This past Tuesday, the Hoboken Planning Board delayed the vote on Stevens’ application to develop two 21- and 19-story towers, which are slated to replace Jacobus and Hayden Halls by August 2021. This delay, which occurred simply because the meeting ran so long that a vote could not happen, requires Stevens to appear before the Board again sometime in either November or December to receive approval for the project.
These towers — which will contain a new fitness center, a conference center, student and faculty lounges, a new food service and dining venue, a convenience store, new space for student organizations, office space, and housing for approximately 1,000 students — are pivotal in Stevens’ 10-year plan.
Hoboken City Council approved zoning changes in August that allowed Stevens to pursue the towers project, provided that they first receive approval from several Hoboken municipal boards, including the Planning Board.
Stevens first sought approval on the completeness of their application from the Planning Board in early September, where the Board decided Stevens’ application itself was complete. Stevens still needed approval to actually proceed with the project, so the Planning Board arranged that discussion for this past Tuesday.
“The purpose of the Oct. 30th meeting was for the Planning Board to review the University Center/Student Housing project, hear expert testimony on various aspects of the project, e.g., the new campus zoning in which this project fits, the building architecture, the engineering, the building operations, and the traffic and parking impacts, and vote on whether the project is approved to proceed or not,” Beth McGrath, Chief of Staff and Vice President for Government and Community Relations, told The Stute in an email.
At the meeting, Stevens administrators and representatives explained the need for the towers and gave a detailed overview of how the towers would be integrated into the Stevens campus.
“The need for on-campus housing was one of the paramount goals [of this plan],” said Keenan Hughes. Creating additional space for student organizations, which is a need frequently expressed by student organizations, was also a primary goal of this project.
Some of the members of the Planning Board raised concerns about the overall appearance of the towers. One member asked whether or not students would place items, such as flags or posters, in the glass windows of these towers. Another member asked why Stevens chose to include both brick and glass into the project, contending that this project might not match the Hoboken aesthetic. For nearly all of these concerns, the members of the Planning Board assured that they only suggest to Stevens to keep these concerns in mind when moving forward with this project and that their vote wouldn’t be contingent on these changes.
After the Planning Board listened to the expert testimony provided by Stevens, Frank Magaletta, Chair of the Board, informed the attendees that the meeting was nearing its intended end time of 10:45 p.m.
“Although Stevens was able to present all its expert witnesses at the Oct. 30th meeting,” McGrath told The Stute in an email after the meeting, “there was not enough time to complete the review, public comment, Board discussion, and vote. The Planning Board’s practice is not to meet past 10:45 p.m.”
Despite the delay of this vote, “Vice President Maffia and his team are committed to staying on schedule to meet the target Fall 2021 opening of the University Center/Student Housing project,” McGrath said in an email.
The next meeting where a vote can occur on Stevens’ application for the University Towers is unknown. On November 8, the Planning Board will meet to decide when they will consider Stevens’ application for the third time.
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