The Bayonne Planning Board is set to hear a number of items at tomorrow’s meeting, including redevelopment plans, studies, and an application to reconfigure an already approved development for a hotel, banquet hall, and residential towers.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
The first redevelopment plan on the agenda is for the former Lukoil Station at 1191-1205 Kennedy Blvd., located towards the northern city line where Bayonne meets Jersey City.
In September and December of last year, the City Council respectively approved resolutions designating the 20,052 square foot area for redevelopment.
The site is currently home to a vacant lot that the Lukoil Station used to reside on and two 2-story homes. The plan allows for multifamily buildings, retail, and mixed uses.
According to the redevelopment plan, a multi-story mixed-use building with a maximum of 9 stories, 130 residential units, and parking on the ground floor “is envisioned in this area.”
The plan states that they have been initiated “as part of the city’s ongoing effort to revitalize underutilized and distressed properties within the city and to incentivize private investment in areas where conventional zoning has failed to manifest the same.”
The second redevelopment plan on the agenda was for 1012-1022 Avenue C, the site of a former synagogue. The amendment corrects a clerical error that incorrectly stated the lot’s street frontage as 63 feet when in reality it is only 38.17 feet.
The error was a holdover from when the plan contemplated including the bagel shop property next door.
Meanwhile, the Planning Board will determine if Baran Roofing at 104-108 West 7th St. all the way in Downtown Bayonne is an area in need of redevelopment.
Also on the agenda is an application by South Cove Development II, LLC and South Cove Development III, LLC, to reconfigure an already-approved development for the construction of a 98,209 square foot hotel with 125 rooms, a 19,639 square foot banquet hall, a 9,520 square foot retail space, and a 9,472 square foot restaurant.
The amendment is seeking to slightly relocate and adjust the previously approved hotel and banquet hall to the site of the now-closed Houlihan’s and commercial space at the end of the adjacent strip mall at 71-191 LeFante Way in the South Cove Commons shopping center.
There are also amendments to the residential towers also already approved in the same area, featuring two towers with 696 units in each building and 508 parking spaces.
According to the application, the height of the project will remain at 300 feet maximum, the same height as previously approved. However, the internal layout of the building has been modified so that there will be 29 stories instead of the prior-approved 24 stories.
The amendment is necessary since the redevelopment plan specifically states “300 feet/ 24 stories.”
Interestingly enough, the Historic Preservation Commission did raise some concerns, not over historic preservation but over a perceived lack parking for the hotel itself and the additional stories added to the residential towers:
“This raises concerns about overcrowding on top of the problem of insufficient parking.”
The meeting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, February 10th at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall at 630 Avenue C.
