The Manalapan Township Committee will move to condemn a piece of property that was the subject of litigation that continued for almost a decade.
Township Attorney Roger McLaughlin announced at the April 14 meeting of the governing body that Manalapan will take action to acquire the Gentile property at the corner of Tennent Road and Route 522 (Freehold-Englishtown Road), Manalapan, through the process of condemnation.
The committee members subsequently voted to introduce two ordinances that will be the subject of public hearings on May 12. The first ordinance authorizes the process of condemnation (i.e., the taking of property) to begin, and the second ordinance permits the township to issue bonds with which to make the purchase, according to the attorney.
McLaughlin has been working on the case for a year, since serving as Manalapan’s labor attorney in 2009 and as the township attorney since January. He said the files on the Gentile case fill several legal-size boxes.
McLaughlin discussed the issue during his regular report to the committee, saying the litigation between the Gentile family and Manalapan was dismissed in June 2009, with the parties agreeing to attempt to reach a settlement. He said no agreement was reached through negotiations and said the property owner asked the township to begin condemnation proceedings.
Attorney Lawrence Sachs represents the Gentile family and told the News Transcript on April 22 that in June 2009 state Superior Court Judge Lawrence Lawson, sitting in Freehold, entered an order requiring Manalapan to commence condemnation proceedings on the Gentile property.
Sachs said the Gentiles are entitled to pursue a defense of the condemnation, including disputing the value of the property.
“We also have the right to pursue an inverse condemnation counterclaim for damages over and above the cost of the property,” Sachs said.
The legal action initiated by the Gentile family centered on a 49-acre tract that is bordered by Church Lane, Route 522 and Tennent Road. The Gentiles claimed that a Township Committee decision to rezone their land hurt their ability to develop it.
On May 22, 2002, the Township Committee adopted amendments to Manalapan’s land use ordinance, implementing the master plan amendments and rezoning the Gentile property, as well as other tracts in the township.
Municipal officials said at the time that the ordinance was part of the township’s program to preserve as much of the remaining open space and farmland within Manalapan as possible.
Township Committee members Beth Ward, Mary Cozzolino, Bill Scherer, Drew Shapiro and Rebecca Aaronson voted in favor of the rezoning amendments.
As a result, the Gentile property was rezoned from 1-acre residential lots to 3-acre residential lots, thereby reducing the number of homes that could be built on the property. The Gentiles subsequently filed litigation in the matter.
The committee’s decision on April 14 to condemn the property marks the second time since 2002 that Manalapan will attempt to obtain the Gentile property through condemnation, a process that is also known as eminent domain.
At one point in 2004 the members of the committee (Ward, Scherer, Shapiro, Aaronson and Michelle Roth) considered moving forward with condemnation in order to acquire the Gentile property and preserve it as open space.
Upon advice from Township Attorney Donald Lomurro, the members of the governing body reconsidered that course of action and decided to wait for the outcome of the litigation filed by the Gentiles. The committee had planned to bond $3.1 million in order to condemn and acquire the parcel.
McLaughlin said on April 14 that the bonding ordinance that will be the subject of the May 12 public hearing will provide $2.8 million in funding, which he said is the value at which the Gentile property was appraised in 2008. He said the township’s representatives will make the case that the value of the land should be based on the current 3-acre zoning.
Sachs, as noted above, said he will reserve the right to dispute the value of his client’s property that the township will seek to place on it.
Contact Mark Rosman at [email protected].