Demolition permits for the Arc Tower DENIED BY Landmark Commission. What a ridiculous joke.ryanov t1_ix53qxv wrote
Reply to comment by twinkcommunist in Demolition permits for the Arc Tower DENIED BY Landmark Commission. What a ridiculous joke. by itsjustabreezehoney
If this were a project with significant affordable housing, I would agree that it’s important to build. I don’t believe that it is, from memory, and I’m having difficulty finding anything that says anything one way or the other right now. I’m still not sure I would agree that it’s important to build where existing buildings are, given the number of giant parking lots downtown.
twinkcommunist t1_ix54mzw wrote
It doesn't have any zoning variances so whatever the broad street redevelopment plan requires by default is what it would have for affordable units.
I care about housing affordability, but there are a million other good reasons to allow construction of market rate housing. The people who will live in this project will pay taxes in Newark, and probably not drive. If you don't allow construction in cities (which necessarily have lots of buildings already), people are going to live elsewhere. Opposing redevelopment of cities is supporting greenfield development in suburbs.
As for parking lots, those should be built on too, but it's harder for cities to force people to give up the land they own if they aren't willing to sell. They're currently against New Jersey law, but land value taxes (as opposed to property taxes) could penalize people for sitting on land they're not actively making money from and just waiting for the price to go up.
ryanov t1_ix55f5k wrote
“The people who will live in this project will pay taxes in Newark, and probably will not drive.”
The first one is not a given, and the second one does not come even close to the historical reality. I live in a building with no parking provided. My neighbors drive, except to New York City, or take ridesharing, which is no different. I even drive now, because of the pandemic, but that wasn’t true before, and won’t be after.
twinkcommunist t1_ix56syh wrote
The landlord will definitely pay Newark property tax.
Some of the people who live there will drive of course but it'll be a percentage. If you block this project, homes will get built in suburbs instead and nearly every adult will drive.
In the economy we have, where capital is privately owned, cities can basically only say yes or no to developments, and saying no is almost always the wrong answer.
ryanov t1_ix5756q wrote
What makes you say that the landlord will pay property tax? That has not been the case historically.
I’d be curious to know the breakdowns of who gets around how down here in these luxury buildings. Willing to bet it’s almost entirely car, with the exception of places you can get you on the PATH.
twinkcommunist t1_ix57max wrote
The tower is almost guaranteed to stand longer than the 30 year maximum for tax abatements. Im not familiar with how often Newark gives them out and if they're full the full term, but all developments pay tax eventually.
ryanov t1_ix589xf wrote
I personally think saying “the property owner is definitely going to pay taxes 30 years from now,” is a different statement. Also, less likely to be true, because it’s pretty likely to be sold meantime.
I don’t know that I oppose stuff like this being built at all if it’s going to have a long term abatement like that, but it certainly has a negative impact on the city to have to provide services to thousands (over the last 10 years at least) more people with no income to pay for it.
I guess there’s a good chance they would pay sales tax to somebody, but you would be surprised at the number of people that I’ve known around here who basically live their lives in New York City or Jersey City, and just live here (usually pretty temporarily). I remember one guy overheard in the barbershop saying he lived there for two years and this was the first time he was getting his haircut in Newark, because he just went back to Jersey City for everything. Had never even been far enough down Ferry Street to know what church the barber was talking about by Wilson.
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