Green Space Added to Ironbound High Rises to Address Concern
By Matt Kadosh,
2024-08-29
Tanisha Garner, an Ironbound resident and co-president of the local housing advocacy organization Homes For All Newark, speaks at the Aug. 27 meeting. At right, is Alberto Coutinho, a consultant for developer Chess Builders. Credits: Matt Kadosh/TAPinto Newark
NEWARK — The developer of a proposed high-rise project in the East Ward unveiled revised plans with additional open spaces between the four towers that will create 1,400 apartments next to the Passaic River.
The updated plans for the Iberia development no longer call for a pedestrian plaza and instead include more green space in between two 26-story and two 30-story buildings proposed for about 2.5 acres at 31-39 Jefferson St. and 450-466 Market St., Jennifer Carrillo-Perez, an attorney for developer Chess Builders, told residents at Sport Club Português.
“What we heard from the community was clearly a request to remove the proposed Congress Street pedestrian plaza,” Carrillo-Perez said. “That was done to provide more open space.”
Residents raised concerns about affordability, flooding potential, parking and impact on schools for a project the city has promoted as a driver of both jobs and revenue.
The meeting came in advance of City Council’s final vote and a public hearing scheduled for Sept. 5 on a local law to increase the building height allowed on the site from 12 stories to 30 stories.
Carrillo-Perez said her client also confirmed the city zoning would allow for the construction of a medical facility on the site, something residents had asked about during a first meeting with the developer.
While the project calls for 280 affordable units – the 20% required under the city’s inclusionary zoning law – community members raised concerns about whom those units would be affordable for.
Rents for the affordable units, Carrillo-Perez said, would range from $900 to $1,200 based on the type of the unit. The developer, she added, had not completed projections to determine what the market rate rents would be.
Tanisha Garner, an Ironbound resident and co-president of the local housing advocacy organization Homes For All Newark, said she is concerned about affordability amid rising rents across the city and the closures of public housing complexes including Terrell Homes, a complex in the East Ward, which is being rebuilt and Seth Boyden Court, which was torn down in 2022 and is also being redeveloped .
“How the hell do you change laws to benefit developers, but you’re not helping the community?” Garner asked. “How many people lost their homes?”
Hazel Applewhite, CEO of the nonprofit Ironbound Community Corporation, said she attended to ensure community members’ voices are heard. The project site, she noted, abuts the Passaic River.
“They’re concerned about parking. They’re concerned about flooding, and they’re concerned about the environmental issues,” Applewhite told TAPinto Newark. “The master plan does speak to a climate adaptive plan that should be put in place.”
An engineer for the developer said the project would reduce the runoff going into the combined sewage and stormwater management system by 50% to 80%.
“We’re going to be reducing the amount of flow that’s going into that system,” the engineer, Phillip Scott, said. “Right now, there is no stormwater management system that is managing that runoff.”
The developer has proposed 590 parking spaces, with 150 of them open to the public.
On the agenda for approval next week will be City Council’s zoning amendment, which is needed to allow for the building heights proposed. The proposed law says it is to “facilitate a transformative redevelopment project.” It received the full support of council members when it was introduced earlier this month, including that of East Ward Councilman Michael Silva.
“This development is going to bring jobs for two-and-a-half to three years. It’s going to bring several million dollars in community benefits,” Silva said on Tuesday. “It’s going to bring permanent jobs in retail. It’s going to bring revenue into the city of Newark, which we desperately need.”
Noting the space is a vacant lot, he said, the project will create an improved environment for both people who already live in Newark and future residents. “All the businesses that are located here are going to prosper from it,” he added.
Deborah Smith Gregory, president of the NAACP Newark Branch, asked about the zoning change.
“When the property was purchased, and it was zoned for one way, why didn’t the developers leave it that one way instead of deciding to direct a mini-co-op city in Newark on the waterfront?” Smith Gregory asked. Other developers, she added, are building five and seven story buildings in the East Ward, “That blend aesthetically into the neighborhood.”
Carrillo-Perez said the project is consistent with what the master plan – a guide for development approved in 2022 – promotes and what the city government is looking for in proximity to Newark Penn Station. The upcoming City Council vote, she said, concerns the allowable height, not density.
“The reality is Newark needs quality, new affordable housing and market rate housing,” Carrillo-Perez said. “The only way you’re going to get affordable is to create market rate.”
What’s Next?
Newark City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and vote Thursday, Sept. 5, on a local law to increase the building height allowed from 12 stories to 30 stories at 31-39 Jefferson St. and 450-466 Market St. The meeting is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m., at City Hall, 920 Broad St. Approval of site plans by the Central Planning Board would be required before the Iberia project could move ahead.
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