No Kayaking At Hoboken Cove? Dry Dock Plan Blasted At Hearing

HOBOKEN, NJ — People who enjoy free kayaking events at Hoboken Cove may have to bid them farewell if NY Waterway gets permission to proceed with its plans to build a ferry refueling, storage and maintenance facility at the Union Dry Dock site.

Such was the testimony of Oscar Hernandez, a member of the Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse board of directors, one of hundreds of people who packed the DeBaun Auditorium at Stevens Institute of Technology on Wednesday evening.

During the public hearing – held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prior to ruling on NY Waterway’s permit – Hernandez said that the proposed ferry facility would abut a local beach where the Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse offers free kayaking to 6,000 people each year.

"If you look at this first picture here from NY Waterway, it shows not only will they use the dock, but they are also going to take the whole water area known as the cove,” Hernandez said. “That will effectively kill our operations, our free kayaking. We will no longer be able to do this anymore."

It’s just one of several possible impacts to the city’s waterfront area – both positive and negative - that drew more than 400 city officials, local labor leaders, community activists and nearby residents to Wednesday’s meeting.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said prior to the meeting that it “neither favors nor opposes the proposed construction work.” (Read the full notice about NY Waterway’s permit application here)

NY Waterway has argued that the company has a right to operate a maintenance facility on the Dry Dock property at 901 Sinatra Drive, which it recently purchased for $11.5 million.

"The Union Dry Dock site has been used as a marine repair facility for more than a century," said Arthur Imperatore, a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame and founder of NY Waterway. "It is the only available site with the zoning required for NY Waterway to operate. There is no other available and suitable facility than Union Dry Dock with deep water, piers and heavy electrical power."

Local commuters should support NY Waterway’s plans for the Dry Dock, especially those who take the ferry when the other public transit systems fail, Imperatore previously said.

• See related article: NY Waterway Founder To Hoboken Council: Leave Dry Dock Alone
• See related article: Hoboken Council Greenlights Eminent Domain For Dry Dock

But on Wednesday evening at Stevens Institute, many of those in the audience were there to attest to the possible negative effects of NY Waterway’s plan.

State Assemblywoman Annette Chaparro, Hoboken City Council President Ruben Ramos and three other members of the Hoboken City Council also spoke, all denouncing the proposal to locate a ferry depot at the center of Hoboken’s nearly completed waterfront park.

Representatives from several local advocacy groups - including the Quality of Life Coalition, the Fund for a Better Waterfront, Hoboken Residents for a Public Waterfront and the local chapter of The Sierra Club - also said that they opposed the permit application.

Hudson County View posted the below video from the hearing (story continues below).

“We chose Maxwell due to the access to the waterfront that the community offers, which is now the backyard for our child,” said Jenna Masaitis, a Hoboken resident who spoke against the proposed facility during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Masaitis said that she and her husband purchased a unit at Maxwell Place located a few hundred feet from the former Union Dry Dock site. Twelve days ago, she gave birth to her first child.

“My daughter should not have to grow up breathing diesel fumes in her backyard when more viable options exist,” Masaitis said.

Noelle Thurlow of Resilience Paddle Sports said that more than 85 different species have been identified near the Dry Dock site.

“Local high school students, local college students, school aged children, and myself have been documenting the species that live right there at the Union Dry Dock site and in Hoboken Cove for the last five years,” Thurlow attested. “We have found over eight endangered species and no full environmental assessment has been done. Surely, that is in our laws, that should be done before any construction or dredging or anything happens.”

• See related article: US Army Engineers Enter Battle Over Hoboken's Dry Dock

One of the proposed project’s most vociferous opponents has been Mayor Ravinder Bhalla, who has been supporting local advocacy group Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) in the quest to make the Union Dry Dock site part of Hoboken’s proposed continuous, public waterfront park.

In an email sent to residents shortly before Wednesday’s hearing, Bhalla extolled them to come out to the meeting and speak out against the project. He wrote:

“Hoboken does not deserve a diesel oil refueling depot that poses a serious risk to our local environment. Our children at our parks and schools don’t deserve to have their health placed at risk by inhaling fumes from a refueling station. Residents don’t deserve to have thousands more boats crowding our waterway and preventing activities like paddle boarding and kayaking. Our local habitat doesn’t deserve to have its very existence threatened due to the serious environmental risks. And our community doesn’t deserve to have a refueling station along OUR waterfront that adds NO additional ferry service or reduces the price for Hoboken commuters taking the ferry.”

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Photo: The Hoboken Cove beach with Union Dry Dock in background on City of Water Day 2016 sponsored by the Waterfront Alliance (betterwaterfront.org)