A judicial ruling has rolled back a downzoning that was passed last year to block redevelopment of the Christ Hospital site.
Last December, then-councilmen Richard Boggiano and James Solomon proposed an ordinance that would ban senior housing and supportive housing from being built on sites zoned in the Medical zoning district, where these were allowed uses under the city’s zoning rules and master plan. They framed it as a way to keep the hospital open, though it did not conrain any provisions that could force the hospital to remain open or provide any funding to address the hospital’s operating losses. The city’s planning staff and the Planning Board advised the council that the ordinance was not in keeping with proper planning principles and procedure and would put the city at risk of a lawsuit, but the Municipal Council passed the ordinance anyway in December.
As a result, the owners of the Christ Hospital site sued Jersey City in February, demanding that the court strike down the ordinance to on the basis that it was an arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable action, violated the owners’ due process rights and equal protection rights, and amounted to an unconstitutional taking of property without compensation. On June 5, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Joseph Turula agreed, granting the owners summary judgment and striking down the ordinance.
Last November, Christ Hospital’s owners sent a letter to city Planning Division describing a plan with 2,233 senior and supportive housing units that they could build by right, but asking the city to enter into negotiations to come up with an alternate redevelopment plan that would include a new hospital. These overtures were rejected by the council. While Solomon claimed that Christ Hospital did not have the right to build the 2,200-unit proposal senior and supportive housing units by right under existing zoning [Instagram, at 5:04], he teamed up with Boggiano to change the zoning rules to outlaw the plan.
The question now is whether the mayor and council will come to the negotiating table and negotiate a deal that could see a mew hospital built, or engage in more costly litigation to appeal the ruling. Such appeals have rarely succeeded in past cases where city actions have been ruled to be arbitrary and capricious and would tie up the fate of the hospital in limbo for years without resolution. A third option would be for the city to take the property by eminent domain, but legally the city must may fair market value for land that is condemned through the eminent domain process; the value of the land is likely to be substantially out of reach of the city given the 2,200 senior and supportive housing units that can be built.
None of the politicians who have suggested eminent domain have yet publicly identified a funding source that would allow the city to acquire the hospital site.
