael DeFusco the lone abstention as he is a brand new voting member of the board.
The only testimony heard last night was that of architect Frank Minervini who is no stranger to being in front of the Hoboken Zoning Board. The next testimony that will be heard will be that of the owner Mike Stigliano on March 1st, 2011 when the board reconvenes. There will be two other witnesses called as well on behalf of Hoboken Unleashed and that includes a traffic expert. This political battle will go on while the Zoning Board in its professionalism will decide the case on its merits. One observer commented that if Mayor Turner loses his battle at the Zoning Board to stop a Hoboken business owner he would have an uphill battle to successfully declare eminent domain. Even through the property is only accessible through Weehawken streets it is still in Hoboken City limits. What is next for Mayor Turner if he loses, Annexation? This is an unusual and complicated case from a zoning perspective since the use Mr. Stigliano does not exist but he clearly has a viable business model. Stay tuned.
My Analysis: Look in all fairness to Mayor Richard Turner of Weehawken, that site may be ideal for a shared services Municipal garage. I just find it disingenuous that he is using the concept of increased traffic and noise to instill fear in his constituents when a municipal garage site would probably produce more of that. This is a classic example of a politician playing his constituents while supposedly looking out for them. The landlord has rights to his property that can only be superseded by eminent domain.
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| Frank Minivervini a prominent Hoboken architect, presents his plans to the Board for Hoboken Unleashed. The plan as presented calls for up 88 kennels in the facility. |
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| Here is a closeup of the site in relation to residential buildings in Weehawken which are highlighted in orange. |
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| Another view of the site in relation to residential buildings. |
More Diagrams and Pictures - click Read more below:
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| Another overhead view. |
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Near current photos of the site. |
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| Z1 Exhibit submitted by Frank Minervini Architect |
