Last year, despite opposition relating to scale, environment and use of tax dollars, the planning board approved it and tossed a 20-year tax abatement into the pot. Two community groups, the Riverview Neighborhood Association and the Coalition for a Better Waterfront, immediately initiated legal action. Similar action was launched by the neighboring city of Hoboken, and the two suits were ultimately combined.

Late last week, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Jose Fuentes gave the plaintiffs the decision they wanted. The reason was a little unusual: Fuentes ruled the board's decision wasn't valid because six of its nine members weren't legally entitled to vote. Five were serving expired terms and hadn't been re-appointed by Mayor Bret Schundler and the sixth no longer lived in Jersey City.

"The failure... to fill these vacancies... or... appoint individuals meeting the legal residency requirement, can only be attributable to a deliberate plan to frustrate the legislative plan," Fuentes wrote in his decision.

"The way this project was steamrolled was totally inappropriate," Vito Brunetti of the Riverview Neighborhood Association told reporters. "We feel vindicated."

The groups had tried unsuccessfully to get the tax abatement issue on the ballot as a referendum before challenging the legality of the board's vote. Another issue was the developer: Joseph Lucarelli, a top exec with Bayonne, NJ-based United Diversified LLC, lead partner in Millennium Towers LLC, spent a couple of years in federal prison a decade ago over a fraud scheme and failure to pay taxes.

The planning board is appealing the decision, but its attorney, William Netchert of Roseland, NJ, wouldn't comment further. The city could start the process over, but that's considered unlikely. Municipal elections are scheduled for next month, and the political climate isn't favorable.

Judge Fuentes eased concerns that his decision would impact other board votes in recent years, which have been many and significant. "The jurisdictional window [on past decisions] is not susceptible to collateral attack by this court's ruling," he wrote in his decision.