 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Howell Properties2/13/2002
l from the amended ordinance was taken by any interested party. In return, plaintiff agreed to contribute $900,000 to Wall's affordable housing trust fund ($5000 per unit). On March 6, 1998, Judge Serpentelli entered an amended consent judgment in the Mount Laurel case approving the development of plaintiff's property at approximately three-and-a- half units per acre in exchange for a contribution of $5000 per unit.
Plaintiff's proposed subdivision application initially called for access through Cherry and Redbud Lanes. Plaintiff revised its plan during the lengthy Planning Board hearings to include access from Maypink Lane in Brick. Several residents and officials of Brick and Howell appeared and objected to the road connections. Howell's engineer criticized the proposal for several reasons, including the adverse impact the additional traffic may have on the residential development around Cherry and Rosebud Lanes.
On December 31, 1998, Brick adopted an ordinance vacating the portion of Maypink Lane which abutted plaintiff's property. Howell adopted an ordinance vacating the portions of Redbud Lane and Cherry Lane which abutted plaintiff's property on February 16, 1999.
Plaintiff filed suit, demanding inter alia, that the ordinances be declared invalid. Thereafter, the Wall Planning Board approved plaintiff's preliminary major subdivision, conditioned upon plaintiff prevailing in its law suit to secure access to the property through Howell and Brick.
In granting summary judgment to plaintiff, the trial court held that defendants, as adjoining municipalities, had a duty to facilitate plaintiff's development by providing vehicular access because the development was a component of Wall Township's Mount Laurel compliance plan. The court further determined that "wholly aside" from defendants' Mount Laurel obligation to facilitate, the vacation of the streets was unlawful because it denied plaintiff "reasonable access to . . . public streets."
Before deciding the summary judgment motion, the trial court carried the matter to give defendants an opportunity to present evidence that there were alternate means of access available to plaintiff other than the three streets in Howell and Brick. Defendants did not present any such evidence. Consequently, we cannot disagree with the trial court's factual conclusion that plaintiff's property is essentially landlocked without access through the three streets in question. A portion of the property abuts the Garden State Parkway to which no access is afforded. To the north the property is bounded by a stream corridor and freshwater wetlands, over which access is not permitted.
The unique inter-municipal dispute before us, involving landlocked property, implicates three competing principles. The first is that a property owner has a right to reasonable access to the public highway system. High Horizons Dev. Co. v. State, Dep't of Transp., 120 N.J. 40, 48-49 (1990); Lima & Sons, Inc. v. Borough of Ramsey, 269 N.J. Super. 469, 477 (App. Div. 1994); Mueller v. New Jersey Highway Auth., 59 N.J. Super. 583, 595 (App. Div. 1960). "What constitutes reasonable access is [ordinarily] a question of fact." Mueller, supra, 59 N.J. Super. at 595. The reasonableness of a property owner's access "in turn is dependent upon the use of the property and the expected traffic flow." State, Comm'r of Transp. v. Nat. Amusements, Inc., 244 N.J. Super. 219, 225 (App. Div. 1990), certif. denied, 127 N.J. 327 (1991). This "reasonableness" standard is usually implicated where the State denies an access permit or alters or revokes an existing means of access to a public highway, and the issue is whether the affected property owner is ent
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 New Jersey Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|