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LRTEC FOCUSED ON COURT CASE TO UPHOLD DEP PERMIT DENIAL
The LRTEC issued a release stating their intent to intervene in Lacey Township's appeal of a 2009 NJDEP Permit Denial. In addition to ensuring the permit denial stands to protect the integrity of the Barnegat Branch Rail-Trail as a non-vehicular pathway, LRTEC is fighting to ensure quality of life for affected property owners. Of greatest concern is the Township's use of eminent domain to move this project forward. Please see following story. LACEY TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS TO USE EMINENT DOMAIN PRESS RELEASE January 26, 2010 LaceyTownship, OceanCounty: After 10 years of advocacy to save an abandoned rail corridor and nature trail from destruction for roadway development, the Lacey Rail-Trail Environmental Committee states they will intervene in a legal appeal filed by LaceyTownship against the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The Township's appeal stems from the 2009 NJDEP denial of an application for a Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) permit required to construct the road. A previous permit was also denied for the project in 2006. LRTEC has joined forces with affected property owners to support the NJDEP's decision. They have retained former DEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell as counsel. The Township's road proposal includes the demolition of a home opposite Bay Way on Route 9. The owner is not a willing seller and wishes to retire and live out her life with her extended family here. Helen Henderson, Chairwoman of the LRTEC stated that she is "appalled" that Township officials would be using eminent domain to move this project forward. She added, "For a decade we have been fighting and winning for our environment, for the safety of trail users, for traffic relief, and to protect our county park from destruction. The NJDEP's regulations have twice supported our position and we have the right to intervene and support the Department's decision". Alison Lemke, Vice-Chair stated "The project has taken on a whole new meaning now that we know the Township would also take someone's home against their will. They clearly will stop at nothing to get what they want." Campbell noted the importance of the rights of property owners and other constituents to intervene and be heard in this proceeding. Since June of 2009 Township officials and their counsel, Gilmore and Monahan, have failed to respond to the group's request to participate as intervenors in the appeal. "After two expensive permit denials by two different DEP commissioners, the Township is now using taxpayer money to exclude its own residents from the permit appeal process," said Bradley M. Campbell, counsel to LRTEC. "The Township should be protecting the rights of these property owners, not forcing them out of the process." The Township's request for a hearing before the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has received a docket number and the case is awaiting assignment of a trial date.
Still Walking: Rail Trail Group Updates Public By BOB VOSSELLER - Staff Writer LACEY BEACON Asbury Park Press 11/12/09 Hometown News
The Lacey Rail Trail Environmental Committee held a "Community Trails Forum" at the BerkeleyTownship branch of the Ocean County Library. The event included several speakers and a crowd of around 20 people. The first speaker was Patrick Hossay, associate professor of political science at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Hossay conducted a program called Trails and Open Space. Trails advocate Craig Della Penna discussed how advocates for trails could get support within their community for projects. He also reviewed the history of several noted trails across the country. "Yale University quietly fought a trail project near their property. They didn't want any trail users to come into their campus. The project was put on the shelf but when a new president of the university came in he saw the value in the project and not only supported it but offered to build it."
Group Chairwoman Helen Henderson and group founder and secretary Donna Bahrle discussed how their organization has been involved in promoting the county's Barnegat Branch Trail which is a county park which was purchased from a private owner and conserved with open space tax dollars from the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust, excluding four miles in Lacey which is owned by the municipality. Bahlre said the the rail-trail is an abandoned railroad right-of-way. The linear path travels along the former route of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. It travels in a north/south direction for over 15 miles through five municipalities including Barnegat, Waretown, Lacey, Berkeley, Beachwood, and SouthTomsRiver. It is located west of Route 9 and provides access to residential and commercial locations along the route. Lacey resident Al Stokley gave a historic overview about Pinewald and the "flagpole lot" that OceanCounty and/or BerkeleyTownship is
interested in acquiring. "It is adjacent to the next phase of the trail, Phase III," Henderson said during a field visit to the Barnegat Branch
Trail moments from the library, which culminated the day long forum. Henderson the forum was a "huge success. Good attendance and a fantastic group of knowledgeable speakers. I only wish some of the townships surrounding the trail had sent representatives." "The forum provided a wealth of information on how other communities have succeeded with trails and other transportation projects - both in actual construction and funding," Henderson added. Bahrle updated the status of the Barnegat Branch Rail Trail and noted the work her group did to secure a Certificate of Eligibility from the New Jersey Historic Trust for several trestles along the trail. "With the passage of public question no. 1 we have provided OceanCounty with the opportunity to utilize grants for the historic aspects of the project. It's really exciting for Lacey Rail-Trail Environmental Committee to be playing such an important role for the County's project," Henderson said. Work on the Lacey portion of the trail which would connect the Waretown and Berkeley sections of the project will not be performed until after it is determined whether a proposed service road that would run along side the county pathway, will be built.
DEP Again Denies Lacey Permit To Build Route 9 Connector - End Of The Road? By Erik Larsen and BOB VOSSELLER, STAFF WRITERS March 31, 2009 LACEY The state Department of Environmental Protection has for the second time rejected an application from the township to build a 2.2-mile road over its portion of the defunct Central Railroad of New Jersey right of way. The issue over what to do with the late 19th Century rail bed has divided public opinion here for a decade. Township officials insist the road
is necessary to ease traffic congestion on Route 9; the right of way runs parallel to the highway. But conservation and historic preservation groups led by the Lacey Rail-Trail Environmental Committee have argued that a road would do more harm than good, ultimately increasing traffic and development. They also point out that the proposed road would interfere with OceanCounty's ongoing construction of a 15.6-mile-long linear park over the rail bed between Barnegat and TomsRiver. In its decision Friday not to issue a permit under the state Coastal Area Facility Review Act, the Bureau of Urban Growth and Redevelopment sided with the rail-trail committee. A widened Route 9 with better traffic signals, streamlined intersections and more turning lanes would be a better alternative to paving over an existing greenway, wrote Christopher Jones, bureau chief. "There goes 12 years of my life and a million bucks down the tubes," replied Mayor John C. Parker after he was informed Monday of the denial. "I tried getting the county and the state involved in getting a road done like this from TomsRiver to Barnegat in years past. "I'm very depressed," Parker said. "This has been my baby. You can't seem to do anything for the town anymore. The state runs the town." Although he said he would review the decision, Parker did not express optimism that the road could go any further. Helen Henderson, chairwoman of the rail-trail committee, said, "Our work will continue as we move forward to ensure that the entire four-mile portion within Lacey Township becomes part of the Ocean County Park (system's) Barnegat Branch Trail." The state's written decision said that among the expressions of support for the project were comments from the countyBoard of Freeholders. "It would be totally inappropriate - and the county has taken this position from day one - for the county of Ocean to suggest to LaceyTownship what it does with its property," Freeholder Director John C. Bartlett Jr. said. Lacey had made available to the county a 12-foot right of way if the road were built, Bartlett said. Donna Bahrle, who founded the rail-trail committee in 2000, said she was ecstatic. She offered hope that the Township Committee would now conclude that its efforts to build a road are at a dead end. "In such tough economic times, the township should not spend any more taxpayer monies on either an appeal or a third application, since their second application has cost the township close to a million dollars," Bahrle said. Karen Hershey, a DEP spokeswoman, said Lacey can appeal the decision before an administrative law judge.
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LACEY - Hiking and bike pathway history, tips on how to gain community support and an update on the Barnegat
Branch Trail were among topics discussed during a forum coordinated by a township environmental group on Friday.
Matt Johnson, the open space coordinator for the Burlington County Resource Conservation and Hopewell Trail spoke about successful programs in his county
while Daniel D. Saunders, acting administrator, of the State Department of Environmental Protection, Historic Preservation Office touched on funding sources for projects.
The environmental group opposes the road. The group retained an attorney to intervene in the legal appeal that the township filed against the second road denial
decision by the State Department of Environmental Protection last spring. The case is expected to be assigned to the Office of Administrative Law in the near future.
For more information about Lacey Rail Trail activities:
Email: hhlaceyrailtrail@msn.com
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