News from Skylands CLEAN, Inc.

TCR wins in court
Appellate judges OK Valley Ridge

By Ron Nowak
The Greenwood Lake and West Milford News
July 31, 2008

Developer Trammel Crow Residential (TCR) won a major victory in appellate court last week, but has TCR won the war? West Milford Mayor Bettina Bieri isn't so sure.

A three-judge appellate court, last week, upheld a lower court decision granting TCR approval to build 100 town homes in West Milford. The township and Skylands CLEAN, an environmental watchdog group, appealed a lower ruling that upheld TCR's approval to build the units, known as Valley Ridge, on a 27-acre tract off Union Valley Road. Last week the appellate court agreed the TCR is entitled to build based on a 1997 site plan that was slightly modified about eight years later. Skylands CLEAN and the township contended the new plan differed substantially from what was initially proposed. The appellate judges disagreed and ordered TCR's approval reinstated.

Despite losing in court, Mayor Bettina Bieri isn't throwing in the towel. She notes that TCR no longer has a Highlands Act exemption in hand, and without that, TCR can't build anything. TCR lost its exemption after failing to commence construction by August 2007.

In an e-mail, Mayor Bieri said she anticipated losing in court "due to the inactions taken by the former planning board, the brief submitted by, and written, by the substitute attorney for the planning board at the time, Stephen Glatt, and the previous court decisions."

But the mayor also noted, "Since Valley Ridge no longer has a valid Highlands exemption, I am hopeful that this decision will not cause significant hardship to the township."

In upholding the lower court decision granting TCR's motion to have its original approval reinstated, Appellate Division judges Fuentes, Grall, and Chambers noted that "the planning board had not required TCR to update the EIS (environmental impact statement) during the application process," particularly with regard to well locations. The lower court judge, sustained by the appellate court, noted, "So I can't say that any of the reasons advanced by the (planning) board for denial are grounded in the evidence before it."

The lower court judge also ruled that most of TCR's testimony concerning controversial sewage facilities and water went "uncontradicted." He also failed to take into account township studies that show West Milford is already overdeveloped from a ground water standpoint.

What happens next appears to hinge on the NJ Highlands Council that has the final say on whether TCR will have its original exemption reinstated and on the West Milford Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) that must supply the proposed Valley Ridge development with water and sewer services. Sewage, under the original plan, is supposed to be pumped a half-mile, partially uphill, to one of the MUA's existing treatment plants. The MUA also, according to the appellate court, holds a utilities easement granted by the neighboring Bald Eagle condominiums that would permit Valley Ridge to tie into Bald Eagle's water system.

In a published report, Skylands CLEAN Executive Director Robin O'Hearn said, "This is a crushing blow for West Milford and its residents, who have guarded their water supply so carefully for so many years."