JACKSON, NJ – Residents never came to the Jackson Township planning board or zoning board meeting to complain about Peter Kitay’s proposed 8 home development on Frank Applegate Road. Nobody came with pitchforks and torches to protect a landlocked piece of land between the Lucy N. Holman Elementary School either.
But, the township council, led by Martin Flemming, rushed last night to introduce an ordinance to spend millions of dollars on those two properties in the name of ‘open space’. Both properties, we found out are owned by landowners with close ties to elected officials in Jackson.
There was no outcry. There was no concern about these two properties by the community. Instead, the council moved forward to buy land from their friends at a premium.
In total, purchasing those properties will stop about a dozen homes from being built. Homes on conforming lots under the township’s existing zoning laws.
There were no townhomes planned, no hi-density apartments, and no private schools to stop.
It smelled like an inside job from the minute the public notice was published in the Asbury Park Press last week. There were no hearings. There was no input requested from the people of Jackson. Just another backroom deal, Jackson style.
A few years ago, if you remember, Peter, the owner of Mona Lisa tried to relocate his business to the corner of Chandler Road and Hyson Road. There was massive public outcry. Residents did not want a shopping mall at that intersection.
There were concerns about traffic, congestion, litter and changing the fabric of the neighborhood. Eventually, Peter sold his business and never came back to Jackson after opening one of the most popular businesses in town. He had become disenfranchised with how he was treated by the locals.
There was public outcry to purchase the land from Peter, but you see, Peter is not a longtime Jackson resident and had no real political connections in town, so his lot was never considered for open space preservation.
Instead, the town council decided to move forward and purchase two unassuming lots owned by people with very close connections to those who pull the strings in township government.
Acquiring the Chandler Road lot would stop commercial development in a quiet residential neighborhood and preserve that land for future recreational use. Who knows, it could have been a park.
Instead, the township is buying two lots, one that is landlocked and rebuildable and one that is being offloaded by a real estate developer who has run into apparent troubles in his attempt to build his small subdivision.
That is how it works in Jackson.