N.J. families desperately fighting town to save business, home. They’re our ‘American Dream.’

Take a ride over the Raritan River, north across the Victory Bridge.

Once you get over the water, to the left, you’ll see the large storage tanks that hold up to four million barrels of gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products. To the right, you’ll see a lot of open space up to the water’s edge.

It’s set to become a warehouse.

Keep going. Before you hit the Taco Bell, hook a right on Smith Street. That’s where you’ll see, just across from the 7-Eleven, a tire shop that’s been a fixture in the community for three decades. And a four-family home that’s had $150,000 in upgrades to the property.

Perth Amboy wants the properties. Its planning board said they’re blighted — “areas in need of redevelopment,” in government-speak — and the city council will vote on Wednesday whether it will take them.

Six people are employed full-time at the tire shop, said Luis Romero, owner of Quick Tire & Auto Service.

“The building and property are kept clean daily and normal repair is made as needed,” he said. “We have never had any safety violations or issues of any kind. We never had issues with traffic.”

“This is not only my livelihood, but my employees’ livelihood,” Romero said.

Honey Meerzon, who owns the multi-family home with her mother, Dina Finklestein, said three of their tenants have lived there since 2016 and the fourth, since 2018.

“They are quiet and keep clean homes and are just wonderful people overall,” Meerzon said. “This is their home.”

The two properties are on the edge of a 44-acre redevelopment area known as “Gateway.” It will include a 471,000-square-foot warehouse, the cleanup of contaminated parcels of land and create trails leading to a gazebo overlooking the Raritan River, a city press release said.

Meerzon’s and Romero’s properties are not included in the current redevelopment plan. The city’s redevelopment agency, through a spokesman, told NJ Advance Media it has no plans for their properties.

But once the properties are in the city’s hands, that could change.

“This is wrong,” Meerzon said. “How can someone miraculously call this building condemned because they need to build a 500,000 square foot warehouse which already broke ground and I’m in the way?”

DECAY TO REDEVELOPMENT

The city started tearing down other properties on Smith Street, near the foot of the Victory Bridge, a year ago.

When that work started, in April 2024, Mayor Helmin Caba praised the project, sitting in a hulking excavator ready to start demolition.

“This key entrance to our city, once tarnished by decay, is now the focal point of our redevelopment efforts,” the mayor said, noting the project would generate more than 400 long-term jobs and more than $1 million in local tax revenue.

Caba did not respond to requests for comment.

Part of the redevelopment site housed a roofing company that manufactured asbestos shingles, according to a press release from the city. It closed about 23 years ago, and in 2023, the new developer – Denver-based Viridian Partners – pledged $110 million to clean it up.

In addition to the warehouse, more than nine acres of the land will be made “pad ready” for construction.

“Perth Amboy officials will decide how best to redevelop the land,” the press release said.

The city offered no further detail.

“I have operated my business faithfully and honestly. I have worked very hard in my life to fight for what they call the `American Dream,’” Romero said.

Neither property has had complaints, the owners said.

“Why do they want to take my property away?” Meerzon asked. “It is just not right. We put our all into this property.”

Now, Meerzon said, the owners have launched what they feel is a fight for their lives against wealth and political power.

‘BLIGHT LITE’?

Is it really that easy for a town to gobble up somebody’s private property? It’s complicated.

“Eminent domain” – a government’s ability to take someone’s property for public use in exchange for what it says is a “fair market value” – was traditionally for transportation development, to provide drinking water or for public parks.

In New Jersey, the state constitution says property can be taken for public purposes. But for redevelopment purposes, the focus is on the elimination of blight. The courts have further clarified that a town has to prove the property meets certain specific criteria — and importantly — that the criteria demonstrate that the property conditions are “detrimental to the safety, health, morals, or welfare of the community.”

So exactly what constitutes something so detrimental that a property owner should be forced to give up their home or business?

“If it’s something you can go in and clean it up in a day, does that give a town the ability to take someone’s property against their will?” asked Peter Steck, the land use planner representing Romero and Meerzon in their fight against Perth Amboy.

“I find that some planning boards tend to call out small defects because that’s the only evidence they can find when a property is prejudged as being blighted. I call it ‘blight lite’ and it shouldn’t be the basis for taking someone’s property,” said Steck, who has 44 years of experience.

Perth Amboy’s redevelopment committee hired its own consultant to study Meerzon’s and Romero’s properties. It found they do not meet current zoning requirements. They are too close together and fire could spread from one to the other too easily; the properties are too close to the road; there was litter and refuse on the properties; and Meerzon’s driveway had “obscured vision,” it said.

They were ripe for redevelopment, the study said.

But Steck called that study “fatally flawed.” It did not satisfy the standard of “substantial credible evidence” for the properties to be deemed an “area in need of redevelopment,” he said.

The study relied on “imprecise and incorrect property information apparently culled from satellite photos and faulty tax assessment records,” and the photos showing litter and garbage alleged to be on the properties were actually located on a neighboring property, he said.

Steck also argued Meerzon’s driveway was similar to others in the neighborhood and typical of older residential areas. The argument, “makes no sense,” he said.

Meerzon took issue with the city’s study citing 12 police incident reports in front of her home over 14 years, and 16 reports over five years outside the tire shop. Not one of the incidents was linked to a tire shop employee or a tenant, public records show.

They “may simply represent a police officer pulling over a driver” who was traveling past the properties, Steck said.

To drive home the point, Meerzon filed a public records request to see how many incidents were reported at the 7-Eleven across the street and the Dunkin’ Donuts down the block. There were more than 1,500 incident reports at the 7-Eleven over the last five years and more than 100 at the doughnut shop, public records show.

The city’s consultant did not respond to requests for comment about Steck’s criticisms of the study.

The city planning board voted 5-3 to recommend to the city council that the properties be deemed “an area in need of development.”

Planning board member Hailey Cruz voted against the decision. She also sits on the city council, and she said she will vote ‘no’ there, too.

“I’ve been to that area, specifically to the tire shop. I don’t think the business is detrimental to the safety, health or morals of the community. I don’t think it was unsafe,” she said. “Even the multi-family homeowner, I see they did make improvements on the home. I feel for them.”

“I am for redevelopment, but in this case, for the cost of a business? For the cost of that area?” Cruz said.

None of the other planning board or city council members responded to requests for comment. The Perth Amboy Redevelopment Agency — the town body that commissioned the study about Meerzon’s and Romero’s properties — did not respond to a detailed list of questions about the accuracy of the report.

“This has been a David vs. Goliath battle from the start,” Meerzon said.

“It is heartbreaking.”

MORE WAREHOUSES

Promises of jobs and tax revenue have turned warehouses into a booming business in New Jersey.

We’ve got more than 3,000 warehouses across the state now, about 17% more than we had 10 years ago, a 2024 report found. It’s driven largely by online retailers, like Amazon, which is now New Jersey’s largest private employer.

But Perth Amboy’s redevelopment plan is a contradiction, said Clean Water Action’s Tolani Taylor, who researched warehouse developments for the statewide report.

It found warehouses, and air pollution from their distribution trucks, are disproportionately located in low-income areas and communities of color.

More than 80% of Perth Amboy’s residents are of Latino descent, according to Census Bureau data. The median per person income is $26,848, and the median family income is $58,490 – half of the statewide average.

Taylor said she approved of the Perth Amboy redevelopment plan’s decontamination of land and the establishment of green spaces.

“What is concerning about this project is building a warehouse and anticipating the hundreds of diesel-powered trucks that will be used to aid in its business operations,” she said, adding that the positives are undermined by pollution risks.

While the warehouse plans are already in motion, the city council will vote on Meerzon’s and Romero’s properties on Wednesday.

The city’s press release about the Gateway redevelopment project said it is “creating lasting legacies.”

To that, Meerzon and Romero ask: What about their legacies?

“It is not just about a building, it is about our security, our dignity, and the promise that ordinary people still have a place in this country,” Meerzon said.

“If they can do this to us, they can do it to anyone.”

Stories by Karin Price Mueller

• Picking apart an elaborate and sneaky scam promising $10M inheritance from a mystery relative
• Did you dispute your credit report? You could get up to $160 as part of $23M settlement.
• Jersey Shore showdown that began over $13 french fries ends in nail-biting vote

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on X at @KPMueller.