In our 8/12/2024 Voices newsletter, we promised we would keep our readers apprised of what we were able to learn – from both the Town and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) – about 1) the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s (DOT) planned parkland taking associated with the proposed Rte.4 bridge replacement and road widening and 2) the process that led to selection and evaluation of municipally-owned property at the northeast section of Shepard Avenue. Here is a 3-bullet summary of what we know and do not yet know
- Our inquiries did contribute to a decision by DEP and the Town to extend the public comment period about any aspect of the proposed parkland taking project from the original 8/15 date to Thursday 8/29. That decision is officially announced at Click Here. We encourage any interested persons to take advantage of this extension to comment. We are reliably told that no aspect of the project – including the selection of the Shepard Avenue property – is final. The documents and information included in this post will likely be of use to potential commenters. DEP is aware that residents did propose alternate replacement options at the July 30 hearing.
- The application describing all aspects of this parkland taking that preceded the 7/30 public hearing was developed by NJDOT and its contractors in the second half of 2023. When – and the extent to which – it was ever agreed/approved by the Township is unclear. In any event the three documents very recently provided to the Town – and to Voices – does correctly describe the project as currently proposed. We provide our readers with a way to access those three documents – but we suggest that the Township may want to provide them to the public as well. Final DEP approval of the parkland diversion as proposed awaits additional studies and information. It also cannot obtain final state approval until the Teaneck Council passes a resolution describing its approval of the entire parkland diversion process including all the required information about the proposed replacement parcels.
- Voices has been concerned to assure that, consistent with the relevant DEP regulations (NJAC 7:36:26), the public was as informed as it had a right to be. Voices has not taken a position on any of the complex issues at stake in respect of either the parkland taking or its compensatory replacement.
The documents known to Voices that are relevant to inform those who may want to comment about this project.
- Teaneck Council Resolution 149-2022 adopted unanimously did describe Council’s general approval of the diversion project as then described but Council apparently was unaware of the replacement parcel later selected. DEP says it will require a new resolution specifying all aspects of the current project before recommending final state approval. Council Resolution 149-2022 is currently available on the Teaneck website only by extracting it from the May 31, 2022 agendas packet. pp. 75-77 of Click Here
- The August 8 email from NJDOT’s Contractor for the diversion project (Darren Stanker) to new Teaneck Manager Jaclyn Hashmat describing the 2023 application document which Teaneck lacked a copy of and a new Compensation document (the entire email is at
8-8-2024 email to Teaneck from NJDOT’s Rte.4 Contractor - The 2023 pre-application document itself as sent by Stanker to Hashmat on 8/8/2024
NJDOT Route 4 Palisade Green Acres Pre-App_10.27.23 - The Compensation document sent by Stanker to Hashmat 8/8/2024
Attachment III – Rt 4 Green Acres Compensation Proposal 7.22.24_Optimized - The 13 Slide Presentation made by DOT at the July 30th public hearing
NJDOT Slide Shiw - MISSING – there is a regulation- required transcript of the July 30th public hearing at the Rodda Center which has not yet been completed but which presumably will provide DEP with a more complete record of what was presented and what comments were made by the public at that hearing.
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Further Background:
The presentation made by NJDOT at the July 30 hearing identified the 6.8 acres municipally-owned property at the southeast end of Shepard Ave as the proposed replacement.
Teaneck Voices has been researching but does not yet have full final information as to the process by which that proposed replacement property had been selected and more specifically whether and if so when an authorized Township official actually gave approval for that selection. A copy of an application just made available to Voices – and before that to the Town – is one completed by DOT in October 2023. We have learned that that document was sent to the Town administration in November 2023 and submitted by DOT to DEP in December 2023. In what follows, we provide access to that application and to a financial analysis that accompanies it that the Town has very recently received from NJDOT, It is those documents which the Town has this week provided to Voices and which should, by regulation, have been provided to the public prior to July 30.
Several additional things are known about that application.
- In part, the fact that the public had not been provided that application before the hearing has led DEP to extend to August 29 the deadline for public comments about the application. A notification describing that extension is currently found on the newly designed Town website at (Click Here).
- DEP had explicitly told Teaneck Voices that the minor diversion application and subsequent 7/30 hearing presentation (see below) is not complete and that technical documentation (including an environmental assessment) of the proposed Shepard Avenue replacement property have not yet been received by DEP. The selection of the replacement parcel and the various (complex) arrangements that would have DOT take and then return the property to Teaneck as parkland are not finally set.
- The regulation-required transcript of the 7/30 hearing – wherein several Teaneck residents did propose consideration of different replacement parcels – has not yet been received by DEP.
- Teaneck Voices does not know whether some or all of the documents referenced in this post will be made more publicly available and if so in time for citizen review prior to the new 8/29 comment deadline. It is clear that personnel transitions in the involved public entities have contributed to the slow unraveling of the information needed for transparency about this important matter.
Confusion: has there been a proper application to DEP for a minor Rte. 4 parkland diversion?
Regulations under NJAC 7:36:26 specify the procedures through which a municipality may apply to the Department of Environmental Protection seeking to divert identified parkland in order to serve some greater major public benefit. (Click Here and go to p. 102ff)
The NJDOT has for years sought approval of and financial resources for a project to replace the unsafe bridge on state Rte.4 where it crosses Teaneck’s Palisade Avenue and the CSX tracks and to improve local traffic flow. The construction project NJDOT refined in 2023 would involve some taking of protected parkland along Rte. 4. and would compensate for that taking with steps that would create parkland from a 6.8 acre property at the east end of Shepard Avenue that is currently municipally-owned by Teaneck.
In May 2022, Teaneck Council DID pass a resolution supporting a Rte. 4 Project
In its May 31, 2022 meeting, Teaneck’s Council did in May, 2022, when NJDOT plans for replacing the Rte. 4 Bridge over Palisade Ave. & CSX Tracks were still early in the process, the Township Council did approve a Resolution (see below) indicating general support of the project, though without specifying anything about where and how parkland diversion replacement would be accomplished. The resolution approved a project that was calculated to take more parkland than the project design approved in 2023. To access that resolution #149-2022 Click here twice and go to pp. 82-85
It is important to note that this Council resolution 149-2022 specified that NJDOT would adhere to DEP guides and processes in respect of identifying and providing compensation to obtain replacement parkland – but did NOT indicate where and/or how that compensatory replacement would be identified. Additionally, the project plan and Teaneck’s own revision of its list of protected properties (its Recreation & Open Space Inventory – ROSI) means that both what roadside parkland would need to be replaced and what environmental values would be affected, have significantly changed since the 2022 Council resolution.
Teaneck Voices has heard directly from DEP personnel that before this diversion can receive a DEP OK and be sent for final approval to the Statehouse Commission, the Council will need to approve an updated resolution specifying both the revised project’s effects and that Council OK’d the parkland replacement arrangements.
Providing Access to DOT’s 13 Slides at the Parkland Diversion Hearing – 7/30
Following the July 30, 2024 Public Hearing in the Rodda Center, the Town’s website posted a copy of the pdf of the 13-slide NJDOT presentation that accompanied the DOT’s presentation at that hearing. That pdf is available if you Click Below twice
Route 4 over Palisades Avenue CSX Green Acres Public Hearing NJDOT PPT 7.30.24(1) (1)
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Providing Access to DEP’s Land Admin Summary of Teaneck’s Parkland Diversion Status
Additionally, Teaneck Voices has located on the State DEP’s Office of Transactions ad Land Administration Site (Click Here) what is described as the Town’s application to this office for authorization to proceed with NJDOT to divert the protected open space needed for the Route 4 Bridge displacement by securing from NJDOT property of equal value to the portions of protected property being used by NJDOT in that construction. The entire post at that web address is as follows:
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Public Hearing–Minor Diversion/Disposal Application–Township of Teaneck, Bergen County–Route 4 Bridge Replacement Project
Applicant: Township of Teaneck, Bergen County
Parkland Names/Locations:
Milton Votee Park (Block 4704, Lot 1)
North Gaylord Park (Block 2210, Lot 5 and Block 2211, Lot 1)
South Gaylord Park (Block 902, Lot 1 and Block 903, Lot 1)
Teaneck Greenbelt (Block 2701, Lot 1 and Block 4701, Lot 1)
Parkland Location: North and South Side of U.S. Route 4 between Garrison Avenue and Palisade Avenue Township of Teaneck, Bergen County
Description of Proposed Diversion/Disposal:
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has received an application from the Township of Teaneck requesting approval to convey a total of 0.10 acre of easements and 0.23 acre in fee to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) in connection with the “Route 4 Bridge Replacement Project over Palisade Avenue and CSX”, which involves improvements to the Route 4 roadway, the Route 4 bridge over the CSX rail corridor, installation of subsurface drainage basins and addition of acceleration/deceleration lanes to Route 4 near Belle Avenue.
A map of the project area, depicting the areas of Green Acres encumbered parkland proposed for diversion or disposal, is: Route 4 Palisades Avenue Green Acres Plan
As compensation for the proposed minor disposal of parkland, the NJDOT will provide the Township with replacement land of at least equal value and size as the areas proposed for diversion/disposal. [bold & italics added]
This application has been classified as a minor diversion/disposal of parkland. Pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:26.6(c), a public hearing on the proposed diversion/disposal application will be conducted as set forth below.
Hearing Date/Time: July 30, 2024 at 6:00 PM
Hearing Location: Richard Rodda Community Center, 250 Colonial Court, 07666
Public Comments Accepted Through: August 15, 2024
Please see public notice linked above for information about how to submit written comments. Emailed comments to the Department are preferred. Please include “SHC 0260004 Teaneck Route 4 Bridge Replacement” in the subject line of any comments emailed to the Department.
Posted in Green Acres Diversion/Disposal Applications, PLC Public Notices
