published Atlantic Highlands Herald 18 May 2006

press release

HIGHLANDS, NJ —The Highlands Planning Board voted 5 to 4 last week to approve the proposed rezoning of the Paradise Park Mobile Home Park and the Sandy Hook Marina for townhouse and apartment building development at their meeting May 11. The recommendation to the Borough council, if accepted, would relieve the owner of the Property, Navesink Capital Partners, of the existing legal obligation to provide for relocation of the owners of the mobile homes inside the park.

According to William H. Eaton, attorney for the Paradise Park Homeowners Association, "this rezoning is a multimillion dollar free gift to the developer." By rezoning the property, instead of making Mr. Bollerman obtain a variance, the redeveloper of the park and the Borough do not have to provide for relocation of the Homeowners. "It is a regulatory taking of peoples homes, a taking by the Borough and the developer that is worse than condemnation, because they want to strip the residents of their relocation rights."

Mayor Richard O'Neil disagreed with the Paradise Park residents in attendance. According to O'Neil, "Mr. Bollerman owns the Land. These people are only tenants."

The Mayor went on to note that the Master Plan process took almost two years of the Planning Board's time. "We did everything right," he said. "We placed legal ads in the newspapers, posted notices in borough Hall, and held public hearing where no one showed up. Now they find out they are going to lose their homes, they are all upset. Well, its too bad. They are too late. They should have spoken up when they had the chance. They didn't." The Mayor made it clear that the two mobile home parks at the gateways to the Borough were unwelcome.

Borough resident Chris Francy asked a number of questions. He wanted to know why a sliver of property owned by Bollerman had originally been left out of the new zone, but now had been added back in. Borough Planner Martin Truscott explained that the intention had all along been to include all of the Bollerman properties in the new zone, and this one had been left out by mistake.

Paradise Park resident Frank Wolzein asked how big the additional parcel was, and if it would add to the property subject to the 14 unit per acre density.
Truscott could not tell the acreage, but said it would be included for density purposes.

Homeowners Association President Loretta Dibble asked questions about the Planning Board.s consideration of environmental, ecological and social impacts of changing the zoning on this unique parcel of land. Board attorney Serpico stated that it had been over a year since the Plan was adopted, no one could remember everything they had discussed, and that the Board's job tonight was just to compare the proposed ordinance to the master plan. No one from the public spoke in favor of the ordinance, or the elimination of the trailer park.

Association attorney Eaton reminded the Board that the two years of Master Plan work was finished in early November, 2004. It was only in September, 2004, just two months before the adoption of the plan, that there is any evidence in any file about the proposed MXD zone which would not permit mobile homes on the Park property. "Where did this come from, anyway?" he asked. "It was never mentioned in 2002, in the December, 2003 Master Plan draft, the April, 2004 interim report, or in the June, 2004 public hearing."

The mixed use (MXD) zone first surfaces in the Borough records with the testimony of Bollerman, then the contract purchaser of the Park, who asked for rezoning of the property for townhouse and condominium use. As the owner of the Sandy Hook Marina Bollerman was identified by the Borough's Licensed Professional Planner,. Paul Ricci, as a "stake holder" worthy of a personal invitation to participate in the planning process. Paradise Park residents were never identified as "stake holders."

The Homeowners Association unanimously opposes the rezoning of the park and the denial of their legal rights to relocation. Attorney Eaton told the Board that he did not wish to involve the Board or the council with the Associations dispute with Mr. Bollerman. However, he noted, "if this ordinance is adopted, then the Borough will have been drafted as Mr. Bollerman's front line soldiers."

Eaton urged the Planning Board and the Borough to table this ordinance until the matter with Bollerman had been resolved. "This rezoning is not an emergency for the Borough. It is an emergency for Mr. Bollerman. He can go for a variance if he wants to build townhouses, but under the law he will have to provide for relocation. That will cost him millions of dollars. If he can get the Borough to do his dirty work for free, he is that much better off. If he can get the Borough to defend the lawsuit against him, he saves that much more money. The borough should not be paying for his zoning approvals. Everyone else has to go for a variance. He should, too. The millions he makes on this deal will not be spent in the borough. Why should the taxpayers pay his development costs?"

The borough Council will take up the proposed rezoning ordinance on second reading on June 7, 2006 at Borough Hall at 7:30 PM.