From The Office
RUTHERFORD MAYOR-ELECT JOHN HIPP
HIPP SAYS STATE’S NEW DEAL WITH TRUMP MUST INCLUDE CLEANUP OF MEADOWLANDS AND PROMISE OF NO HIGH DENSITY HOUSING
RUTHERFORD – Mayor –elect John Hipp says he is glad to see that Donald Trump will be taking over for Cherokee Investment Partners’ and their problem-plagued EnCap redevelopment fiasco – but that Trump must commit to cleaning up the Meadowlands landfills and to forego plans to build high rise, high-density housing in the borough.
“The people of Rutherford do not want high density, high rise housing. Period. I don’t care what the NJMC or the state wants. They don’t live here; we do. And we don’t want a congested mini-city built on the outskirts of our town,” said Hipp.
“One of my top concerns,” said the mayor-elect, an environmental attorney “is that Trump, or whoever comes in here to take EnCap’s place, will be committed to cleaning up the environmental mess that EnCap is leaving behind.
“Whatever developer follows EnCap, he has to be responsible and has to be committed to cleaning up the landfills that we were promised would be cleaned up by Cherokee,” said Hipp. “I have some very grave concerns over the published reports about how EnCap skirted environmental laws to avoid doing the costly clean up required by law,” said Hipp.
Hipp said another of his major concerns is that the state does not replicate the mistakes it made with EnCap; namely that this becomes another closed-door deal engineered by political insiders in Trenton.
“I don’t think that will happen with the Trump organization, but I have to be wary,” said Hipp. The mayor elect said any development plans by Trump – or anyone else – have to meet approval by the residents of Rutherford.
“I respect the Trump organization, and the quality work that they do, but before any deals are made with Mr. Trump – we want to be at the negotiating table,” said Hipp, who won a resounding landslide victory over Mayor Bernadette McPherson on Tuesday. Part of that race centered on McPherson’s unbridled support of EnCap and Hipp’s opposition to the plan.
Hipp said he was made aware today of Trump’s interest in the EnCap project, but that he has not been contacted by anyone from the state or the New Jersey Meadowland Commission, which is responsible for the EnCap Phase I development project.
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