Airport critic contends veto didn’t go far enough
By:Eric Schwarz
The state should give municipalities a say before it pays airport owners to maintain their land as airports indefinitely, the governor said Thursday.
Gov. Christie Whitman vetoed sections of a bill the Legislature had passed in June that would give the state Department of Transportation wide latitude in making such payments. Her conditional veto, following the suggestions of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, pleased Manville Mayor Angelo Corradino.
"It’s exactly what we are looking for," Mayor Corradino said. "It gives authority back to planning and zoning boards. "It maintains local control to municipalities, not the state and airport owners."
The Legislature can override the governor’s veto of the bill if two-thirds of all members agree.
The Manville Borough Council last week formally opposed the bill because it would curtail rights of municipalities to determine use of airport land once the state buys development rights from eligible owners.
Several residents and the borough government have had problems for years with Central Jersey Regional Airport just over the border in Hillsborough.
One of them, Sally Saharko of Garry Street, who leads the anti-airport group TIGER, said the governor’s veto did not go far enough. She contends lobbyists and the legislators who supported the bill would harm blue-collar towns like Manville and Lincoln Park.
Assemblyman Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany-Troy Hills) in May singled out the Central Jersey and Lincoln Park airports as "two airports desperately in need of this legislation."
Mr. DeCroce, one of four legislative sponsors of the bill, at that time told the New Jersey Aviation Conference that the bill "is on the top of my agenda."
His executive assistant, Melverne Cooke, last week said several airports are "ready to talk" about selling their development rights to the state, although no guidelines had been established to determine their value.
The problems and ill will at Central Jersey Regional Airport have grown in the past three years since Joseph Horner and Steve Richard bought the former Kupper Airport.
The owners have claimed the airport is not profitable and that they are suffering because of restrictions and opposition coming from the Hillsborough and Manville municipal governments.
Gov. Whitman, in her veto message, said she supports the bill "as an important measure towards preserving the long-term viability of public use airports in the state."
The airports are "absolutely essential to our aviation infrastructure," the governor said, but municipalities should "retain their existing (zoning) authority" to participate in the process to sell airport development rights.
The governor would require the DOT obtain two independent appraisals of the airport development rights and provide notice and a public hearing on the proposal at a site near the affected municipalities.
The appraisals themselves and the terms of the proposed sale also would be sent to the municipalities, counties and state legislators representing the districts where the airports are located, under the governor’s recommendation.
She also recommended the appropriation for such purchases be cut in half, from $5 million to $2.5 million, "with future funding considered as part of the budget process."
And the governor wants the Legislature to clarify the term "unrestricted public use airport" to preserve municipal land-use law and land-use authority.