LD and the Palisades
As of now, by 2017, a low slung, 143- foot tall rectangular office building will rise above the ribbon of trees north and west of the George Washington Bridge – a monument to the marriage of big money and small town politics. Perched on the cliffs opposite the Cloisters, the tower will be the first visible structure built since John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated 2500 acres to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in the 1930s. Rockefellerʼs gift was to prevent quarry companies from blasting parts of the magnificent geological formation into gravel. Now, in the digital age, the natural beauty of the cliffs is under siege again.
South Korean electronics giant, LG Electronics, broke ground last November in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey for its new U.S. headquarters. The 27-acre site is less than a quarter-mile from the cliffs and sandwiched between Sylvan Avenue and Hudson Terrace. The $300 million campus will accommodate 1,200 to 1,600 employees.
A long term resident of the area, LG already contributes about $750,000 to the boroughʼs tax base. The new campus is expected to garner another $1.6 million. These numbers may explain why the Englewood Cliffs Zoning Board quietly approved the project in 2012, granting a variance to LG to build higher than the townʼs 35-foot height restriction. The zoning board was dissolved soon after and absorbed by the townʼs planning board.
The variance went uncontested until it became clear the project would seriously impact the view up the northwest side of the Hudson. Local residents, preservation groups and environmental agencies mobilized to contest the zoning boardʼs decision. In 2013, in spite of rising opposition, the decision was upheld by the New Jersey Superior Court. Residents of Englewood Cliffs, the Federation of Womenʼs Clubs and Scenic Hudson have since filed a lawsuit against LG.
As media scrutiny increases, and politicians from New Jersey and New York call for a redesign of the project, the townʼs planning board is scrambling to cobble together a new Master Development Plan for Englewood Cliffs, ostensibly to legitimize the approval of the LG project. The town hired New Jersey planning firm Phillips Preiss Grygiel to do a second development assessment after the first company contracted was found to have a conflict of interest. At a public hearing in April, Paul Phillips, a principal with the firm, made a case for high rise commercial development in Englewood Cliffs to a packed house of over 300 local residents, union representatives, and at least one highly vocal lawyer.
“Taller buildings with open floor plans…more cuttingedge modern architecture and views,” said Phillips, “are more highly valued by high tech companies and large corporations alike.” But Englewood Cliffs resident Mary OʼShea expressed the frustrations of many when she said the only downside of prohibiting buildings over 35 feet in her town would be that “the CEO of LG would not be able to look out the penthouse and see the George Washington Bridge.”
In June the furor over the LG project reached the state capital in Trenton where a 3-2 vote from the Senate Environment and Energy Committee moved forward a bill proposing a “preservation zone” prohibiting buildings over 35 feet within 2,000 yards of the Palisades between the northern part of Fort Lee and the New York state border. If passed, the bill would apply retroactively to the LG building.
After initial reluctance to delay the project, LG is now saying it wants an amiable compromise, but claims a redesign will cost at least $10 million.
Englewood Cliffs Mayor Joseph Parisi said at a June press conference, “Remember, they can always say, ʻWeʼre out of here.ʼ”
But Michele Byers, executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, thinks LG is too invested in the site to cut and run. “The community has been making it clear they donʼt want to become another Fort Lee,” she says, “LG has a great opportunity for a win-win solution.”
Nevertheless, LG wields a big monetary stick in a small town. And thanks to a handful of short sighted bureaucrats, that stick looms large over a National Historic Landmark.
To access an online petition urging LG to redesign its project go to www.protectthepalisades.org