Hudson TV received the following Letter To The Editor from North Bergen resident Robert Walden:
NJ DEP HAS THUS FAR FAILED TO ENFORCE THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIVES & REGULATIONS:
1- NJ DEP failed to conduct proper compliance inspections of Hudson County’s Braddock Park and North Bergen’s 43rd Street Park. These parks are encumbered by environmental regulations that do not permit them to be used for anything but open space and recreation purposes.
2- NJ DEP failed to issue violation notices untill 10 years after-the fact at Braddock Park and 20+ years after-the-fact at 43rd Street Park.
3- NJ DEP improperly failed to inform National Park Service LWCF about North Bergen’s Federal violations until about 3 years after NJ DEP issued North Bergen State environmental violation notices (13 years after-the- fact).
4- NJ DEP is failing to require North Bergen to provide the proper amount of required compensatory park replacement land for its PAST illegal diversions of the land the preschool is situated on and for North Bergen’s use of the adjacent “preschool parking lot” for which NJ DEP issued North Bergen a violation notice in 2011 which stated that North Bergen must remove its preschool from Braddock Park and must provide a MINIMUM of 5X as much new park land as NB illegally diverted in Braddock park.
5- On 03-07-16 North Bergen wrote a letter to NJ DEP falsely stating that the “NO ADMITTANCE AFTER SCHOOL HOURS OR WHEN GATES ARE LOCKED” sign at the preschool parking lot “has been taken down”.
NJ DEP inspectors failed to notice this sign on a 10-27-16 site inspection even though they had information describing the sign’s location and they had a photo of the sign which showed it posted on the gated entrance to the preschool parking lot – DEP must have “gone out of its way” to miss seeing this sign.
On 12-20-16 NJ DEP directed North Bergen to remove the sign or “the parking lot will be considered part of the diversion area.” – the sign was still posted and photographed on 01-06-17, but NJ DEP again didn’t follow thru and enforce regulations which require compensation for the illegal diversion of the preschool parking lot.
6- The N.J.A.C. 7:36 definition of “divert” and “diversion”* does not specify that parkland must be 100% diverted from recreation and conservation purposes to be considered diverted. Nothing in the diversion regulations indicates that facilities such as the NB preschool road or the preschool and soccer field parking lots, all of which are utilized by the preschool, should not be considered as diverted from recreational use because they are also sometimes open to the public for recreation (“shared use”).
* “Divert” or “diversion” means to use or allow the use or control of parkland for other than recreation and conservation purposes, contrary to the Green Acres restrictions…using parkland for other than recreation and conservation purposes, is to divert it.”
NJ DEP is not enforcing environmental regulations for North Bergen’s PAST illegal diversions.
7- NJ DEP is not requiring North Bergen to provide the proper amount of required compensatory park replacement land for its FUTURE diversions of the land the preschool is situated on and for North Bergen’s use of the adjacent “preschool parking lot”, the “soccer field parking lot” and the Preschool roadway.
8- NJ DEP failed to properly inspect the proposed diversion replacement land underneath the 14th Street Viaduct in Hoboken, where North Bergen improperly proposed already existing park land as compensatory replacement land, falsely claiming it was “vacant and unimproved”. It took many months after this situation was reported to NJ DEP, for DEP to inform North Bergen that this was invalid replacement land.
9- North Bergen is improperly submiting nearly 5 acres of compensatory replacement land (on 64th Street), which the North Bergen Board of Education owns but uses (along with the Township), for recreational, not classroom purposes. There is room on this 5 acres for classrooms and for years, more land has been for sale adjacent to it. Diversion replacement lands are meant to increase recreational opportunities – this does not. This North Bergen BOE owned land should be used for preschool purposes, not for replacement land.
10- NJ DEP failed to enforce its directive that North Bergen should send out RFP/RFQs to build a preschool (without a community center) and instead North Bergen built a community center without a preschool and NJ DEP funded it. North Bergen has not issued a Request for Proposals to build a preschool since 2012.
11- North Bergen improperly put the 64th Street Board of Education owned land on the ROSI (protected park land list) and then North Bergen inappropriately used this as an excuse why it couldn’t build a preschool there. When 64th Street was removed from the ROSI, North Bergen improperly claimed there wasn’t enough space for a preschool and NJ DEP didn’t challenge this seemingly undocumented claim.
12- NJ DEP seemingly inappropriately approved a $1 million grant for the 64th Street North Bergen BOE owned land for baseball field improvements.
13- NJ DEP failed to enforce its 12-20-16 directive to North Bergen that it remove its preschool from Braddock Park no later than 09-01-21.
14- NJ DEP approved North Bergen’s Alternatives Analysis even though North Bergen has not seriously looked for alternative preschool sites since 2012.
15- NJ DEP approved North Bergen’s Alternatives Analysis even though North Bergen rejected alternative sites if they could not accommodate 22 classrooms for 330 preschoolers on at least 1.47 acre, even though North Bergen now proposes to build a preschool with 14 classrooms for 204 students on 1.339 acre of Braddock Park.
16- NJ DEP approved North Bergen’s Alternatives Analysis even though North Bergen submitted plans to (first) build a 22-classroom preschool, now a 14-classroom preschool in Braddock Park, neither of which meets NJ DOE/educational regulations, even though North Bergen contends otherwise.
These schools do not meet State regulations for access around the school building, for the narrow preschool roadway, for its lack of sidewalks, for classrooms that are smaller than 950 square feet, etc.
17- NJ DEP improperly permied North Bergen to proceed to a final diversion application even though the narrow North Bergen Preschool roadway does not meet State regulations and even though in 2015 a government engineering study of the roadway recommended widening the current roadway and installing sidewalks (not building a driveway elsewhere), but North Bergen’s diversion application states that this work will not proceed and it hasn’t.
18- NJ DEP approved North Bergen’s Alternatives Analysis even though North Bergen improperly rejected alternative preschool sites because the seller didn’t want to sell or because North Bergen refused/refuses to use condemnation eminent domain for preschool purposes even though it will use them to redevelop land for commercial purposes.
19- NJ DEP approved North Bergen’s Alternatives Analysis even though North Bergen improperly claimed sites were too expensive or they would cost more than remaining in Braddock Park, even though NJ DEP is aware that North Bergen submitted a faulty cost analysis comparison to make its point. Further, cost alone is not a justifiable rejection reason as per environmental regulations.
20- NJ DEP approved North Bergen’s Alternatives Analysis even though in 2016 the NJ DEP employees supervising North Bergen’s diversion application wrote a memo stating “the need to coordinate with DOE so we understand their requirements, we hire a consultant to review alternatives analysis moving forward who understands DOE standards, but also to inform DOE about diversion/conversion.”
On 07-15-24 NJ DEP stated “DEP did not hire an expert to evaluate the alternatives analysis. The DEP did not feel it necessary to do so.”
21- NJ DEP is allowing an employee to supervise North Bergen’s diversion application even though she seems to have a conflict of interest; she performed a Braddock Park compliance inspection of the preschool site in 2001, just a few weeks before school opened for the year and she didn’t report that the North Bergen Preschool was in the process of replacing, or had already illegally replaced a baseball field in Braddock Park. She didn’t issue a violation. In 2005 another compliance inspector also failed to report and issue a violation.
22- NJ DEP approved North Bergen’s Alternatives Analysis even though North Bergen made deceptive and false claims about the unequaled safety of the Braddock Park preschool location.
a) A pedestrian was killed while walking in a crosswalk just a few feet from a parking lot that the preschool utilizes, but North Bergen doesn’t admit that it diverts this (“soccer field”) parking lot, nor the nearby “preschool parking lot” for preschool use. The police report points out the high amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in Braddock Park at that time of the accident due to the Preschool’s presence.
b) North Bergen and Hudson County provided false traffic accident data to State agencies regarding this and other nearby accidents.
c) The woods behind the preschool have been bulldozed and otherwise cleared several mes because the Hudson County Sheriff admitted there are safety issues due to people living in the woods and other crime, very close to the preschool.
23- NJ DEP improperly permitted North Bergen to proceed to a final diversion application even though North Bergen failed to submit required information within the permitted time-frame and even though North Bergen’s non compliance has continued since 1999 (perhaps 1996).
In her 02-29-24 letter, NJ DEP’s Judeth Yeany directed North Bergen to provide information and “pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:36-26.11(a), this information is to be submitted within 180 days of receipt of this letter”. North Bergen didn’t and still hasn’t complied.
24- NJ DEP improperly permitted North Bergen to proceed to a final diversion application even though North Bergen is proposing diversion replacement lands of inferior quality to Braddock Park, lands which do not serve the same public and lands which have no proposed public use.
25- NJ DEP is improperly permitting North Bergen to proceed to a final diversion application even though in a recent (04-29-25) letter, the North Bergen Superintendent of Schools claims that North Bergen needs to provide classroom space for a “Universe” of 960 preschoolers.
The Superintendent is wrong – North Bergen needs to provide classrooms for 90%, not 100% of a “Universe” of 960 preschoolers. That’s 864, not 960 preschoolers.
Unless North Bergen diverts more of Braddock Park, North Bergen will not have enough room in its elementary schools for preschoolers after NB’s district-wide realignment unless North Bergen continues leasing the Polk Street Elementary School, which North Bergen told NJ DEP it will not do.
26- NJ DEP improperly permitted North Bergen to proceed to a final diversion application even though North Bergen has apparently not tested the Braddock Park Preschool site for soil contamination. Areas of Braddock Park are known to have contamination. NJ DEP allowed North Bergen to categorically reject alternative sites if their soil was contaminated so why doesn’t NJ DEP insist that North Bergen test for contamination at the preschool site in Braddock Park before DEP renders a diversion application decision?
There should not be any doubt that the 1999 and the 2001 illegal park diversions during Nicholas Sacco’s simultaneous tenure as State Senator, Mayor and Assistant Superintendent of Schools were intentional, were facilitated by NJ DEP and were politically motivated…The 01-04-13 NJ DEP steward database entry states the North Bergen “BOE wants to consider remaining on site and diverting the park property b/c it would be far cheaper and more politically palatable to remain on site than to acquire the proposed private properties, deal with other complicating matters there”.
When will the NJ Attorney General fix our broken government and hold officials responsible for their misconduct?
Robert Walden
North Bergen, NJ