BY LAUREN MATTHEW
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE – Some township officials want more information before the Township Council allows the sale of municipal lands categorized as no longer needed by the town.
The council discussed an ordinance Monday that would allow the sale of the various properties to bidders. The ordinance would also set the terms and conditions of the sale.
Ward 4 Councilman G. Kevin Calogera said that the council has requested information from the Municipal Utilities Authority in order to gauge whether some of the property could be held for later sale at a higher price, perhaps as the result of future water and sewer extensions near those properties.
But according to council President Patrick Gillespie, releasing information about those improvements would give potential bidders the upper hand.
“[If we release the information] we would have a certain amount of liability. … Our process is to sell it as it is, where it is. And buyer beware,” township Business Administrator Michael Jacobs said.
But Calogera contended that to hold onto some of that property might mean more money for the township if the improvements were completed before the land is sold.
“To do diligence is really to do so for our own purposes, not for a prospective bidder,” he said.
Ward 5 Councilman Richard Greene said there was a lot of work that has to be done prior to the council’s vote on the ordinance’s second reading, which will take place at next Monday’s meeting.
“I don’t know if in fact we’re going to be ready at the next meeting to really consider this,” he said.
Township Attorney Jerome Convery said the list of properties provided to the council indicated that six of the parcels would be sold to adjoining property owners. If the property goes to those adjacent owners, he said, it is usually offered with the understanding that they cannot build on it, but simply supplement their land.
A summary of that information, he said, was provided to the council last week by Township Engineer Jim Cleary.
“It’s the intent of this list that wherever it says [adjoining], it will only be sold to the adjoining property owner,” Convery said. “If it isn’t sold [to them], then we’d have to make a further decision on whether to sell it at all.”
He said he would look over each case and make sure that the adjoining property owners would be prohibited from building on the land.
Ward 6 Councilwoman Lucille Panos said she requested a meeting with the Open Space Committee, of which she is a member, to discuss this ordinance.
“Hopefully we can get a meeting together during the week before the council meeting,” she said.
If not, Panos said, she will ask to table the ordinance until such a meeting can take place. The township, she said, should know whether it would be better off keeping some of that land.
“Some of these properties are on Englishtown Road,” she said, “and … Englishtown Road might be environmentally sensitive down there.”
The township’s Environmental Commission, she said, should also look at the land.
“For our own needs, we should know,” Panos said.