The Old Bridge Planning Board has denied Jerald Development’s controversial application for a town center development on the Cottrell Farm, but the contention surrounding it is far from over.
Gerald Cernero, owner of the Wall Township-based firm, told Greater Media Newspapers that he was meeting with his attorney, Jonathan Heilbrunn, to make plans to file a lawsuit appealing the board’s Dec. 2 decision.
“[Mayor Jim Phillips] will never buy the town center off Mr. Cernero,” Cernero said after the board’s vote, referring to township officials’ efforts to purchase the historic farm property at Route 516 and Cottrell Road. “He will never buy off me; that’s all I have to say.”
Of the lawsuit, Planning Board Chairman Larry Redmond said developers often take matters to court after their applications are denied, with the mind-set that a judge will be more likely than a local board to rule in their favor.
“If he wants to go to court and spend that kind of money, that’s his prerogative,” Redmond said. “Old Bridge isn’t going to lay down and say, ‘Oh, Your Honor, if this is what you think we should be building, [we will do it]. We’re not going to do it.”
Jerald Development’s plans, known as Carriage House Crossing, called for 120,725 square feet of retail and office space, 83 age-restricted townhouse units and 129 second-floor apartments.
Phillips told Greater Media Newspapers that he thinks Cernero was hoping to secure the approval in order to add value to the property, and may not intend to actually build the development. Land appraisals take into account any approvals for construction on them, which add to the value.
“All this is, is a big mating dance, so Jerry [Cernero] can get as many approvals as he can on this land,” Phillips said. “As long as I have breath in my body, we will never pursue eminent domain on this property.”
In 2003, Old Bridge granted Cernero’s firm a 20-year general development plan (GDP) approval for the town center project. Since 2005, Phillips and the Township Council have worked to purchase a 27-acre portion of the historic farm, which dates back to the 1770s.
Due to what was deemed a too high asking price, both the township and county determined that the land could not be acquired unless Cernero was willing to negotiate to a lower number.
“As much as I would love to see the Cottrell Farm preserved as an apple orchard … in this day and age, in this economy, we can’t just be throwing money at Jerry Cernero for no reason,” Phillips said. “We’re not the federal government. We don’t print money.”
Last year, Cernero applied to have the state purchase the tract’s development rights through the Farmland Preservation Program, but the request was denied.
According to Cernero’s representatives, the land has an appraised value of $21 million. After township officials rejected Cernero’s price of $17.5 million, they gave a counteroffer of $12 million, which he rejected.
While township officials have consistently discussed their wishes to acquire 27 acres of the farm property, letters between Heilbrunn and Township Attorney Jerome Convery refer to a transaction that would involve 64.5 acres.
Phillips said that, in reality, after providing for rights of way and meeting with county road improvements, the 27 acres of the Cottrell Farm property would be whittled down to 23. References to 64.5 acres to be conveyed to the town through the purchase are simply inaccurate, Phillips said. That number includes 37 acres of a tract separate from the farm, about a half-mile down Cottrell Road. In 2003, Jerald sought to put 99 town homes on that parcel, but the township Zoning Board of Adjustment denied the application. Cernero took the matter to court, and the developer agreed in 2004 to deed that tract to the township for preservation and pay a sum of $1.08 million in exchange for a density transfer that would allow 66 of the town homes to be built on the Cottrell Farm property as part of Carriage House Crossing.
Now that Cernero is asking what township officials deem to be an unreasonable amount of money for the farmland, Phillips said he believes the builder is trying to make the deal appear sweeter by portraying the 37 acres as part of what is being purchased.
In a letter dated Nov. 18, Jerome Convery informed Cernero that township officials were rejecting his most recent price of $16.5 million, which was $1 million less than what he had been asking for the property.
W
hile Phillips said officials would be
“more than anxious” to consider a lower offer from the developer, the letter told another story, Cernero said.
In the letter, Convery wrote: “The administration, Township Council and I have discussed the issue of a counteroffer, and it is clear that the parties are so far apart that same is not warranted. It appears that further negotiations would be fruitless. I therefore will be closing this file and taking no further action.”
Since the 2003 GDP approval, plans for the town center development have changed in a number of ways, which brought the question of whether the current plans were still in compliance with the GDP. The Planning Board spent 11 months hearing testimony in part to determine whether the GDP would still hold in light of the changes.
The most significant change is the plan for a three-level parking garage. At the meeting, Planning Board member Pat Gillespie and other officials asserted that while there was no specific language prohibiting such structures in the township’s town center development ordinance, the fact that parking garages were not even mentioned in the ordinance led them to think they should not be permitted.
“This parking deck business is totally out of the blue,” Redmond said. “Nowhere in our ordinance does it allow for a parking deck.”
Representatives for Cernero asserted that the parking garage would fall under the category of an accessory structure, but Gillespie again cited the fact that such buildings are not listed anywhere in the very detailed ordinance, including the area that lists permissible accessory structures.
“How can you call this an accessory structure,” Redmond asked after the meeting. “We’re not storing rakes and shovels; we’re parking a couple-hundred cars in a three-story structure.”
Councilman Kevin Calogera, who sat on the Planning Board at the time of the 2003 GDP approval and helped to draft the town center development ordinance, reiterated board members’ sentiments, saying such structures were never intended to be permitted.
Cernero’s professionals also cited a parking deck permitted in a M. Alfieri Co. development, but board members said such structures are permissible in office developments; not town centers or residential.
“To compare it to Alfieri is ludicrous,” Redmond said. “We’re just not going to set that kind of precedent.”
Other issues that influenced the board were traffic, which is already an issue around the site, and contamination left over from pesticides used at the apple orchard that was there for years.
While Phillips said more information is needed to determine the level of contaminants there, he said it is clear that a complete cleanup of pollutants would be required by the state Department of Environmental Protection before anything could be built there, or even for the land to be preserved as open space.
A number of residents who live near the proposed development site came out to last week’s meeting to voice their displeasure with the plans. Christine Manville, owner of Maintenance Mart janitorial service, Route 516, called the parking deck “an abomination.” The structure would sit next door to her business, and near her home, both of which sit on a 1-acre tract. When her home was built 10 years ago, the Zoning Board required a restrictive covenant on the site, which entailed Manville agreeing not to further develop it.
She said she never expected to have a huge development move in next door.
“Everybody has a right to develop their land, but this guy is greedy,” Manville said. “He’s sucking the life out of this town.”
The board voted unanimously to deny the application without prejudice, which allows Jerald to go before the Zoning Board about the parking deck, or to seek variances from the Planning Board. Cernero made it clear he did not plan to do either.
Before the meeting, Planning Board Attorney Michael Cresitello suggested that Gerald Haran, the mayor’s designee on the board, recuse himself from the vote because of comments Phillips has made regarding the application.
“I assure you, the mayor’s statements are his own,” Haran said, adding that he had no problem recusing himself from the vote.