Opponents of state office buildings sue Christie
TRENTON » Let the battle begin.
Gov. Chris Christie’s $250 million plan to tear down two state buildings and replace them with new structures outside of the city’s transit or economic development hubs has prompted a group of opponents to take legal action in hopes of blocking the project from being funded.
The opposition group, led by New Jersey Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), Trenton City Council President Zachary Chester and former Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer view Christie’s plan as “bad policy” and unlawful and hope to get a better plan in place that has the support of city residents.
On Dec. 12, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority or EDA approved the issuance of approximately $250 million of bonds to construct new buildings to house the state Departments of Health, Agriculture and Taxation in line with Christie’s vision.
Gusciora, Chester and Palmer are among several plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to persuade a judge to put the kibosh on the Christie-backed construction plan. Their complaint seeks declaratory relief on the grounds that “such bond issue, absent a public referendum, is illegal and violates public policy and should be preliminarily and permanently restrained along with any expenditure of any monies so raised.”
The plaintiffs and their attorney, Bruce Afran of Princeton, met Thursday at Gusciora’s legislative office to discuss their state office building project lawsuit.
“This unfortunately was an 11th hour plan by the governor,” the assemblyman said of Christie’s state office project. “We want the development. We just think that it needs to be thought through and have the buildings moved into either the downtown area or the transit center, which would foster so much more development, and that is what our suit is about.”
Gusciora cited New Brunswick as an example of smart development, saying New Brunswick “has really emerged as a beautiful planned city” that the city of Trenton can learn from.
Chester said the Christie administration pushed ahead with the $250 million building construction plan without getting City Council’s input.
“I think Trentonians should have a voice in this project,” he said. “As the city council president, I believe that we should have had an input in this process, and the City of Trenton City Council did not have any input at all.”
Palmer, who has served as Trenton’s popularly elected mayor from 1990 to 2010, rejected the argument posited by supporters that Christie’s plan is better than no plan.
“This project has the opportunity to transform the downtown, the city, this region and create real jobs for people in and around the city,” Palmer said, “so something is not better than nothing when it comes to this.”
Palmer said all plaintiffs in the litigation “really speak for thousands of Trentonians that want to see something better than just state buildings put up without any thought of how it will impact the people that live here to get them jobs.”
In September 2016, Christie outlined his vision to bulldoze the state’s Taxation building at 50 Barrack St. and the Health and Agriculture building, which is located at 369 S. Warren St., to free up space in Trenton for redevelopment.
If Christie gets his way, a new seven-story, 175,000-square-foot building will be erected at the northwest corner of John Fitch Way and South Warren Street to house Taxation, and a five-story, 135,000-square-foot Health and Agriculture building will be constructed on the southwest corner of North Willow and West Hanover Streets. Both spaces are currently state-owned parking lots.
Some of the biggest cheerleaders for Christie’s plan are trade unions, including Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer/Middlesex), who also serves as president of the Mercer/Burlington Building Trades Council.
“This is an enormous amount of work for the men and women of the building trades, putting regional people, local people on local jobs,” DeAngelo said earlier this week. “No one wants to come into the holiday on unemployment and seeing these projects further delayed would be a detriment to their livelihood.”
Palmer had a message for the building trades: “We are going to build, so don’t worry about that,” he said. “You are going to build; you are going to get work; the people selling the bonds, you are going to make your $30 million, but it is time that the citizens of Trenton and this region take advantage of this, so I am calling for a hold.”
“Downtown Trenton is safe and is a great place to be, but people leave here after 5 o’clock,” Palmer said. “We need people that have disposable income to live in the downtown area to support the local businesses, and a project like this — if planned and done right — will be able to do that.”
The attorney for the plaintiffs has expressed confidence in their lawsuit against Christie. The plaintiffs are suing the governor as well as several state entities that have supported Christie’s construction plan.
“This lawsuit says very clearly the bond issue that will fund these ill-thought-out buildings is illegal, it violates the state Constitution, and it interferes with the rights of the voters to approve debt,” Afran said, “and we are asking the court to stop it, to permanently restrain it and force this whole project back on the drawing boards and ultimately in the hands of the people who have to approve it.”
The state plans to sell the bonds on Jan. 4, 2018, but the plaintiffs will be asking the Mercer County Superior Court’s Chancery Division for an injunction “in the coming days” to block the sale of the bonds, Afran said.
A group known as Stakeholders Allied for the Core of Trenton, or Stakeholders ACT, has risen up in strong opposition to Christie’s plan to construct two new state buildings outside the city’s economic development and transit areas. The group says the state should instead build new Taxation and Agriculture and Health buildings under a well-planned revitalization project that incorporates mixed-use development of commercial and residential properties and creates long-term jobs.
While the president of Trenton City Council is absolutely opposed to Christie’s construction plan, the administration of current Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson has expressed support for it.
The governor’s office would not comment for this article. “We won’t discuss pending litigation,” Christie spokesman Brian Murray said Thursday in an email. A spokesman for the state’s Treasury Department gave a similar response.
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs Gusciora, Palmer, Chester and citizen-taxpayers Anne Labate, Jeffrey Laurenti and Shakira AbdulAli are suing Gov. Christie, State Treasurer Ford M. Scudder, the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority and the State Capital Joint Management Commission also known as the State House Commission.
Christie, a Republican, is in his final weeks of office and will be succeeded next month by Democratic Gov.-elect Phil Murphy.