Land trade awaits final DEP review
By: Bill Greenwood
MONROE All tax liens and mortgages on parcels involved in a land swap between Monroe Township and Middlesex County have been resolved.
Assistant Township Attorney Peg Schaffer delivered that message during an update on the status of the land exchange at the Board of Education meeting Wednesday.
She said the state Department of Environmental Protection was reviewing the title reports as well as surveys and an environmental impact statement to determine whether to lift the Green Acres restrictions on a 35-acre parcel of land in Thompson Park on Schoolhouse Road.
If the restrictions are lifted, the township will be able to swap a number of parcels totaling 172.37 acres for the Thompson Park parcel.
In January, the state granted conditional approval of the land swap, which calls for the Green Acres restrictions on the Thompson Park parcel to be lifted. As part of an executive order, the DEP must first review the deeds and environmental surveys of each parcel.
A decision is expected by Jan. 4, according to Ms. Schaffer.
The school board wants to build a 365,000-square-foot high school on the Thompson Park parcel. Township voters approved an $82.9 million referendum for the school, which will accommodate 1,800 students upon completion, in December 2003.
The school is scheduled to be completed by 2011, and the existing high school will be turned into a middle school once the new building is finished. The two schools will share athletic fields, parking and other facilities
Ms. Schaffer said there were some minor issues that still needed to be worked out, but nothing that would slow the swap process.
"There’s a $1,100 tax obligation (on one of the properties) that I have the money for," she said. "When we get DEP to say the restrictions are released, the county of Middlesex is prepared and fully able to transfer the title to (the township), and we are prepared to transfer the title to the Board of Education."
Ms. Schaffer said the only remaining major title dispute, a $3 million mortgage on a 3.83-acre parcel owned by Lafayette Knolls Inc., had been resolved. The parcel, which was a subdivision of a 27.6-acre mother parcel, was released from the mortgage by Wachovia Bank, allowing the township to take its title. Lafayette still owes $3 million on the rest of the mother parcel.
The state Department of Community Affairs is conducting code review and approval on architectural drawings and schematics for the new high school. Once the review is completed and the land exchange approved, the project may be advertised for bid.
However, Ms. Schaffer said there also is an appeal pending. It was filed by the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic on behalf of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the New Jersey Public Interest Group and local group Park Savers and seeks to keep the exchange from occurring. They say the property offered by the township is not of equal value to the Thompson Park tract.
Ms. Schaffer said the appeal does not affect the commission’s approval and the township will continue to proceed with the swap "unless and until someone tells us that we can’t go forward."

