April 16, 2018

City Council of Jersey City

280 Grove Street

Room 202

Jersey City, New Jersey 07302

Before the Council votes on the ordinance, they should have a cost analysis performed that will

illustrate in detail the onerous and costly process property owners will need to undertake in order to

obtain a permit to demolish or rehabilitate their properties. This analysis will confirm our concern that

this proposal will be so prohibitive that most if not all rejuvenation of four or less residential properties

will halt as will many apartment buildings. This analysis needs to also address the amount of

authority the city will provide the building inspector. When addressing the building inspector’s

authority, the Council should understand thoroughly how one person’s opinion in Jersey City will

supersede every resident’s opinion, and an entire neighborhood. This analysis must explain the

authority this inspector will have over a property owner who files for a demolition of their property and

is denied. The proposal allows an inspector to order the owner to rehabilitate the property. The

nothing to solve any problems caused by gentrification. There is no doubt that gentrification can be

difficult for longtime residents, and over the last 10 years Jersey City has enacted no policies of

substance that is successful to properly address the concerns of their longtime residents. At the same

time, the city enjoyed an enormous amount of new real estate taxes because of gentrification and

very little of these new revenues was used to solve the problem that gentrification caused for longtime

residents, most of which are tenants.

We want to remind the Council that they also have a responsibility to the long time property owners of

one thru four family buildings. Many are in their golden years, or almost there. The home where they

raised their children, supported their community is their largest investment that will be needed to

Neighborhood.” When voting on this proposal, think about what your neighborhood would become if

no one takes action to improve the appearance of their property. This proposal will ensure that run

down properties will stay run down longer and will cause a lack of incentive for others to improve their

property.

If some on the Council, after reading our remarks, still believe this proposal is needed and it is the

right thing to do, they should reconsider at this time. News reports of New York City’s poor 1

quarter

real estate sales is a trend that began last year. History tells us what we on the other side of the

Hudson can expect in the coming months if those sales numbers do not improve. To add to those

than 7%. This unusual average sale price increase can be directly attributed to the outrageously

large tax increases received by many Jersey City property owners because of the cancelled Reval.

Since the unusual increase in the average price occurred when the Jersey City administration began

running their promotion of the advantages to work and live in Jersey City one can only conclude this

help caused some of the large tax increases, along with increase of the gentrification Jersey City has

experienced recently.

It is our understanding that the Council is considering changing many parts of the ordinance before

they have a final vote. One of those changes will have the new law only address properties built

before 1919. Is the Council aware this will include more than 9,000 properties or many more

constituents fully understand the pro and cons.

Sincerely,

Cc: Robert Byrne, City Clerk