County will spend $11M to preserve watershed

By brian donahue
Staff Writer

By brian donahue
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE — Some 1,100 acres of land making up most of the Runyon Watershed is expected to be acquired by Middlesex County next year and to be preserved as open space.

The county is expected to pay $11 million to the city of Perth Amboy, which owns the land even though it is located in Old Bridge. The funding will come from the county’s Open Space Trust Fund, according to an announcement made by David B. Crabiel, director of the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Tuesday.

The Freeholders were expected to vote yesterday to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Perth Amboy, whose City Council is expected to vote on the agreement Monday. Closing on the sale would then take place on or before June 30, 2003.

The land is bordered by Route 516 to the south, and Bordentown Avenue in Sayreville to the north, according to County Treasurer James T. Phillips. To the west of the property is the South River, and part of its eastern border runs up against Old Bridge’s Peter Mannino Park.

Under the agreement, the county will become the owner of 582 acres, while obtaining the development rights and a recreational easement to another 518 acres owned by Perth Amboy but located in Old Bridge, Crabiel said.

Another 210 acres in Old Bridge that are part of the watershed will continue to be owned by Perth Amboy. That portion of the property is the site of Perth Amboy’s water treatment facilities, and since it contains some environmental contamination, the county could not purchase it using open space funds, Phillips said.

The section in which the county is acquiring development rights is the site of a Perth Amboy water well, and the city will retain the right to use that parcel for the well, according to the proposed agreement. Perth Amboy draws potable water from an aquifer underneath the 100-acre man-made lake on the site.

Crabiel told Greater Media Newspapers that Perth Amboy officials initially wanted to sell the development rights — and not the title — on the 1,100 acres, but that he and other county officials favored an outright purchase.

"Perth Amboy wanted the whole thing to be development rights," Crabiel said, "but I had a problem with that, so this is the compromise."

In all, the land being preserved by the county includes "nearly 600 acres of pristine uplands that could ultimately be developed were it not for this purchase," Crabiel said in a statement. The remaining acreage includes significant wetlands.

The property can only be used in the future for passive recreation, and county officials have discussed such possibilities as campgrounds, equestrian trails, Audubon programming or other "programs that will have no impact on Perth Amboy’s ability to make water," Phillips said.

The land is zoned by Old Bridge for recreational uses, such as golf courses, but Crabiel said it was always possible that at some point the zoning could be challenged in court by its owner, whether Perth Amboy or another party it could have sold the land to, and that housing development could result. He said it was very possible that any future challenge to the zoning could have resulted in a judge’s order for 1-acre lot sizes, or as many as 600 homes being built on the developable portion of the land.

Crabiel said the county has talked about acquiring the land in question for years, but that the two parties became more active in negotiations around January. He said Freeholder Camille Fernicola, liaison to the open space program, Phillips and Perth Amboy Mayor Joe Vas were among the most active in the process.

The purchase will represent the county’s second largest open-space acquisition, Crabiel said. The largest was the late-1990s purchase to create the John A. Phillips Open Space Preserve, formerly known as the Olympia & York property. It is also located in Old Bridge, in the vicinity of routes 9 and 18 near the township’s border with Marlboro Township.

"This agreement with Perth Amboy will benefit the citizens of the county, the City of Perth Amboy and the Township of Old Bridge," Crabiel said.

In a related development, the City of Perth Amboy has agreed to sell access rights to its watersheds and well fields located along Route 516 to Old Bridge Township.

Township Council Vice President Larry Redmond told Greater Media Newspapers Tuesday night that Vas agreed to sell the access, located inside Peter Mannino Park, for the assessed price of $16,500.

Details of the deal between Perth Amboy and Old Bridge have yet to be worked out by the two municipalities’ legal departments, Redmond said.

Once those details are finalized, the township can move forward with its plans to develop Mannino Park, Redmond added.

Township officials have been negotiating with Perth Amboy officials for several months to gain access to the as-yet-undeveloped Mannino Park. Redmond, as the county’s liaison to the Freeholders, had indicated several months ago that Perth Amboy was exploring the possibility of selling its land to the county for open space preservation.

The Sayrewood South Little League and the Sayrewood South Rebels football league both play on fields located in the watershed area that the county is buying. County officials have stated that those leagues can continue to use the land, Redmond said.

"The county wants to assure the league that they can stay there as long as they want," Redmond pointed out.

Staff writer Sue M. Morgan contributed to this story