BY LIZ SHEEHAN
Correspondent
Save Sandy Hook (SSH), a grassroots group opposed to commercial development at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook, went to court Monday to stop a developer from renovating several buildings at the historic fort.
According to James Coleman Jr., an officer in Save Sandy Hook, the advocacy group was seeking an injunction in federal court that day to halt work by Sandy Hook Partners (SHP), the developer selected by the National Park Service (NPS) to rehabilitate buildings at the fort.
SSH has a suit pending in federal court seeking to overturn a controversial 60-year lease granted to Rumson developer James Wassel in 2004 by the park service that gives his firm (SHP) the right to renovate at least 36 buildings at the fort and convert them into offices, restaurants, overnight accommodations and environmental and educational facilities.
Coleman, a former county prosecutor, state assemblyman and Monmouth County Superior Court judge, is a plaintiff in the suit.
On Monday, he said that Lawrence Lutrell, the attorney for SSH, was scheduled to be in court that day to seek the injunction to stop the work by the developer on three buildings at the fort.
The buildings the developer is working on are the post chapel, theater and the old park service headquarters building, which Wassel’s firm has occupied for several years. At least two of the buildings are included in the disputed lease.
Last week, Richard Wells, superintendent of the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, where Fort Hancock is located, said that he had been “assured” by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that there was no reason why Wassel could not work on the three buildings despite the lawsuit now pending.
In July, Judge Mary L. Cooper dismissed the suit filed by SSH and Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater, an environmental group whose former headquarters is one of the buildings leased, to overturn the lease and set a time for an appeal.
An amended appeal was filed by Lutrell, and the decision of the judge is pending.
On June 30, the park service granted another one-year extension of Wassel’s time to show proof that he has the financial ability to complete the Fort Hancock project.
A series of extensions to provide proof of funding, including one in June 2005 and June 2004, have been given to the developer since he was selected by the park service in 2000 for the renovation of the fort after a competition for proposals.
“He was supposed to have the money in 1999,” when he submitted his proposal for the fort project, Coleman said Monday.
Brian Feeney, a spokesman for the park service, said Monday that the extension was given to Wassel because of the pending lawsuit, which, he said, made it difficult to secure funding for the project.
Opponents of the development contend that federal procurement regulations required Wassel to provide proof of financial capability at the time he submitted a proposal to the park service.
Feeney said that Wassel was now doing work on public use space in the buildings, including the one occupied by his company, Sandy Hook Partners.
Last year, when the extension was renewed for Wassel, Paul Sheridan, assistant regional director for communications for the NPS northeastern region, said the extension was given because of the litigation challenging the lease.
The park service “can’t hardly pull the rug from underneath Sandy Hook Partners” until the resolution of the legal challenge, he said at the time.
In September, Palisades Financial, Fort Lee, announced it would fund the Wassel plan, but after SSH appealed Judge Cooper’s decision, Palisades CEO Billy Procida said it would not proceed until legal issues were resolved.
“We have to wait until the appeal is over,” he said at the time.
The Wassel plan to commercialize the fort, which now has no commercial areas, has met with opposition from those who say it will harm the unique environment at Sandy Hook. It is supported by those who say the park service lacks the funds to renovate the buildings and needs private funding to do so.
Some local and state-elected officials including Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6), as well as environmental groups like the N.J. chapter of the Sierra Club, the N.J. Environmental Federation and Clearwater, are among the opponents of the Wassel proposal, while other local and state-elected officials, the Monmouth County Planning Board and the National Trust for Historic Preservation support the plan.