Planned 9/11 Memorial in Jersey City Faces Many Uncertainties

By JENNIFER V. HUGHES

JERSEY CITY

IN September 2004 Gov. James E. McGreevey used a ceremonial shovel to break ground for the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial called “Empty Sky.”

But more than four years later, little has happened at the 1.6-acre site on the eastern edge of Liberty State Park that is now ringed with an 8-foot fence. Because of a pending legal dispute, a larger-than-expected price tag and a daunting fund-raising challenge, the future of the memorial could even be in doubt.

The design for the memorial includes two steel walls 30 feet high and 200 feet long. The walls, which line up with where the World Trade Center towers stood, will be engraved with the names of 744 from New Jersey who died there (and in PA and Washington D.C. - note from Sam Pesin - (Sam).

Originally, the memorial’s cost was estimated at $15 million, but the eventual price tag could range from $18 to $22 million because the cost of the marine-grade steel planned for the project has been fluctuating over the years, said Rick Cahill, chairman of the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial Foundation. (bids for the walls without including the building of the 10 foot hill were $22-25 million - note by Sam).

The state of New Jersey and the Port Authority have contributed a total of $13 million. The foundation expects no more state funds and must raise $12 million to build the memorial and establish an endowment. So far, it has raised $15,000. Mr. Cahill, whose son Scott worked in the north tower and died there, said his group was undeterred.

“We have to feel confident,” he said. “I don’t want to think of the alternative.”

The Friends of Liberty State Park, a nonprofit group that supports the park, filed an appeal in March 2007 with the state Superior Court’s Appellate Division contending that the state failed to issue itself the proper permit for the memorial (please see Friends' attorney's briefs near the top of the page at http://www.folsp.org/preservation/empty_sky_memorial.htm  ; - note by Sam)

The park group’s main complaint is that the memorial will block the New York skyline, said Sam Pesin, the group’s president, who is also the son of the park’s founder, Morris Pesin. (other main complaints are that there were no public hearings; that the park's only Public Plaza was eliminated by the hill; and that the Hudson River views are also blocked by memorial in this location - note by Sam).

“This is one of the most important urban skyline views in the world, and it should not be blocked,” Mr. Pesin said. (NYC skyline view would be blocked from downtown Battery to GW Bridge - note by Sam).

He argued the memorial could be moved to another location in the park or the state could scrap the plan and rely on an existing memorial in the park about a mile away (The Grove is only one tenth of a mile away from the Terminal area - many have expressed that one reasonable alternative is "Millennium Park", the 10 acre lawn along Zapp Drive, just inland from waterfront, between Freedom Way and eastern side of the Grove of Remembrance, and the walls in this location would still line up with where the twin towers stood - note by Sam).

Mr. Cahill countered that park visitors can see unobstructed skyline views from more than a mile of the park’s walkway which continues in front of the memorial (the view from the NE area of the park where the Public Plaza was, is the closest park location to Ground Zero and downtown NYC - note by Sam P). Visitors can simply walk around the memorial to see the skyline. (park visitors before the existing hill (and the planned 30 ft high and 200 ft long walls) saw the breathtaking, moving, powerful open vista of the entire NYC skyline in approaching the Public Plaza and Terminal, whether walking from ferry lot on Zapp Dr. or driving up Zapp Dr. - or using the field west of the hill to enjoy passive recreation - note by Sam).

“I just don’t get the argument,” he said.

The park group argues that the state Department of Environmental Protection gave itself what is known as a coastal general permit, said Cynthia Hadjiyannis, a lawyer for the group. That type of permit is typically given for smaller projects, she said.

In contrast, an individual waterfront development permit would have required the D.E.P. to hold public hearings. Ms. Hadjiyannis also said the state should have sought approval from the Historic Preservation office because the site is within 100 yards of the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal, which is on the state and national registry of historic places. Seeking such approval is another step that would have triggered a chance for the public to object.

“There should have been public hearings for a public memorial in a public park that is in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the world’s greatest symbol of democracy,” said Mr. Pesin. The state attorney general’s office, which is defending the state’s actions, declined to comment. But in a legal brief, lawyers for the state argued that Mr. Pesin and his group knew about the location of the memorial because it was integral to the design contest and Mr. Pesin himself put in an entry (totally false that I entered a design - note by Sam). While there were no specific public hearings on the memorial, the brief states the design contest was publicized in newspapers statewide and on government Web sites. (the "open design competition" with 320 designs submitted, is totally different from the total lack of public input/public hearings on the 6 finalists chosen by the "jury", or on "Empty Sky" chosen by the committee of 12 victims' family members - note by Sam).

The brief states the permit process was proper and no notification to the historic preservation office was required because the site will have no physical effect on those areas. Furthermore, the state said the park group’s appeal was filed almost a year after the permit was issued, well beyond a 45-day statute of limitations (our case strongly argues that the DEP failed to give proper notice, and that the case falls under major exceptions to statute, such as Public Interest exception - note from Sam).

The park group is not the only one to object to the memorial. In May, the Hudson County legislative delegation wrote to Gov. Jon S. Corzine criticizing the memorial for blocking views and for its cost.

If the memorial survives the legal challenge, the fiscal ones remain. Mr. Cahill said the memorial foundation was formed in June 2008 because it was only in the fall of 2007 that he learned the state would not cover the total cost.

“We missed out on two years of fund-raising,” he said. The group will be meeting with professional fund-raisers in the coming weeks