SC Statement on Mayor Fahl Not Running for Reelection in Lambertville

Mayor Julia Fahl has announced that she will not run for a second term as mayor of Lambertville. During her first term, Mayor Fahl has pushed a controversial two-part development proposal for the City of Lambertville. The proposal included rezoning and selling the police station to developers for affordable housing, which would then put them on track to build a new City Hall complex to house the new police station.

“Mayor Fahl has decided not to run for reelection because her policies were unpopular with the members of our community. Her push for building a $14 million City Hall Complex in the middle of a floodplain and selling off the current City Hall, police station, and Library was especially controversial. As part of that, she wanted to move part of the town’s affordable housing obligation to the police station site that is environmentally-sensitive, contaminated, and in a flood zone. This goes against affordable housing guidelines and raises Environmental Justice concerns,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Now that Mayor Fahl is stepping down, we hope that the next mayor will work to protect the environment and shape of Lambertville for future generations.”

According to NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) forms, Mayor Fahl works for Tonio Burgos and Associates, a lobbying firm. Her clients include some of the largest partners in PennEast like PSE&G and South Jersey Industries (SJI). Fahl registered as a lobbyist for Tonio Burgos on August 28, 2018. Campaigns that have taken the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, like Massachusetts Rep. Kennedy’s campaign, have had to refuse or return money donated by Tonio Burgos because of the firm’s fossil fuel clients. Julia Fahl’s ELEC Form is attached, which shows that she represents these fossil fuel companies.

“Before she was sworn in Mayor Fahl went to work for Tonio Burgos, a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry. Because of that, she lost the public trust. Their clients include SJI, the largest partner in PennEast, and PSE&G, which is buying 10% of the gas from PennEast. Mayor Fahl did nothing to stop the Lambertville East Project in West Amwell that is supposed to take gas from the PennEast pipeline and distribute it locally to PSE&G and Elizabethtown Gas, which is owned by SJI. She also allowed Enbridge Spectra, a partner in PennEast, to hang up a welcome sign in Lambertville last year,” said Jeff Tittel. “SJI wants to use PennEast gas to build a pipeline through the middle of the Pinelands, a project that former governors Florio, Whitman, Byrne, and Kean have all opposed. The Sierra Club is in court and we won in court against SJI’s pipeline, but they’re still pushing forward.”

The New Jersey Sierra Club has been opposed to Mayor Fahl’s overdevelopment proposal for multiple reasons, including the fact that the police station is a contaminated, flood-prone site that is not suitable for affordable housing or any residential development. The Sierra Club, as the oldest and largest conservation organization in the country, is always concerned about environmental stewardship and Environmental Justice issues.

“Lambertville has always been a major part of the Sierra Club’s work. We helped write the plastic bag ban ordinance, preserve Goat Hill and Lewis Island, and get the Delaware River designated as a Wild and Scenic River. We have been fighting Mayor Fahl’s overdevelopment plan because it will cause more flooding, traffic and pollution and will threaten the environment. There were four sites for affordable housing, including the Napa site and YMAC site, that the Mayor removed from the Affordable Housing Plan for luxury housing. Meanwhile, she moved that housing to an Environmental Justice site at the edge of town that is flood-prone and potentially contaminated,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We hope that Mayor Fahl doesn’t go forward with some of her policies that the people of Lambertville have rejected, and will work with the next mayor to make sure that Lambertville is protected from overdevelopment.

According to the Sludge article about Tony Burgos referenced above, “Burgos lobbies in New Jersey for South Jersey Industries, an energy services holding company with subsidiaries including natural gas utility SJI Utilities and gas pipeline company SJI Midstream. He also lobbies in the state for Public Service Enterprise Group, a utility company that operates a fleet of natural gas, coal, and oil-fired power plants in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, as well as one in Hawaii. For more than a decade until 2018, Burgos lobbied in New York and federally for pipeline giant Williams Companies, which sought to build a fracked gas pipeline beneath Raritan Bay between New York and New Jersey.”