Cape May Proposes Property for ROSI List

CAPE MAY – At its May 5 meeting, Cape May City Council initiated a process that could result in several city-owned land parcels being formally designated for recreation and conservation purposes, preventing their use for future development.
Adding land to the city’s Recreation and Open Space Inventory (ROSI) is part of the state’s Green Acres Program, which was commenced in 1961 to meet expanding needs for recreation and conservation. Municipalities establish ROSI lists as a prerequisite for applying for or accepting state Green Acre funding. Once on the ROSI, land is deed restricted and preserved against future development.
Many Cape May properties are already on the ROSI, including the Physick Estate, Fisherman’s Memorial, Rotary Park, the Colonial House Park, and the city’s tennis courts.
The process started May 5 will involve review and comment by the city’s Planning Board and its Environmental Commission before it’s available to City Council for final approval. It is a long process that some members of the council feel is being unnecessarily rushed.
Council members Zack Mullock and Stacy Sheehan saw an ulterior motive in the process. As Mullock expressed it, “This is not about the environment; it is about the Sewell Tract litigation.”
The properties listed in the appendix to the ROSI resolution happen to be city-owned lots that were once part of a potential settlement of the long-standing litigation over 100 acres of privately owned open space adjacent to Coast Guard Training Center Cape May. The litigation has been ongoing for 30 years, and the city, under various administrations, has taken positions that supported the development of the space and also strongly resisted the development of the space.
The position of the current governing body is to maintain the Sewell Tract as an environmentally sensitive space, free from any form of development. To that end, the council has passed resolutions supporting the preservation and the actions of a local non-profit, Concerned Citizens for Preservation of the Sewell Tract, three times.
The owners of the Tract first proposed a large residential project, of 366 units, on the land 30 years ago. They have been unable to gain necessary approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), leading to long-standing litigation over what they allege is a regulatory taking of their land without just compensation. Concerned Citizens joined the litigation, seeking to preserve the space and prevent an agreement or settlement of the case that would allow partial development.
With a trial scheduled for June, Concerned Citizens, after expending $400,000 in legal expenses in the last five years, asked the city to contribute to the legal costs of maintaining their opposition to the land’s development. That issue, whether or not the city should spend taxpayer dollars in support of the legal efforts of a private third party, has been a source of significant debate on the council. A resolution to have the city contribute the requested $85,000 has been defeated three times, on split votes.
Mullock and Sheehan argued May 5 that moving the designated city-owned parcels to the ROSI was another way of limiting the potential negotiation of a settlement to the litigation that might involve partial development rights.
Mayor Clarence Lear, Deputy Mayor Patricia Hendricks and Councilman Shaine Meier all say that Mullock and Sheehan advocate for no development of the Tract until it is time to vote, but then vote against measures to preserve it. A heated exchange between Mullock and Lear was precisely on that point, with Mullock arguing that he is for keeping the Tract free of development but not in favor of any city contribution of taxpayer funds for the Concerned Citizens’ litigation.
Mullock argued against the “rush” to move the properties to the ROSI, alternatively proposing that a plan be developed first involving negotiations with the state about compensation, in line with the “high value” of the taxpayer-owned property. He maintained that the land, consisting of approximately 11 acres and around 46 individual parcels was adequately protected now, as a city property.
A motion to table the resolution by Sheehan was defeated. The original motion beginning the ROSI process passed on a 3-2 vote.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.