Trenton sidelined as Gov. Christie planned city's future | Editorial

OK, let's see a show of hands: How many of you have ever heard of the New Jersey State House Commission? All right, both of you can put your hands down now.

Like so many obscure government panels, this commission wields tremendous power over the spending of millions of dollars of taxpayer money.

Last month, the commission voted 7-0 to approve building two new state government buildings in Trenton to house the Health, Agriculture and Taxation departments and raze the current structures.

The tab: About $250 million. That's no small amount of money to pump into Trenton.

However, no representatives from the city were part of the commission making a decision that will have a far-reaching impact on the city's future.

Instead, you have a panel that is looking out for the state's interest and not necessarily the city's. The governor basically controls three of the seven slots on the board, with remaining appointments made up of elected officials from both parties chosen by the Assembly and Senate leadership.

That lack of representation from the city was evident when the commission voted on Dec. 7 to approve Gov. Chris Christie's vision for remaking the city's infrastructure despite outspoken opposition from local residents and only lukewarm support from the mayor.

It seems that no matter who spoke at the hearing, the result was preordained.

Most of the four legislators who sat on the committee weren't in the room to hear the bulk of the testimony, according to Matt Arco, a reporter for NJ Advance Media who covered the meeting. Either they got up to take calls or talk in the hallway.

At one point, a man was interrupted mid-testimony because three of the commission members were away at the same time, which meant they didn't have a quorum.

The proposal under consideration called for demolishing three of the state's aging buildings in downtown Trenton and replacing them with two new structures in other locations of the city.

That plan reflected Gov. Chris Christie's goal of shrinking state jobs and the facilities to house them and at the same time open more space for private development in Trenton.

That certainly is a worthy goal, but it overlooked other key factors that concerned city residents were quick to point out.

Opponents say the location and building plans are bad for two reasons. They say new buildings would be outside the city's downtown business district and too far from the Trenton Transit Center. And they won't be mixed-use buildings -- which include stores, restaurants or apartments - that would encourage economic growth in the city.

Anne LaBate, a city resident and commercial real estate agent who has a keen interest in Trenton's future, was very critical of Christie's plan because it runs counter to the city's master plan of converting a sea of parking lots into clusters of high-density office, retail and housing developments.

"That's the city's plan and the state comes around with this plan and says, 'We're going to grab the key piece of that and build a same-old, same-old single-use building surrounded by surface parking,'" LaBate told NJ Advance Media. "So now you've made the thing less attractive to a developer to come in and you've also created what you don't want."

Opponents of the Christie plan make good points. There's no reason the state can't accommodate the interests of the city and still accomplish its goals.

It's too bad the powerful state commission just rubber-stamped Christie's proposal.

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