Building & Land’s site plan wins approval

Objectors to

development

considering lawsuit

BY SANDI CARPELLO

Staff Writer

To no one’s surprise, Building & Land Technology’s site plan for a 24-unit condominium and five-unit townhouse development on the corner of Monmouth and West streets in Red Bank was approved.

The vote on the site plan was 4-2 with only Zoning Board members Josephine Lee and Laurie Marks voting against the project.

Back in January, Building & Land Technology won approval for a use variance for the site that permitted an increased density of development on the 1.2-acre parcel that currently holds two houses, a car wash, and a U-Haul rental facility.

"It was predictable," said Gerald Haggerty, who had been spearheading the opposition against the controversial development. "Residents who opposed this application addressed the Zoning Board with very reasonable pleas to just have the developer scale down the project. The thing that’s sad is that this board didn’t even listen to the residents. People are more ticked off with the board than they are with the developers. This board is ridiculous."

During the course of the hearings on the project, opponents raised concerns about possible conflicts of interest on the board, too-close-for-comfort relationships between borough officials and Zoning Board applicants, and borough-based developers voting on the future of Red Bank’s development.

Although local officials hotly dispute the allegations and the Department of Community Affairs Local Government Ethics Law allows developers and builders to sit on zoning and planning boards as long as they do not benefit financially from the projects they vote on, the zoning board practices left some residents raising their eyebrows.

Board member Marie Murphy, who has sat on the board since January, owns Murphy Realty — a real estate corporation with an office based on Maple Avenue, according to the borough clerk’s office. Though Murphy recused herself from the site plan portion of the pending application, she supported the heightened density variance last January.

Arthur Murphy (no relation to Marie), who has sat on the zoning board since January 2002, and owns a building and contracting company in town, also voted on the heightened density.

The applicant, Patrick Nulle, a principal in Building & Land Technology, was hobnobbing with zoning board members at the Democrats’ election victory party at Bon Ton’s department store on Nov. 6.

As is typical in most towns, the zoning board members are closely tied to the party that controls the governing body. Members who have no direct interest in building or development — Lauren Nicosia, who works for Planned Parenthood; Saul Diamond, who is employed by a credit union; and Josephine Lee, who is retired — are closely tied in with the borough’s Democratic Party, which has controlled the town for more than a decade.

Probing and prodding through the borough’s public records and financial statements, Haggerty came across a $7,500 check made out to the borough’s zoning office to be placed in Building & Land Technology’s escrow account. The check was signed by Oakhurst-based development corporation Palatial Homes — a company which was represented by Mayor Edward McKenna’s law firm last year.

Since the application was approved, Haggerty has been talking to attorneys and residents about filing an appeal.

"We’re looking to get money to file an appeal, and we already contacted a few lawyers," Haggerty said. "The ones we talked to indicated that we had a very good chance based on all of the conflicts of interest on the board."