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Volume XX • Number 27 • July 4 - 10, 2013 •
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Jersey guv asked to save river view By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER In a pitched battle between business and aesthetics, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. has joined forces with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, former New Jersey governors, The Cloisters, editors of The New York Times and nature conservation groups in opposing the construction of an eight-story office building in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, by LG Electronics USA. The site, from a New York perspective, appears to be right on the New Jersey Palisades—a geological spectacle of sheer cliffs and wooded slopes that offer a visual treat extending for miles along the western shore of the Hudson. Opponents claim the proposed building will mar their view of the Palisades. LG, a multinational electronics giant based in South Korea, has been established for 25 years at a nearby site in Englewood Cliffs. The new headquarters will allow the 500 employees at the current location to share a single space with 450 employees from the tri-state area and still have room for growth, according to a company website. Palisades Interstate Park, a 12-mile section of the cliffs, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983. Developers in this area are restricted from building higher than 35 feet, but LG secured a variance for a 143-foot-high building. LG should change its plan, the critics say, to make that structure sit lower and wider on the company’s 27-acre parcel at 111 Sylvan Avenue, across the river from Ft. Tryon Park in Manhattan and clearly within view from Wave Hill in North Riverdale. A June 25 letter from Diaz and Stringer to New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie— unanswered as of press time—urges the governor to follow four of his predecessors who have “joined the growing chorus of disapproval concerning the construction of this office tower.” “While the Palisades are physically located in New Jersey,” the letter states, “they are of such importance to the people and the cultural institutions of New York City that our own development rules have ensured that their view is not obstructed.” In response to this and earlier criticism, LG bought full-page ads in New Jersey papers published on June 23 and June 30 to counter what it called “fiction” with “fact.” The claim in the Diaz/Stringer letter that the development as it stands “threatens to alter” the “unspoiled, pristine views of the Palisades” is countered in the June 30 ad with a statement that existing buildings, including “two 47-story towers under construction,” some visible residential buildings a half-mile south and a building
identified as Saint Peter’s University to the north, already top the tree line. The building north of the LG property is actually St. Michael’s Villa, a 70-yearold four-story building with a five-story tower owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, a Roman Catholic order. The Sisters use the building and others nearby as residences, and they lease a two-story building on the property to St. Peter’s University, according to a source there. To dispute a June 24 New York Times editorial opining that the LG site could accommodate a low-rise office complex that would “fit the company’s needs,” the ad states that a redesign would “severely delay the economic and community benefits the new building will bring to the region.” “New Jersey needs jobs now,” the ad contends, referring to the thousand construction jobs the project would create. The current design secured the necessary state, county and borough approvals, and “a redesign will mean a new round of approvals, additional architectural and site planning work as well as opening the door to further legal challenges and related financial costs.” LG’s vice president of public affairs John Taylor said redesign costs would add tens of millions of dollars to the cost of the
planned $300 million project. But why didn’t LG anticipate strong opposition to any alteration of the Palisades view and start out with a design for lower buildings? Taylor said the development plan was duly subjected to a series of public hearings and that the company did respond to suggestions at the time. “LG was very responsive to the community during the six public hearings and, as a result, we made various design changes at that appropriate time in the development process. Frankly, we didn’t anticipate any ‘strong opposition,’ especially at the 11th hour in the project,” he said. The June 23 ad presents two doctored photos created by two separate sources, each depicting the proposed building as a conspicuous solid white block protruding out of the landscape. The “accurate and honest portrayal of LG’s new HQ, as seen by the naked eye, from The Cloisters” is shown in a rendering as an unobtrusive form that’s “barely visible above the tree line.” The ad also points out that, contrary to opponents’ descriptions of the building as a “tower,” the proposed structure is a “state-of-the-art low-slung horizontal office building which is significantly wider than it is tall.” A tower, according to architectural definitions, is much taller
than it is wide. The bottom line is that LG, albeit reluctantly, will continue to consider a compromise. “We’re sensitive to the community on both sides of the river. We’re looking at design alternatives,” Taylor said. LG “tried hard to reach a compromise and put some significant offers on the table” pertaining to building height during a court-ordered six-week mediation process, but “there were no counteroffers, so it was clear that there wasn’t really any negotiating going on,” he added. Bergen County Superior Court Judge Alexander H. Carver is expected to issue a ruling on the mediation sometime this summer, and a pending lawsuit now stalling the project will be addressed on the basis of the ruling. “LG expects to prevail in court,” Taylor said. “It’s not so easy just to make the building shorter and fatter. There are lots of business considerations in terms of the square footage we need, the timing considerations, reopening the entire process for the approvals that are necessary. Our hope is that we can find a compromise that will mitigate the concerns of those who are concerned about their view and still meet our business needs. That’s always been our position.”
State Senator Jeff Klein and Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. enjoy the official Bronx Fireworks Display at Orchard Beach last week. Two public officials provided the financing of the annual event, which was attended by thousands. Photo: Jason Green