Property will be preserved and maintained in agricultural production
By: Lacey Korevec
The township has set a date to auction off the Barclay North and South farms after a long dispute that was resolved by a state Superior Court ruling made in Cranbury’s favor,
On June 16, the 190 acres of farmland west of North Main Street will go up for auction again. Cranbury resident and farmer Arthur Danser challenged the legality of an October 2004 auction of the property and lost.
"The good news is the property will be preserved and maintained in agricultural production," Mayor David Stout said Wednesday. "The unfortunate part is that in the process, from the purchase to the sale, there’s been a lot of bumps in the road."
Mr. Danser, who lived on the property from 1929 until 2005, was the highest bidder at the land’s 2004 auction, bidding $1.9 million for the property. But he refused to enter into a contract for the property because he was challenging the auction, which he said was illegal because the township extended the deadline to submit bids, forcing him to increase his original bid from $1.2 million to $1.9 million.
Mr. Danser filed suit claiming that the extension of the auction by former Township Administrator Frederick Carr, without a resolution from the Township Committee, was illegal because the original deadline had been set by a resolution and could not be changed without a second resolution.
In November 2005, Judge Joseph C. Messina ruled that the auction was legal and in August 2006, after Mr. Danser challenged the first ruling, judges Mary Catherine Cuff and John Hoston Jr., of the Appellate Division of Superior Court, ruled that the auction was conducted legally.
Mayor Stout said he’s excited that the township will be able to sell the property and retire the development rights so that it can be maintained as agricultural land.
"We’re hoping we will get a fair market value for the property, so that we can recoup our investment that the township made 10 years ago," he said.
The money made from selling the property will go toward paying down debt from the township’s $3.5 million purchase of the land in June 2000 from the Barclay family.
Some residents have complained that the property has become overgrown and is creating allergy issues in town. Mayor Stout said that after the auction, the purchase should take between 45 and 90 days to close and then maintenance will be in the hands of the new owner.
"Knowing we’re going to sell it so soon, we didn’t want to risk encumbering the property," he said.