BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
The city of Long Branch has taken the first legal step to condemn, and ultimately seize, 11 properties to clear the way for redevelopment along the oceanfront.
The city is the plaintiff in two complaints filed in state Superior Court on Nov. 18.
The complaints, filed with Judge Lawrence Lawson, assert the city’s right to take through eminent domain 11 of the 36 properties in the Beachfront North, phase II redevelopment zone from residents who do not want to give up their properties.
City Attorney James Aaron said the eminent domain complaints were filed with the court after the property owners failed to negotiate in good faith with the city.
He said he expected the complaints to be served on the property owners within the next week or two after the court review.
But attorneys for the property owners who are named as defendants say they will challenge the actions.
“We will file answers and motions to the complaints to dismiss the condemnation complaints,” said William J. Ward, of Carlin & Ward, Florham Park, last week.
“Our chief defense is that this property is not blighted,” said Ward, who is representing two of the property owners faced with the taking of their properties through eminent domain. “The entire process is tainted because of conflicts of interest, and the city failed to negotiate in good faith.”
“The [appraised] values are half of what the properties are worth,” he added. “The takings are not for public purpose, but rather to benefit private redevelopment.”
“The complaints are the first steps in condemning the properties,” attorney Peter H. Wegener, of Bathgate, Wegener and Wolf, Lakewood, said last week. “[The complaints] say that [the city] wants the properties and plans to use [its] power of eminent domain.”
Wegener, who is representing 20 property owners facing eminent domain as a result of the city’s redevelopment plans, said his clients have refused the offers by the city for the purchase of their properties and last week his office received a copy of the condemnation complaints.
“We will be responding to the complaints, and we intend to challenge the city’s use of eminent domain,” he said.
In the complaints, the city contends that it “attempted to reach a voluntary agreement for the acquisition” of the properties through negotiations but was unable to reach an agreement with property owners over “compensation to be paid.”
The city asks the court to find that: it has the authority to acquire the properties through the power of eminent domain and “has duly exercised its authority to acquire the property through eminent domain.”
It asks the court to appoint commissioners “to fix the compensation required to be paid for the property as of the date of commencement of this action” in accordance with state law.
In the 12th count of the lawsuit, the city asks the court to hold the defendant property owners liable for any and “all costs of remediation and/or cleanup of contamination or removal of solid waste and/or sanitary landfill closure” existing on the properties before or after the city takes ownership.
Some 20 residents in the three-street neighborhood known as MTOTSA (Marine and Ocean Terraces and Seaview Avenue) retained Wegener, and two residents retained Ward, to challenge the city’s plan to take their properties through the process of eminent domain to clear the way for redevelopment of the area.
After Wegener and Ward file answers, Ward said a hearing will be scheduled to establish whether the city has the right to take the properties.
The first complaint lists Carmen and Josephine Vendetti of Ocean Terrace as defendants. According to the suit, they were offered $410,000 for their property by the city, the amount an appraiser hired by the city determined their ocean view property is worth.
The second complaint names 10 property owners, whose properties are within one block of the ocean and most have a water view, as defendants.
Gregory P. Brower, Ocean Terrace, who was offered $340,000; Antone and Anne DeFaria, Marine Terrace, offered $325,000; Marcello S. and Elaina G. Gruberg, Ocean Terrace, offered $448,000; Lee and Denise Hoagland, Ocean Terrace, offered $408,000; Karin Lynn Kandur and Patricia M. Taylor, Ocean Terrace, offered $350,00; Rose LaRosa, Ocean Terrace, offered $625,000; George Warren McKenna, Marine Terrace, offered $210,000; Olga Netto, Marine Terrace, offered $305,000; Ragendrarabahi and Manisha Patel, Ocean Terrace, offered $300,000; and Lori Ann Vendetti, Ocean Terrace, offered $374,000.
Plans for the zone call for designated redeveloper MM-Beachfront North II — consisting of co-developers Matzel & Mumford, a division of K. Hovnanian, Middletown, and the Applied Cos., Hoboken — to bulldoze the neighborhood and construct three buildings containing a total of 185 upscale condominium units in its place.
One resident of the redevelopment zone said last week the appraisal amounts for the homes were “outrageously low.”
“Our appraisals were definitely below market value,” William Giordano, Ocean Terrace, said.
Giordano, who is a professional appraiser, said the appraised amounts for the approximately 36 oceanfront properties in the zone were undervalued and residents will be unable to relocate to another neighborhood in the county with a view of the beach.
“When you appraise a property within 500 feet of the ocean, you must provide a comparable sale,” Giordano said. “The value for the property is supposed to allow [the residents] to obtain another piece of property in a similar area for that value.”
Wegener said the appraised amounts of the properties ranged from $300,000 to $500,000.
The properties were appraised last winter by McGuire Associates, Real Estate Appraisals and Consultants firm, Jersey City.
MTOTSA is one of six redevelopment zones in the city and Applied Cos. senior vice president Greg Russo confirmed that the new condominium units in the city’s other oceanfront redevelopment projects have sold for between $200,000 and $2.2 million.
Glen Ward, director of community development for Matzel & Mumford, could not be reached for comment on what comparable properties were used to establish the sale price of the new condominiums.
According to Giordano, the comparable properties used to establish the appraised value for MTOTSA properties were unfair.
“The developer is going to other municipalities and comparing prices of oceanfront developments to get comparable sale prices for the development projects,” Giordano said. “But when the developer has appraisers come to seize our properties, they are going inland.”
For example, he said, the amount the city offered for 68 Ocean Terrace, the home of Denise and Lee Hoagland, is absurd.
“Where will the Hoaglands be able to find a home with their view of the ocean for $425,000?” he asked.
Giordano said there are currently 103 active listings of properties for sale in Long Branch and only nine properties listed below $300,000. He added that the average sale price of active listing properties in Long Branch in the past three years was $464,507.
“And that amount includes inland property,” Giordano said. “For the amount we are being offered, we cannot even find a home inland.”

