A large crowd at the South Amboy Council Chambers *Photo by Joseph L. Kuchie

Vote Passes 3-2 Despite Significant Push Back From City Residents

By: Joseph L. Kuchie

SOUTH AMBOY – City Hall was at maximum capacity last Wednesday as the South Amboy City Council voted to approve the Manhattan Beach Project by a vote of 3-2.

Council President Mickey Gross along with Councilwomen Zusette Dato and Christine Noble voted in favor of the project, which will bring 501 residential units to South Amboy by 2025 and could potentially grow to 1,750 units over the next 25 years. Councilmen Brian McLaughlin and Tom Reilly, who have voiced their concerns about the project over the last few months, voted no.

The city held a nearly four-hour public hearing before the vote despite holding a previous public hearing on the project during the city’s business meeting on December 5. Multiple residents lined up at the microphone once again to voice their concerns about the future impacts this project would have, and a large contingency of local union workers were on hand to fight against the project’s open shop agreement.

“Three-quarters of the people in this room feed their families that work for the trades. You guys got a 25-year pilot, we got nothing,” Councilman Brian McLaughlin said. 

Joel Whitley from Sherman Group, the owner of the Manhattan Beach property, was on hand to talk through the agreement and answer any questions the council or residents had. He mentioned while the project is open shop, the parking garages will be built by union labor and the redeveloper BNE will make their best effort to hire local workers on the project.

“We have a commitment in our redevelopment agreement that we signed four years ago, that commitment includes a commitment that we do the best we can to hire locally in the town,” Whitley said. “It’s a commitment we intend to live up to through all phases of this.”

“Another commitment that they made in connection with this project was that it would be open shop, which means that they will look and accept bids from both union and non-union labor for all parts of the project,” he added. “They have also agreed to commit that specifically the parking garages will be built with union labor.”

Councilmen McLaughlin and Reilly motioned to postpone the vote before the public hearing after new details emerged following the December 5 meeting, including a new report from Superintendent of Schools Jorge Diaz stating the school system could not take on a significant increase of new students.

“We have a report from the Superintendent of Schools that I have in my hand which clearly contradicts what was in the planning report,” Reilly said. “In summary the district is already struggling with funding the current increases of student population which will be exasperated by the loss of state aid. This does not take into account the impact from the new development which will undoubtedly financially burden the district further without consideration of funding from the pilot.”

This report comes two weeks after Mayor Fred Henry was told by the Superintendent that the city could handle anywhere between 200-300 additional students. Mayor Henry assured residents that he and the Superintendent had met again on Wednesday and the city will do what they need to do in order to support the school system.

“[Business Administrator] Glenn [Skarzynski] and I had a meeting with the Superintendent this afternoon and we basically promised him, we pledged to him that yes we are going to help fund the schools,” Mayor Henry said. “I realize that it’s a little bit of a different way to do things, but we have pledged that we will definitely entertain whatever they need.” 

“Redevelopment is done all over the place in the state of New Jersey, but this is one way of doing things that allows us to help fund the school in different ways,” he added. “Tom you can disagree with it but I think I’m good for my word on that, the Superintendent and I shook on this and we will definitely help fund the school.”

South Amboy has also become a potential location for Offshore Winds facilities, a process that the state has bought into that will move New Jersey toward a goal of 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. Matt Greller, an attorney specializing in federal legislative regarding energy, spoke to the council about the possible industrial entities that South Amboy could bring in rather than build the Manhattan Beach Project.

“When we talk about the location of this property, the ability to build 100 acres for this property and the former JCP&L site in addition to those north of New Jersey Transit, you have the opportunity to build the entire hub for the entire Offshore Wind industry for the United States,” Greller said. “Just yesterday one of the Offshore Wind developers committed to $25 million next year alone, that’s from one private entity which pales in comparison to the $7.3 – $9.6 million over 25 years that this [project] will generate apparently for South Amboy.”

“Why are we trying to move ahead with both when we can realize as a community, as a county, and as a state that we can do so much better, so much bigger without any of these concerns and issues for the local community in terms of traffic and schools?” Geller asked. “The projection is 40,000 jobs for Offshore Wind, hundreds could come here that’s pro-labor, pro-union.”

Mayor Henry explained to Geller that the city has been involved in talks with the state and potential Offshore Wind clients about building in South Amboy. However, he mentioned that this was a situation where they could have both.

“We have spoken with three different companies, we’ve had them down here with the Speaker of the Assembly Craig Coughlin, the state is obviously very much involved in wanting to do this,” Mayor Henry said. “We showed them the properties mentioned and they are very interested. It’s not that we don’t want to deal with them, we do want to deal with them, but again it’s a situation where we can probably have both.”

Despite the new details, the council voted against delaying the vote on the Manhattan Beach Project, and the redevelopment was approved. 

“The Mayor and the Council are elected and sworn to act and serve the interest and be the voice for the city and its people as a process,” said John Coy, a labor representative from the Central Labor Council of New Jersey. “It seems there’s an unwillingness to meet that obvious will of the people to postpone the vote. Certainly, there’s a disconnect here. They are asking tonight for better answers. I think giving it a little more time and giving it consideration that the people are asking for is the answer.”

All council members were in attendance. The next city council meeting will be held on January 30 at 7:00 p.m.