Opinion ID: 1951332
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Origins and Early Development; Compact and Comprehensive Plan

Text: The Port Authority is a statutory product of a compact which was entered into by the States of New Jersey and New York in 1921. [1] Modeled after the recommendations of a joint commission, [2] the Port Authority represented a response to the dysfunctional competition and commercial disputes which historically had plagued the two states. [3] As such, it was intended to meet the needs and interests which the two states shared with respect to the Port of New York. This was expressly recognized in the preamble to the 1921 Compact, which stated: The future development of such terminal, transportation and other facilities of commerce will require the expenditure of large sums of money, and the cordial co-operation of the states of New York and New Jersey in the encouragement of the investment of capital, and in the formulation and execution of the necessary physical plans.... [ N.J.S.A. 32:1-1] While the Compact delineated the framework for the Port Authority and its operations, the necessity for a more specific implementation was recognized in Article X, which directed the state legislatures to adopt a plan or plans for the comprehensive development of the port of New York as soon as may be practicable. N.J.S.A. 32:1-11. The formulation of this plan was undertaken by the Authority's initial board of commissioners, whose Report with Plan for the Comprehensive Development of the Port of New York, December 21, 1921 (1921) was eventually enacted as the Comprehensive Plan mandated by the Compact. [4] This plan envisioned an active and affirmative role for the Port Authority in the development of the Port District. [5] Section 8 of the Comprehensive Plan provided: The Port of New York Authority is hereby authorized and directed to proceed with the development of the port of New York in accordance with said comprehensive plan as rapidly as may be economically practicable and is hereby vested with all necessary and appropriate powers not inconsistent with the constitution of the United States or of either state, to effectuate the same, except the power to levy taxes or assessments. [ N.J.S.A. 32:1-33; emphasis supplied] That fulfillment of this statutory mandate contemplated the involvement of the Port Authority in transportation matters of the Port District is undeniable. This responsibility, for example, was explicitly mentioned in that portion of the preamble of the Compact cited above. Article XXII of the Compact further clarifies this responsibility by defining transportation facility as including: ... railroads, steam or electric, motor truck or other street or highway vehicles, tunnels, bridges, boats, ferries, carfloats, lighters, tugs, floating elevators, barges, scows or harbor craft of any kind, aircraft suitable for harbor service, and every kind of transportation facility now in use or hereafter designed for use for the transportation or carriage of persons or property. [ N.J.S.A. 32:1-23; emphasis supplied] The centrality of the railroads to the organizational and coordination schemes of the Port Authority was highlighted by the separate definition of railroads. [6] This was a reflection of the final report by the New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission, which in 1920 had recommended the establishment of a bi-state agency with appropriate jurisdiction. See footnote 2, supra. The report, whose factual findings served as the basis for the Compact and the Comprehensive Plan, found the commercial inadequacies of the metropolitan area to be primarily a railroad problem. The absence of railroad coordination and accessibility at many places within the district consequently required essentially a railroad plan. The Commission summarized its suggestions in a proposal which entailed the establishment of railroad belt-line systems between New Jersey and New York, and concluded: This remodeled terminal railroad system, bringing every railroad of the Port to every part of the Port, and thus giving every part of the Port opportunity to develop and to have the economical transportation service needed for its commercial and industrial growth and expansion, constitutes the comprehensive plan of the Commission  the plan which the Commission recommends for formal adoption by the two states. [New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission, Joint Report, supra footnote 2, at 3] This statutory responsibility to develop the transportation facilities of the Port District, and particularly facilities relating to railroad operations, contained an implicit obligation to foster passenger transportation service. Although the Port and Development Commission report concentrated on the freight shipment needs of the area, it did not preclude a comparable role for the Port Authority in passenger service. With one notable exception, the Port Authority's role in passenger service is confirmed by the early history of the agency. In this regard, however, even that exception, the 1928 veto message of Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York which rejected a New Jersey proposal for the development of a rapid transit system between the states, may be no more than a personal predilection. [7] See 134 N.J. Super. at 149. Noting that the Port Authority should stick to this program ... [for] the solution of the great freight distribution problem, Governor Smith at no time denied the agency's power to deal with passenger service, and only suggested a reordering of its priorities. More importantly, the position which he advocated was expressly repudiated by the Port Authority that same year. In a June 11, 1928 resolution supporting the continuation of a Suburban Transit Engineering Board, [8] the Port Authority recognized that it had a responsibility to the metropolitan commuter, based on its broader duty to develop transportation in the Port District: The Commissioners of the Port Authority have found in their studies that no adequate or effective interstate transportation development can take place without taking full account of transportation of passengers as well as of freight throughout the Port District. [9] [Emphasis supplied]