Developer asks boro to use eminent domain

Mayor: Weston Village to be built without condemnation

BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer

The developer of a proposed 120-unit townhouse development at a Route 35 site has asked the Eatontown Borough Council to use eminent domain to acquire additional land for the project.

Developer Weston Associates presented the mayor and council with a letter at the Dec. 5 council meeting requesting the governing body to condemn a portion of property at the Monmouth Mall.

“I am not an advocate of eminent domain,” Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said after the council meeting. “And when I saw [the request], my eyes lit up.

“The borough said they would be willing to use eminent domain, but there is an intermediate step here,” he said, adding, “Let’s try to negotiate and work this thing out without taking an extreme procedure, such as eminent domain.”

David R. Oberlander, the attorney representing Weston Associates, presented a letter to Tarantolo and the council at the meeting last week.

In the letter, the developer asks the borough to condemn a stormwater pipeline easement located on a section of property at Monmouth Mall.

Oberlander refused to comment further on the matter.

“What that letter is saying is that [the developer] wants the town to use eminent domain to get this project moving, and our response right now is that it is premature,” Tarantolo said.

The borough is willing to bring the involved parties together with the hope of reaching an agreement without using eminent domain, Tarantolo said.

The Borough Council and the Eatontown Planning Board signed an agreement in June 2005 with Weston Associates approving the Weston Village project, according to the letter.

Tarantolo explained that the agreement came about after the developer filed a builder’s remedy lawsuit against the borough.

According to Tarantolo, Weston Associates originally requested that the borough rezone the property known as Dan’s Driving Range to permit residential housing to make way for a 300 to 400- unit condominium project.

The borough denied Weston Associates’ request because the proposed project was too large and not conducive to the housing already in the area, according to Tarantolo.

He explained that Weston Associates then filed a builder’s remedy lawsuit against the borough.

A builder’s remedy lawsuit can be filed if a town does not comply with affordable housing regulations set forth by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), according to Tarantolo.

At that time, Eatontown did not have an affordable housing COAH plan in place, Tarantolo said.

If a Planning Board denies an application, the applicant can challenge the ruling on the basis that the town is noncompliant with its affordable housing requirements, according to Tarantolo.

The lawsuit was dropped after the borough and developer came to the agreement that the area would be rezoned if Weston Associates lowered its proposed amount of housing units to 120.

The scaled-down version of the project was approved by the Planning Board in January 2007.

“We negotiated with them to come up with a plan that was more conducive to the area and agreed upon 120-units,” Tarantolo said. “They then went before the Planning Board and received approval for the 120-unit plan.”

Tarantolo explained that the terms of the agreement with the developer called for the developer to construct an off-tract stormwater sewer line as part of the project.

“If [Weston Associates] had any difficulty in developing the project, they could come to the borough and have us initiate eminent domain proceedings,” Tarantolo said, explaining that the borough agreed to enact eminent domain as part of the settlement agreement.

Weston Associates has been in negotiations with Vornado Realty, the owners of the Monmouth Mall, for the stormwater easement since March 2006, according to the letter presented at council.

A Nov. 5 meeting was planned between Vornado Realty and Weston Associates to discuss the developer purchasing the easement, which is valued at $18,500 according to the letter.

When the meeting was cancelled, lawyers for Weston Associates filed the request for eminent domain with the borough, Tarantolo said.

Representatives from Vornado Realty could not be reached for comment by deadline Tuesday.

“The [proposed] off-tract line crosses four different private properties before connecting to an existing municipally owned stormwater line at the Monmouth Mall,” the developer wrote in the letter presented to council.

“Weston has acquired three of the four easements required for the off-tract stormwater line. Despite extensive negotiations, the mall has been unwilling to convey the necessary easement,” the letter states.

According to Tarantolo, the owners of the mall are willing to sell the land to Weston Associates after an expansion project at the mall begins.

Plans call for the owners of the mall to construct a Barnes & Noble bookstore and a 20,000-square-foot building adjacent to the Boscov’s parking garage.