On July 28th, officials from the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM) accepted a report finding that proposed construction of a 1.2 million sq. ft. luxury mall outside of New Haven would have no significant impacts on traffic congestion or air quality. The move clears the way for the state to release $28 million in tax subsidies to the $500 million project.

A coalition of environmental groups, citizen activists, and area businesses vociferously opposed the mall and have launched a string of lawsuits against its developer, the New England Development Corp. (MTR#259, 274).

Critics charge that the state action fails to consider the effects of mall-induced traffic on the surrounding interstates, even though the majority of new vehicle trips brought on by the mall - 2,261 per hour at peak - will pass through the bottle-necked I-91/I-95 inter-change.

On July 20^th, the Army Corps of Engineers released a draft environmental impact statement for a Mills Corporation proposal to build a 2.5 million sq.ft. mega-mall and hotel/warehouse/office complex in the Hackensack Meadowlands. The project fill 206 acres of the estuary wetlands. A public hearing on the DEIS will be held on August 29th; written comments will be accepted until September 18th (call Army Corps at 212-264-0183).

Besides further shrinking the metropolitan region's largest tract of contiguous open space, the mall threatens large-scale traffic increases to the already congested ramps on the NJ Turnpike's western spur and surrounding state and local roads. The mall proposal for inclusion in the Meadowlands Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) showed 51 acres of wetlands fill needed just for the mall's transportation elements alone, and estimated the mall alone would generate 14,000-20,000 added trips per day to a road network now serving more than 140,000 vehicles (MTR #220).

To serve the added traffic, the proposal suggests a four-lane extension of Route 120 that would parallel and re-connect with the NJ Turnpike at a reconfigured Interchange 18W. The extension will dovetail with NJDOT's objective to reconstruct Rt. 120 to bypass, rather than bisect the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Mills plans also show 7,500-12,500 parking spaces within the development.

In the face of significant opposition from environmental groups and citizens (coalesced as the Hackensack Meadowlands Partnership, 201-926-9888), the Mills Corporation has done little to scale back the plan, or to seriously consider more developed sites. The DEIS abets this decision by exploring only nearby Meadowlands tracts. The report dismisses the current arena site, expected to be vacated by the Nets and perhaps the Devils too in 2003. A July Bergen Record editorial supported this option and called on Governor Whitman and the Sports Authority to broker a deal.