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Council doesn't lock bonding interest rates
With an approximate 24 percent population growth since 2000, the borough’s housing market appears to be surviving the slow economy.
The 2000 Census listed 7,734 residents in the borough. The population grew by a little more than 1,000 in 2001. The growth for 2002 was about 500, totaling 9,212.
Since then growth has slowed somewhat, with the 2007 estimate at 9,582. A variety of developments have gone up in the last seven years, including condos, rentals, and townhouses.
Realtors have mixed opinions on how strong the market is, but one relatively new luxury condominium, One Hudson Park, announced that it is now more than 90 percent sold. Residents started moving into the high-rise on the southern end of River Road in May 2007.
According to a listing on the New Jersey Multiple Listings Service, a database of homes sold in the area, a 1,580 square foot two-bedroom unit at One Hudson Park sold in May 2008 for $769,000, after being originally listed at $919,000.
Matthew Perasso, an agent with Weichert Realty in Fort Lee, said more modestly priced housing is definitely doing better than luxury housing but there’s a strong demand in general right now.
"People still need to own a home," he said.
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Quanta cleanup will be discussed
Two public meetings will be held in the borough to give updates on the Quanta Resources Superfund site.
Representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will visit the Edgewater Community Center July 29 and Aug. 5. Both meetings will be at 7 p.m. and will cover different topics of the site’s cleanup.
The July 29 meeting will be on vapor intrusion and coal tar and the Aug. 5 meeting will be on groundwater and soil contamination.
Soil and water testing has shown contaminants on the site and near it in the Hudson River.
The borough has a community group called Quanta Community Advisory Group Edgewater. It allows residents the opportunity to be involved and informed of the cleanup process. The two upcoming meetings will include presentations on the night’s topic, followed by a question and answer portion.
The Quanta Resources site, located at 163 River Road, was a coal tar distillation plant from 1896 to 1974. After that, waste oil was recycled there. Quanta Resources then leased the site in 1980 and it was used for storing and reprocessing oil. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection shut down operations at the site in July 1981 when storage tanks with oil containing large quantities of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were discovered. Coal tar creosote, lead, arsenic, PCBs, and other volatile organic compounds exist in soil and groundwater under the site, River Road, and properties on the other side of River Road. It was named to the Superfund National Priorities list in 2002. The national program aims to clean hazardous waste sites containing potentially harmful material.
The Edgewater Community Center is located at 1167 River Road.
For more information about the meetings or the Quanta Resources site, call Natalie Loney, community involvement coordinator with the EPA at 212-637-3639.
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Staff Photo by Roy Caratozzolo III
A young soccer player practices in the goal at the Edgewater Community Center.
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Staff Photo by Roy Caratozzolo III
New Cingular Wireless will insteal cellular antennas on a storage facility located at 410 River Rd.
Court order overturns denial from board for cell antennas
Cellular telephone antennas will be installed on top of a River Road self-storage facility after an appeal in Superior Court overturned the Board of Adjustment’s initial denial of the application.
New Cingular Wireless came to the July 16 board meeting to discuss any "reasonable conditions" that the Board wants to attach to the application. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Menelaos Toskos ruled that the Board did not give substantial evidence to warrant denying the application.
New Cingular Wireless first applied in December 2005. After several hearings and postponements, the Board denied the application in March 2007. The company appealed the decision. Toskos ruled in March.
Fourteen antennas will be mounted on the roof of a self-storage facility located at 410 River Road. Independence Harbor, a group of condominiums, is across the street and had a lawyer object to the project at the original application hearings
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