Legal Implications of Stadium Construction - Essay Example

The Authority is empowered to establish, develop, construct, operate, maintain, improve and otherwise effectuate a project to be located in the Hackensack meadowlands upon a site not to exceed 750 acres consisting of one or more stadiums, coliseums, arenas, pavilions, stands, field houses, playing fields, recreation centers, courts, gymnasiums, club houses, a race track for the holding of horse race meetings, and other buildings, structures, facilities, properties and appurtenances incidental and necessary to a complex suitable for the holding of athletic contests or other sporting events, or trade shows, exhibitions, spectacles, public meetings or other expositions, and such project may include driveways, roads, approaches, parking areas, parks, recreation areas, food vending facilities, restaurants, transportation structures, systems and facilities, and equipment, furnishings, and all other structures and appurtenant facilities related to, necessary for, or complementary to the purposes of the project or any facility thereof. [ 6(a)] To carry out this statutory mandate the Authority is given the power of eminent domain ( 9) and is authorized to issue bonds and notes which are expressly not debts of the State. 10. The Authority may relocate public highways and utilities after consultation with the Meadowlands Commission and the Department of Transportation.

In locating and constructing the sports and exposition facilities the Authority is exempt from state and local zoning, planning, and building codes. 5(x). The Authority is a public body corporate and politic established in the Department of Community Affairs. 4(a). Its membership consists of the State Treasurer, the Attorney General and a member of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission to be appointed by the Governor, all three being members ex officio, while four other members are to be appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. 4(b). From the latter group, the Governor is to appoint a chairman, while the entire membership is to choose a vice-chairman as well as a secretary and treasurer (the latter two need not be members).