Why is a dead bill to block development along the Palisades linked to the Menendez probe?

As the many-tendriled federal probe into Sen. Bob Menendez continues to unfold, one of the lines of questioning involves a New Jersey bill with a curious history.

Yet the bill, designed to limit new development along the Hudson River waterfront beneath the Palisades and protect residents' panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline, has the least apparent connection to Menendez of all the investigation's angles.

Federal investigators are looking into whether Menendez or his wife accepted luxury gifts from Wael Hana, the head of IS EG Halal Certified, according to WNBC and NBC New York. The Edgewater-based company has obtained exclusive rights to certify halal products to be exported from the U.S. and elsewhere to Egypt.

The investigation is also looking at the partial sale by prominent Edgewater developer Fred Daibes of several properties along the Hudson, including the Quanta Superfund site, to a Qatari sheikh.

Then there's the bill introduced last year, co-sponsored by state Sens. Nick Sacco and Brian Stack, designed to limit development at the foot of the Palisades cliffs in towns along the Hudson River in Hudson and Bergen counties.

The bill, which has languished in Trenton, could have affected a high-rise development that Daibes had long planned for the Quanta Superfund site.

Ties between the Menendez investigation and Daibes began to surface in the spring, when Sacco received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan requesting correspondence related to Menendez, his wife, Nadine Arslanian, and Daibes.

It also asked for information regarding the “Palisades Cliffs Protection and Planning Act,” the bill co-sponsored by Sacco and Stack that would protect their constituents’ views of New York City by restricting the height of any proposed building at the foot of the Palisades from rising above the cliffs’ sightline.

A Sacco spokesman has said the senator is not a target of the investigation. Stack has said he did not receive a subpoena.

At 720 feet high, the four-tower structure that Daibes had planned for the Quanta Superfund site and an adjacent property would be the fourth-tallest building in New Jersey.

The sale by Daibes of a nearly 24% share in that site and adjacent properties for $45 million to the London-based firm of a Qatari sheik is under the scrutiny of federal investigators, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The headquarters of Hana’s IS EG Halal Certified is in an office building on one of those properties at 125 River Road, sharing the third floor with Daibes Enterprises.

Daibes has donated more than $20,000 to various Menendez political campaigns and PACs over the years.

Currently there's no indication that Menendez has any connection to the Palisades bill, either by lobbying on its behalf or by opposing it.

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Menendez's office did not respond to inquiries regarding the bill or why it would be part of the federal probe. Menendez, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and New Jersey's senior senator, is building a legal defense fund and has said the investigation will amount to nothing.

What is the Palisades Protection Act?

There are actually two versions of the bill, slightly different but with the same intent, both introduced in January 2022.

One of them, S187, called the "Palisades Cliffs Protection Act," would limit new construction east of the Palisades to no higher than 10 feet below the highest elevation of the cliff or Palisade Avenue, which runs along it.

A far more detailed version, S191, called the "Palisades Cliffs Protection and Planning Act," would limit new construction a bit differently, saying a new building must be low enough so the sightline from the cliff would include a view of at least the eastern half of the Hudson River.

The bills focused on 10 of the most densely populated and developed municipalities in the state, but they never received a committee hearing in either chamber of the Legislature.

Those municipalities, running south to north along the Hudson, are Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, West New York, Guttenberg, North Bergen, Cliffside Park, Edgewater and Fort Lee.

Bill S191 would also create a Palisades Protection and Planning Council, with each of the towns getting to choose a member, and would give that council governing power with the ability to restrict development along the Palisades to below the sightline.

In the Senate, the bills were sponsored by Sacco and Stack. Both serve double duty as state senators and mayors, Sacco in North Bergen and Stack in Union City — communities along the cliffs that would be directly affected by the bill.

Sacco’s spokesperson Philip Swibinski said in a statement that Sacco believes in both "preserving the natural beauty of the Palisades Cliffs and ensuring that residents of North Bergen and other nearby communities have their quality of life protected from overdevelopment."

He also noted that similar laws in other parts of the state, such as the Pinelands Preservation Act and Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, have “successfully protected environmentally sensitive areas through reasonable land use planning."

The Palisades bills also were introduced in the 2019-20 legislative session. At that time, Sacco and Stack said in a joint statement that they would “permanently prevent development threats against a true natural wonder right in our backyard and would ensure that generations to come will be able to enjoy the natural beauty of the cliffs.”

Unions 'apoplectic' about bills

But the bills were hotly opposed by developers, some property owners and powerful construction trade unions, which feared that the measures could cut jobs for their hard-hat members. They also raised concerns that the proposed height restrictions could stifle long-term economic growth along the waterfront while protecting the views of only a small number of property owners on the cliffs.

They feared that the bills could endanger major projects, such as the Hoboken Yard Redevelopment Plan, which calls for the construction of three commercial towers as part of a redevelopment of Hoboken Terminal.

“We view this legislation as a hindrance and potential significant snag in advancing what we view as one of the single largest transit redevelopment projects in the entire state of New Jersey,’’ said Mike Makarski, director of external affairs for Operating Engineers Local 825, a politically powerful trade union that formally lobbied against the bill, referring to the Hoboken Yard project.

Former Senate President Stephen Sweeney, an officer of a South Jersey ironworkers local, said he had blocked the bills during the last legislative session after pressure from the building trades. Sweeney, a Democrat with deep political ties to the building trades unions, said he was willing to find a compromise but that the unions were “apoplectic” about the measure.

Other towns felt excluded

In contrast, other local officials feel like the stalled bills didn’t go far enough.

Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac said the borough and neighboring municipalities such as Alpine and Tenafly were not consulted on the bills and were excluded.

“It’s certainly odd and suspect that the towns that have protected their cliffs and viewsheds from development were excluded from a stalled bill purportedly protecting cliffs in towns that have already completely destroyed their cliffs and viewsheds,” Kranjac said.

He said the Borough Council has taken its own action and this month approved a resolution to protect the Palisades cliffs. The resolution gives the mayor and council the authority to take “all necessary and appropriate action to protect the Palisades Cliffs and view-shed in Englewood Cliffs from development.”

Developing Daibes' Quanta site in Edgewater

Fred Daibes' large-scale housing developments have helped transform the Edgewater waterfront along the Hudson River from an industrial hub to an upscale bedroom community.

Daibes and his former business partner filed a permit to build a four-tower structure on the Quanta Resources Superfund site that would be 720 feet tall. Plans also call for 2,000 residential units, a parking garage, a plaza structure and a clubhouse, according to a permit approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Daibes' onetime partner on the site — Hongkun USA, part of a global real estate company — pulled out of the deal when the Superfund cleanup process took longer than expected, said a letter from a Daibes lawyer to a judge in December.

A new business deal was made between Daibes and Heritage Advisors of London, an investment management firm founded by Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani of Qatar. The investment firm bought a 23.7% share of the Quanta site and adjoining properties for $45 million, records show.

Edgewater created its own Palisades Protection Act in 1955, said Greg Franz, the borough administrator. The borough’s ordinance focuses on keeping a “natural park area to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the Palisades and the adjacent wooded area” from the west boundary line up to 325 feet wide from the north borough line to the south borough line.

The ordinance prohibits artificial recreational facilities or “commercial exploitation” or anything that will endanger or prevent the preservation and development of the “natural scenic attractiveness” and wildlife of the Palisades.

An exception will be allowed for any land conveyed or leased by the borough to the housing authority to build housing for senior citizens and handicapped people with funds that are provided from any grants.

Franz called the Sacco and Stack “Palisades Protection Act” bills an oxymoron.

“What does building height along the Hudson River from Edgewater south to Hoboken have to do with protecting the Palisades like Edgewater has since 1955?” he asked.“This legislation does not protect the Palisades, it protects the view from the top of the Palisades,” Franz said. “Edgewater has not developed into the Palisades cliffs like our other neighbors to the south.”

Tied up in court

Franz said New Jersey's Municipal Land Use Law also does not consider views in development applications. “This has been challenged since the beginning of the codification of the New Jersey Land Use Law, and each challenge has been unsuccessful,” he said.

Since the Sacco and Stack Palisades bills stalled, two lawsuits were filed specifically targeting the heights of proposed developments in Edgewater. The proposals called for a 20-story building at a former golf driving range at 575 River Road and a 25-story building at 615 River Road.

A resident and the borough of Cliffside Park sued in both cases, saying the height of the buildings would diminish the views of Manhattan. A neighboring business, SoJo Spa, also sued over the 615 River Road proposal, claiming the view obstruction would hurt its business.

In both cases, a judge dismissed the claims.

Staff Writer Charles Stile contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ bill to limit Palisades development linked to Menendez probe