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Neighbors and advocates press city to scrutinize Iberia development over traffic, parking and pollution
Summary
Residents and housing advocates urged the Newark Council and city planners to scrutinize the proposed Iberia project’s traffic and environmental impacts, called out gaps in city review, and asked council members to monitor an upcoming planning-board hearing on Feb. 2.
Newark residents criticized city review of the proposed Iberia development, saying consultant reports underplay traffic, parking and pollution risks and urging council oversight ahead of a planning-board continuation hearing scheduled for Feb. 2.
"The developer's traffic engineer presented a traffic study that said that the additional 1,300 units would have minimal impact on traffic and parking," said John Goldstein of Homes for All Newark. Goldstein said the study relied on formulas that did not match conditions on narrow, busy streets in the Ironbound and pointed to double-parked vehicles, holiday traffic counts and a single garage egress for phase one as specific shortcomings.
Deborah Salters, who lives in the area, said she and other residents spent five hours at a hearing and felt shut out of the review process: "We live here. We walk here. We bike here. We do everything here so we know what the congestion is," she said, asking the city to heed local testimony.
Goldstein also raised an environmental concern: he said the existing parking lot covers a monitored pollution cap on the site and asked what protections are planned for construction when that cap is disturbed. "Ultimately, the state has to adjudicate environmental issues," he said, "but it should be noted that the site has been monitored for many years." Goldstein urged residents and council members to attend the planning-board hearing on Monday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m.
Council members did not take formal action on the project at this meeting, but several said they would follow up and were invited to observe the planning-board process. The record shows residents have mobilized to hire outside consultants to review the developer materials because, they said, city staff and consultants did not surface the issues the neighbors identified.
What happens next: The planning-board continuation is set for Feb. 2; residents urged council members to "take a few minutes to listen in," according to public comment.
Sources: Public comments to the Newark Municipal Council hearing of citizens (John Goldstein; Deborah Salters).
