08/16/03 - Posted 11:54:25 PM from the Daily Record newsroom
Group challenges open space effort

Roxbury coalition backs landowner
By Matt Manochio, Daily Record

ROXBURY -- Carl Clegg says he doesn't have a problem with municipalities acquiring open space.

However, the township resident, who two years ago founded the Roxbury Coalition to Protect Private Property, does have problems with governments using their powers of eminent domain and condemnation to force landowners to sell their property.

"Their current modus operandi is to go in and condemn property and pay what we believe is a low-market value for it," said Clegg, who said he supports Ernst Gottdiener, a Hillside resident and former developer, who currently is fighting the township council's efforts to condemn approximately 145 acres of land near Mooney and Mountain roads in Ledgewood.

Despite township officials' insistence that open space is a proper use of eminent domain because it serves the public good, Clegg's organization came together because its members do not believe the government should be permitted to seize private land against the owner's wishes.

"We're not against the government having parts, but (are opposed to) condemning it at the expense of the landowners," said Clegg, who said he has no financial interest in the outcome of the Gottdiener case, but has spoken to him on occasion.

Clegg described his organization as a grass-roots effort that includes about 100 members, most of them township residents and some who attend council meetings, write newspaper editorials or contact government representatives to make their positions clear.

The group's Web site outlines the members' mission:

"We are opposed to any effort on the part of the government to condemn, seize, or take private property. We are opposed to the use the Open Space and Green Acres laws to acquire property from parties that do not voluntarily wish to sell their lands.

"We oppose legislation and zoning ordinances that devalue private lands by rezoning targeted parcels in an effort to reduce their value so they can be purchased for open space at less than fair values. … We seek to support all owners of private property in Roxbury Township and defend their Constitutional Right to own property and do with it as they see fit -- unencumbered by the prohibitively restrictive and taxing hand of government."

Deputy Mayor Thomas Vickery said the township has been trying to acquire the stretch of land for about three years.

"Open space is indeed a public benefit," Vickery said, later adding that "negotiation is difficult because there isn't that much left in Roxbury Township that isn't developed."

Vickery said the township has "filed most of the papers that are required for condemnation." He said the township has likely spent in excess of $20,000 in legal bills trying to convince Gottdiener to sell.

"There are still a couple of more legal steps yet required to take it," Vickery said. "We have not stopped talking to him. We want to negotiate with him."

Roxbury would like to preserve the land as open space and add it to its Mooney Mountain Meadows project.

"There aren't that many big parcels left in town," Vickery said.

The township over the last three years has received $3.25 million in state and county grants to purchase the 162-acre property, appraised at $5.1 million. In 2001, the township used condemnation to acquire about 20 acres near Marla Terrace from Gottdiener for the open space project.

James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said it is common for municipalities to condemn land for open space.

"I think there's been precedent for condemning land for public parks and the like," he said, adding that the state does provide bond money for open space acquisitions.

"Open space is a public activity and, in the broader scheme of things, it may not be as important as (funding) education, but to some people it's extraordinarily important," Hughes said.

Without condemnation, stretches of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike would not have been built, Hughes said.

"Probably in most cases … the owners here are well compensated and usually given a little bit extra above market value to soothe the process out," Hughes said of recent condemnation proceedings in the New Brunswick area. "Again, that's why God invented courts."

Hughes said there are typically two or three appraisals of a property that would be used as the basis for estimating the value.

"You do have to have a transparent appraisal process where both the public and the landowner can (view) how the price is being determined," Hughes said.

Clegg said his group supports open space "as long as the transaction is voluntary by both parties," he said.

Roxbury Township attorney Anthony M. Bucco said he is optimistic a settlement can be reached between the two parties.

"We're hopefully really close to … working out a settlement in regard to the taking (of the land)," Bucco said, adding that if a deal is reached, there will be no need for a hearing to determine the land's worth.

Matt Manochio can be reached at mmanochi@gannett.com or (973) 428-6630.