By Joshua Burd
Officials in Bayonne have taken a key step toward allowing a developer to build a 50-story high-rise along its waterfront, doubling the previous height allowed for any building in the city.
The high-profile change, which applies to roughly 23 acres within the Harbor Station South Redevelopment Area near Route 440, became official last week during a city council meeting. The governing body voted 4-1 to amend the redevelopment plan and permit a building of 50 stories and 625 feet in the area bordered by Flagship Street to the east, Goldsborough Drive to the south, Chosin Few Way to the west and what will be an extension of 40th Street to the north.
Council members did not discuss a specific use type for the prospective building, although the redevelopment plan calls for hundreds of multifamily units across multiple tracts, building on the recent wave of new construction in the city. The property’s owner, an affiliate of Roselle Park-based Ramani Group, could not immediately be reached Monday.
Such a building would be among the tallest structures in the state, as noted last week by The Jersey Journal, trailing only Jersey City.
“I generally do not like tall buildings when they appear next to dwellings that have been there for a hundred or so years,” said City Council President Gary La Pelusa, who voted in favor of the ordinance during the Aug. 14 meeting. He later added: “This is the area, whether you want to call it spot zoning or not, that I would say these tall buildings belong there.”
He also called the proposal “a step in the right direction” toward creating “something unique for Bayonne.” Councilman Neil Carroll III, who voted against the ordinance, was more skeptical.
“I would think that the existing 25-story HS-2 redevelopment block that was there would be sufficient,” he said, referring to the subsection of Harbor Station South. “Even that, I think, is a little high. But wouldn’t it be prudent to reopen the master plan as a whole and decide where these things belong, as opposed to spot zoning one at a time?”
Carroll also cited concerns about exacerbating what is already a messy traffic situation in the area. But he said he would keep an open mind and seemed at least somewhat satisfied by remarks from the developer’s team, including Scarinci Hollenbeck LLC land use attorney Donald Pepe, who detailed a plan to build several new roads and other major infrastructure improvements.
Harbor Station South is part of Bayonne’s fast-changing former Military Ocean Terminal property. City officials adopted a redevelopment plan for the 72-acre zone in late 2015 and amended it in 2017 and 2018.
Existing development within HS-2 includes a Bayonne Fire Department station and the 96-unit rental property known as The Waterview, officials said, while another multifamily building is under construction. As The Jersey Journal reported, the other recent development on the former Military Ocean Terminal currently includes apartment buildings under 10 stories, as well as new retail and industrial space.
