Municipal officials recently arranged to solicit an offer for 77 acres of open space property off Ridge Road after it was revealed that Boulder Pond LLC was willing to sell the site known as Eagle Ridge.

The Eagle Ridge property was due to be the site of a 280-townhome subdivision in the West Milford Township Center. But after losing its state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved exemption to the 2004 Highlands Act on Aug. 10, 2007, the property has remained undeveloped.

Currently, Township Attorney Fred Semrau said the owners are seeking a way to offload Eagle Ridge, which consists of a 70-acre property as well as a 6.9-acre adjacent lot. And with local groups, most notably the West Milford Environmental Commission, backing the potential purchase in an effort to preserve local groundwater supplies and ecosystems, he said the council should at least ask for a price.

"The owners lost a lot of their development rights, so they need to come with a reasonable offer," Semrau said.

Despite the Highlands Act regulations that would make development on the property extremely low density, residents are still concerned about the potential of high-density development there and its potential impact on the local groundwater supply. In 2005, when the project was exempt from the strict development regulations, hundreds of locals rallied at town hall to voice their concerns over the project's anticipated impact on the environment and residential wells.

Moreover, local grassroots environmental groups, like Skylands CLEAN, spent thousands campaigning against the proposed development, citing uncertainties as to whether the development and its 38 wells would have even had enough water to supply the 280 townhomes. The proposed development was never issued a water allocation permit and eventually lost its Highlands exemption.

Robin O'Hearn of Skylands CLEAN said that the purchase would make sense to protect the underground water source in the heavily-populated town center from overdevelopment, especially if the price is reasonable.

Carl Richko, a member of the Highlands Council and former West Milford mayor, said the township should at least consider taking advantage of what could be a bargain for the benefit of the residents, the water supply, and the environment.

"It is very important for our town to take that off from being potentially developed," Richko said.

"Eagle Ridge was a big problem for this township," former Councilman James Warden recalled. "And [the issue] is not dead until it is bought.

"The [real estate] market is starting to come back and the project could come back too," Warden said.

Failing to act on this opportunity to take the property and its inherent water issues off the market could come back to haunt the township 20-fold even though it would involve taking the property off the tax rolls, Warden added. According to state tax records, the two lots have a combined assessment of $1,045,800 and contribute more than $62,000 in annual tax payments, including $14,625 to the municipality in 2009.

The Township Council is expected to consider the potential acquisition in the coming weeks.

E-mail: zimmer@northjersey.com