• At a public hearing, the agency, in this case the USACOE, will sit at a table and receive comments from the public.  Other than introductions about the process, it is not a presentation, nor a back and forth. 
• Those wishing to speak will sign in when they arrive on a speaker list and then will find a seat in the audience.  If you have not been, DeBaun is an auditorium so the seating is theatre seating.
• In terms of order of speakers, the USACOE will follow the order below.  We expect most of these to speak at the beginning.  The USACOE will call the names of speakers and SPEAKERS WILL ONLY GET 3 MINUTES TO SPEAK:
  • Applicant first to describe only scope of work (NYWW).
  • Elected officials and their representatives / professionals in hierarchal order (tonight will include Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, Assemblywoman Annette Chaparro, Mayor Bhalla, myself, Hoboken's engineers and attornies, and possibly others).
  • Native American Tribal representatives (if any).
  • Organized environmental groups (eg. Fund for Better Waterfront).
  • Organized citizen groups (eg. Hoboken Residents for a Better Waterfront, Resilience Paddleboard, Hoboken Cove).
  • Private Citizens (in order of arrival).
• If you come, you don’t have to speak.  You can come and just sit in the hearing and lend your support by being present.

• Your experience living near or visiting the site and how the new fueling operations will change that.
• Your fears about a NY Waterway Ferry striking and potentially killing a kayaker / paddleboarder that launches from Hoboken Cove not unlike the NY Waterway ferry that struck kayakers in 2016.
• our concerns about contamination on the site from the historical use that may not be stirred up because the significant increase in boat activity.
• Your concerns about having a DIESEL DEPOT adjacent to parks and schools where children and families play
  • Elysian Park, Maxwell Park, Hoboken Cove, Montessori School, Skate Park, Fishing Pier, Multi Use Path, Bike Lanes on Sinatra Drive;
  • consider fuel spills both in the water and on land; and
  • that the significant fueling operations is a MATERIAL USE CHANGE vs. Union Dry Dock.
• Your observations that having a dry dock facility (prior use) that maintains 2-4 boats per week seems significantly different than one that will refuel an entire fleet of >20 boats and have capacity to moor 20 boats today.
• Your concerns about NYWW expanding their operations over time.  Today NYWW are seeking approval to store 10 boats daily that they say would require 40 daily trips.  But their maps actually show that the facilities will accomodate 20 boats.  What will this look like over time? Once NYWW is there, the analysis to expand will be an incremental one – so only looking at the incremental impact at that time, not the cumulative one.
• Your understanding that there are alternative sites, and that a 2009 study by NJ Transit (attached) actually shows Hoboken’s Lackawana terminal as the #1 choice for ferry operations.  Click HERE to learn more from FBW.
• Your observation that this is a private vs. public interest argument demanding that public interests be prioritized.  NYWW is a private company.  They sold their land to a private developer for profit.  They don't want to go to Bayonne to protect their profits.  The NJ Transit study cited above references the pressure from JC's LeFrak Organization, the developer behind Newport, as the biggest impediment to NYWW moving to Lackawana.  And LCOR, the developer of NJ Transit's Railyard's Project in Hoboken told me that the land was too valuable there for ferry operations.  ENOUGH!!!!!!!! 
• Your understanding that the Hoboken Cove is home to over 70 marine species, some of which are endangered and the wave and contamination from diesel fuel impacts will threaten these species.  Click HERE to read more.
• And finally, your support for the decades of work that has gone into protecting our waterfront for the public’s use.  Click HERE or Google Waterfront Referendum Hoboken to learn more... This one single action sets us on a reversal of history.