Date : Thu, 21 May 2015 16:38:51 -0400
For Immediate Release
May 21, 2015
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
Sweeney Bill Protects Liberty State Park
Senate President Stephen Sweeney is sponsoring bill S2866 that would remove jurisdiction of Liberty State Park from under the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. This bill would delete the section that gave the power to NJSEA and return power to New Jersey DEP Division of Parks and Forestry. The bill would also require any leases or concessions to go through appropriate public review. The Christie Administration’s goal is for private development in the park. The Sierra Club supports this new bill to remove the park from private control. We support bill S2866 because it helps to protect Liberty State Park.
“We support S2866 by Senator Sweeney because it will help protect Liberty State Park. Liberty State Park is the most visited state park in the country. It is the symbol of both liberty and a gateway to our country. The plan to allow large-scale commercial development in Liberty State Park goes against everything the park stands for. The Assembly Meadowlands bill A4196 that took jurisdiction away from DEP and gave it to the Sports Authority was to promote private commercial development at the state park. We opposed the Meadowlands from the beginning and called for that Liberty State Park section to be removed from the Meadowlands bill, especially since Liberty State Park is not in the Meadowlands or even connected to the Meadowlands. We support Senator Sweeney’s bill because it undoes something that should never have been done in the first place. It makes right the terrible wrong. The only way to fix the Meadowlands bill is to remove Liberty State Park from it, which is what we have called for all along,” said Jeff Tittel Director NJ Sierra Club. “We have worked with Senators Sarlo and Cunningham on the need for this bill and why it helps protect Liberty State Park while the Assembly bill does not. We thank Senator Sweeney for proposing this legislation.”
We support this bill because it actually does what needs to be done. In the past the Christie Administration tried to privatize the park. The Assembly Bill A4196 did not protect Liberty State Park and this is why we opposed it. It would have exempted projects from the statehouse commission. With this new bill, projects must go through the statehouse commission and the proper due process.
Tittel explained why the Sierra Club opposes the assembly bill A4196, “The is not a fix bill it a fake, it still allows for the privatization of Liberty State Park and allows commercial projects to avoid the State House Commission. The bill does not correct the deficiencies, leaving more of the deficiencies in place and we believe undermines protections in the Meadowlands and for Liberty State Park. Instead of just deleting the section and protecting Liberty State Park, it has been rewritten in a way that allows the DEP Commission to propose changes that could privatize, develop, or commercialize Liberty State Park (Section 19M). The DEP Commissioner proposes what should be built to the Meadowlands Commission, and then the Meadowlands Commission could go forward by bonding and building those structures that would commercialize Liberty State Park. While this may seem like an improvement, it does not change the potential abuses to the Park or to the public trust. The DEP Commissioner has put in an RFP for a plan to privatize Liberty State Park and looking to propose many changes including commercial activities already. Our concern is that the Meadowlands Commission will be able to promote or expand those commercial activities at the Park. The park that is supposed to celebrate freedom, liberty, and gateway to America could instead be turned into shopping centers and amusement parks,” said Tittel. “Fake reform is worse than no reform. We can understand why other groups would have supported this bill that did not actually protect Liberty State Park.”
The Sierra Club supports Sweeney’s new bill instead of the previous one. Last March’s Meadowland’s bill would leave problems and deficiencies. We support this new bill instead because this bill would fight against privatization of the park by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and the Christie Administration.
“The Sweeney bill S2866 will help protect Liberty State Park from inappropriate commercial privatization. There can still be leases or concessions that could take place at the park but there will be public oversight and public process and they will have to go to the statehouse commission for approval. This will help protect the park from abuse and projects that would hurt, rather than compliment it. This bill does correct problems in the Meadowlands Bill and is real reform in Liberty State Park. There is another bill that passed the Assembly that was not real reform, it was fake reform. This bill is real reform when it comes to Liberty State Park. We are troubled that other groups who are supposed to protect Liberty State Park supported the Assembly legislation that did not. We hope these groups will support and fight for Sweeney’s bill and make sure that the governor signs it,” said The New Jersey Sierra Club’s Director Jeff Tittel. “We are still concerned that the Christie Administration still has plans for privatizing the park. They have a plan to privatize it that was done by New Jersey Future but the public has never seen it. We still have concerns that the park that’s named for the Statue of Liberty and which is a gateway to Ellis Island will still suffer from private commercial development. However, this legislation will put safeguards back in place that should never have been removed and allow for public participation and oversight in proposals to build concessions or leases in Liberty State Park. This legislation will help to ensure that Liberty State Park remains a place for the people of New Jersey to recreate and enjoy the outdoors.
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Jamie Zaccaria Administrative Assistant New Jersey Sierra Club office: (609) 656-7612 https://www.facebook.com/NJSierraClub