Jersey City Redevelopment Plan Upheld Despite Passage of Time

High rise housing is permitted in City’s Powerhouse Arts District following adoption of amended Redevelopment Plan

 A neighborhood action group’s argument that a redevelopment plan was wrongly amended was rejected by the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court in a recently published opinion.  The neighborhood group filed an action in the Superior Court after the City’s planning board recommended, and the City Council adopted, an amendment which would permit several high rise buildings in what is now called the Powerhouse Arts District.  The group filed an appeal after the trial court dismissed its case, and argued on appeal that the trial judge applied the incorrect standard of review, that the amendment would fail under any standard of review because it contradicted the original plan, and that properties from previous blight designations could not now be tacked onto this redevelopment project.

In affirming the trial court’s decision, the Appellate Division found that the statutory “arbitrary and capricious” standard of review in the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law (LRHL) applies to both amendments and the adoption of the original plan.  Further, although a redevelopment plan under the LRHL requires a prior blight designation, each is governed by a different section and standard of review.  The Appellate Division also found that the LRHL permitted the inclusion of properties previously declared blighted in the original redevelopment plan, and that the parties were time-barred from raising such an argument because they were not challenging the blight designation which could have potentially raised a DeRose notice issue.  Finally, the Appellate Division noted that the original twenty-nine year old blight designation of the separately included properties is not erased with the passage of time, and served as a valid blight designation for redevelopment purposes.

 A copy of the Appellate Division’s opinion in Powerhouse Arts District Neighborhood Assoc., v. City Council of Jersey City, __ N.J. Super. __ (App. Div. 2010), can be found here.

 Read more about the DeRose case, in which the property owners were represented by McKirdy & Riskin’s Richard DeAngelis, Edward McKirdy and Anthony Della Pelle, on our New Jersey Condemnation Law Blog.  

 The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Cory K. Kestner, Esq., of McKirdy & Riskin, PA, in the preparation of this article.