The 212-acre Maneely tract off Bear Brook Road will be purchased for $4.3 million
By: David M. Campbell
WEST WINDSOR The Township Council on Monday unanimously introduced an ordinance to spend $4.3 million to buy the 212-acre Maneely property, off Bear Brook Road, for open-space preservation and active recreation.
The council also unanimously introduced an ordinance to purchase and preserve the 64-acre Oleniczak property, off Windsor Road, for $968,222.
Mayor Carole Carson on Friday announced the completion of negotiations with the Maneely Princeton Partnership to acquire the larger tract. According to the mayor, the $4.3 million price will be covered by resources raised by the township’s open-space tax, approved by voters in 1998. About 65 percent of the acquisition cost will be reimbursed by state and county open space and Green Acres funds, she said.
The Maneely purchase would represent the largest acquisition of contiguous land in the township to date and "will provide a strong balance for recreation and open space, particularly for the residents residing west of the Amtrak mainline," the mayor said.
Mayor Carson called the deal a bargain, since the owners were under contract with a large developer. "Preservation of this large tract of land eliminates a proposed 309-home development and the severe impact on the township’s infrastructure," she said.
Councilwoman Jacqueline Alberts, however, said the landowner would have had to win litigation against the township as well as approval from the Planning Board to change the current zoning for the site from a research, office and manufacturing to residential use.
Ms. Alberts said the real significance of the Maneely purchase is not the elimination of residential density. Rather, she said, it represents a shift in direction, where open space takes priority over corporate ratables.
A public hearing and council vote on the two land-purchase ordinances and a third bond ordinance to cover both purchases is scheduled for Jan. 22.
In August, a three-judge appellate court reversed and remanded a court decision that allowed the township to zone the Maneely tract, as well as the 44-acre Akselrad tract off Clarksville Road, for commercial use. That ruling was issued in conjunction with another, which upheld a 1996 Superior Court decision that empowered Pennsylvania-based developer Toll Brothers to build 1,165-units, including 175 affordable-housing units, on 293 acres off Bear Brook Road.
When the township rezoned the Maneely and Akselrad sites in 1997, it removed them from the township’s affordable-housing compliance plan. Both landowners appealed, but the township’s move was authorized by court order in 1998 on the ground that an earlier court order zoning both sites for affordable housing had expired, in effect denying the landowners further appeal of the township’s rezoning.
With the August ruling, the landowners were empowered to challenge the 1997 rezoning. While the Maneely property is being sold, the Akselrads have continued litigation, Ms. Alberts said Monday.