Fort Lee Issues 2012

Fort Lee Patch has spent the past several days looking back on 2011 as we near the end of the year, but today, we take a look at some of the major local stories that are likely to play out in 2012:

Fort Lee Superintendent of Schools

Steven Engravalle has been serving in the role of Acting Superintendent since former Superintendent of Schools Raymond Bandlow left the district at the end of October.

Patch has documented how Engravalle’s appointment came about—from the tabling a resolution that would have appointed him in late September, to the BOE’s special meeting to take public comment on the issue in October, to the actual vote to appoint him to the post a week later—but the fact remains that the “Acting” Superintendent was only approved to “act” in the role for four months. The four-month time period comes to an end at the end of February, and BOE officials will have to decide whether to extend Engravalle’s designation as Acting Superintendent, appoint him Superintendent or move in another direction.

At the same meeting that Engravalle was approved to serve in his current role, the school board also unanimously approved an accompanying resolution to solicit bids from superintendent search firms.

“We were kind of disappointed with the number of responses that we got,” said board president Arthur Levine at a regular business meeting on Dec. 19, answering a question about where the search stands currently.

Business Administrator Cheryl Balletto said she had reached out to “one other firm” and received a proposal, bringing the total to four responses, and that all of the firms that are going to respond have already done so

In the meantime, Engravalle has been acting as a “one man band,” as he and Levine have put it, with no Acting Assistant Superintendent—an appointment that would be valid only for the remainder of the time the Acting Superintendent serves in the role—and without a Director of School Counseling Services—a position left vacant when Jamie E. Ciofalo left the district to take a position in Lodi.

“I’ve made recommendations to the board with regard to how that situation does need to be handled,” Engravalle has said publicly regarding the situation.

School Bond Referendum

On Jan. 24, 2012 Fort Lee voters will go to the polls to determine the fate of the Fort Lee Board of Education’s $30.2 million school bond referendum.

It was more than a year ago—mid-December 2010—when Fort Lee voters defeated a multi-million dollar proposal to upgrade and expand the borough's school system for the second time in three months. The final tally was 2,034 votes opposed to the measure, and 1,357 in favor. The school board had originally presented a $99 million plan in September 2010, but voters turned that down by a margin of just 54 votes, 1,651 to 1,597.

The second plan whittled the cost to $89 million and called for building a new elementary school, expanding the middle school, high school and School No. 2, and repairing roofs, replacing windows, and heating and air conditioning systems at all four elementary schools, the middle school and the high school.

January’s significantly scaled-back, roughly $30.2 million referendum—nearly $10 million of which would come from state grant funding—includes mostly infrastructure repairs and upgrades school officials see as critically essential.

If the referendum passes, the school district would receive $9,775,611 in state aid—or about 33 percent of the overall cost of the project. The local share would be $20,430,466, and the tax impact would be an estimated $103 a year on an “average assessed home” valued at $468,436.

The school board’s community engagement efforts so far have included one public forum at the attended by about a dozen or so people with two more to follow on Tues., Jan. 3, at 7 p.m. and Tues., Jan 17, at 7 p.m.; several public walking tours intended to provide undecided voters with a firsthand look at the problems plaguing Fort Lee Schools with two more upcoming on Wed., Jan. 4, at 11 a.m. and Wed. Jan. 18, at 7 p.m.; and a special website detailing the plan and the rationale behind it and providing downloadable voting forms, downloadable plans, images of each of the schools, a Q&A section and a tax calculator so voters can see exactly how much of a tax impact they would see if the referendum passes, among other information.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and several members of the Borough Council have come out in full support of the referendum this time around—and toured the schools—after Sokolich admitted they may not have publically supported it enough last year.

Critics have argued that in tough economic times, asking taxpayers to help foot the bill may be asking too much, but school officials have countered that the district risks losing $9.7 million in state aid if the referendum fails yet again.

Levine said at the first community forum in December that school officials are “mindful of every dollar” and “recognize the difficult economic circumstances.”

But he also said, “We need to get this done.”

“There is no greater insurance than having strong schools for your real estate values,” Levine said. “And most importantly, our kids need it. We need to keep them competitive. They don’t have the years anymore to wait. We’ve put it off for long enough. There has been virtually nothing done; now’s the time.”

We will learn on Jan. 24 if Fort Lee voters agree.

Redevelopment Area 5

At last January’s reorganization meeting, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich promised Fort Lee residents in his "State of the Borough" address that they would see “significant progress” on the 16 acres of land now commonly known as Redevelopment Area 5 in 2011, saying “Fort Lee will get that which it deserves—its restaurants, its retail and its downtown.”

“Redevelopment 5 [will] take a productive course of action and go toward its final commencement,” Sokolich said to kickoff the year.

In April, it finally happened: The Fort Lee Mayor and Council passed five resolutions at their regular meeting, the cumulative effect of which cleared the way for the two parcels of land to become what officials hope will be a bustling retail and residential center near the George Washington Bridge.

The agreement among the Borough of Fort Lee, Tucker Development Corporation and Fort Lee Redevelopment Associates ostensibly put an end to years of arduous negotiations and ongoing litigation, paved the way for retail, residential, hotel and office space to be built on the 16-acre site and include restaurants, a large public park and a movie theater, among other amenities.

“I do believe this evening is an historic, historic [one] for the Borough of Fort Lee as we anticipate resolving globally Redevelopment 5,” Sokolich said. “It was a long and arduous task.”

Under the complex agreement, Fort Lee Redevelopment Associates (FLRA) became the "conditional redeveloper" of the block of land known as the east parcel, and Tucker Development was designated as the conditional redeveloper of the west parcel.

Tucker envisioned at the time "a minimum" of 165,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, up to 475 residences on the west parcel and may include hotel and office buildings, according to the company.

Two residential towers of 450 residences each, a 1.75-acre public park, restaurants, a coffee house opening onto the park and a three-screen movie theater would highlight FLRA’s east parcel

Neither developer would receive municipal subsides or any other form of financial support from the borough, and the agreement also brought to an end all pending legal disputes.

Sokolich said the project would have "as great an impact on the Borough of Fort Lee as any project since the construction and opening of the George Washington Bridge."

But progress since has been slower than many had hoped.

In June, the Council passed a resolution amending April’s settlement and escrow agreement among the borough and the two developers, extending it by 90 days. That turned out to be the first of many amendments to the agreement.

Sokolich said the extension was a necessary step in a process he called “very, very complex,” but he assured members of the public that everything was going as planned.

Then at a Dec. 22 special meeting, borough officials unanimously approved an amended plan that would add a local clothing store and several pieces of borough-owned property to Redevelopment Area 5. 

"Tonight is a milestone evening," Sokolich said, echoing an often-repeated theme in 2011. "[It’s] a milestone in the sense of finally getting that property developed and putting it on the books here in the Borough of Fort Lee, and it no longer remains a drain on not only resources but an eyesore to the entire public.”

Sokolich estimated that the current plan for the property would create $10-15 million in tax revenue for the borough. The mayor also expressed hope that the development will benefit the entire business community by creating “an atmosphere so people can walk and shop and eat.”

When Fort Lee borough officials joined representatives from developer BNE Real Estate Group at a groundbreaking ceremony on a new $70 million luxury residential building on Central Road in December, it was the first new high-rise project in the borough in 22 years, according to officials.

Fort Lee residents will have to wait a little longer to find out when the truly historic groundbreaking on the property Sokolich called “vacant and fallow for more than 45 years” will take place.

“We’re going to continue to go on as aggressive a path as we possibly can to get this 46-year-old vacant parcel of property online,” Sokolich said earlier in the month.

Downtown Business

Meanwhile, when you drive up and down Main Street in Fort Lee, you can’t help but notice the increasingly empty storefronts and local establishments that have either recently gone out of business or moved out of the borough.

Further progress on Redevelopment Area 5 may go a long way toward changing that in the future if things go as borough officials hope they will, but what happens in the near term?

Sokolich recently told the Fort Lee Suburbanite he was “comfortable” establishing a Special Improvement District (SID) in Fort Lee, but that it could be another six months before the borough creates a district in which “property owners have to pay a very modest fee on a quarterly basis that goes into a pot to beatify the area.”

A SID, according to the report, which cites the state Department of Community Affairs, “provides a mechanism for businesses and property owners of a community to organize as a single entity to raise funds for activities that enhance or expand municipal services.”

Stay tuned in 2012 ...