Letter to Editor Objecting to Redevelopment of Millville Airport Industrial Pk.

Dear Friends,

On April 14, 2003 Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. offered testimony to the Millville Planning Board Board regarding a proposal to create a redevelopment area that includes properties adjacent to the Millville Airport. The City’s consultants suggested that 4200 acres around the existing 800 acre airport are in need of redevelopment because they are considered “blighted” which is the underpinning of the redevelopment legislation. We believe the conclusions are inappropriate. We further assert that applying the term “redevelopment area” to farm land and critical wildlife habitat is by definition an impossibility. These vacant lands were never developed to begin with and accordingly, by definition, could not possibly have a need for redevelopment, nor do they seem to be in a state which is deleterious to the health and welfare of the City as required by this legislation.

Objectives provided by the City and included in the study are to bring in State Redevelopment funds to encourage developers, to attract a motor sports facility, to build a bridge over the river, and (the kicker) to exercise the right of eminent domain. In spite of hours worth of testimony, which the board miraculously absorbed and could base a decision on at one sitting, they voted to proceed with a redevelopment area plan for the 4200 acres.

At the meeting Judge Porreca, an affected property owner, stated that by law the taxes derived from this redevelopment area must go back into the zone; they are not permitted to be used by the schools, the general fund, or the county and are dedicated specifically to improvements in the new redevelopment area. This is a crucial point. Based on the fact that the whole idea is to generate revenues, it seems as though any taxes would have little or no benefit to current Millville residents. So why is this being proposed?

We are not against a modest expansion of the existing park. We are not against creating a redevelopment area in the developed portion of the existing park. We are against destroying critical habitat and placing 4200 wooded and open acres in a redevelopment zone. Vast areas being considered are zoned Agricultural or Land Use Conservation. The New Jersey Local Redevelopment and Housing law was designed to help blighted inner-city areas mend. It was not designed to turn farmland and forests into industrial park. This is the antithesis of “smart growth.”

You will likely see news paper articles that claim we are against development or that we are trying to deprive the community of Millville of tax dollars. Neither is true. We do think citizens need to participate in the Master Plan process, and that 20-page consultant reports that evaluate land only in terms of their tax potential should not be what governs our future. We don’t think citizens’ only interactions should be a three-minute comment at a hearing. We don’t think that citizens should have to voice their opinions with an attorney at their side for fear of not being considered. We don’t think citizens should have to go to a hearing anticipating that they must build a legal record. But that’s what happened this past Monday night.

It really comes down to the City’s mindset that open space is somehow a detriment to the tax base, an assumption that fails to acknowledge that there are little or no expenses associated with the open space and a myriad of benefits. We feel that open space is at the very heart of Millville’s identity as a community. Even the City’s Master Plan states, “The attractive rural character is an important part of the community fabric of,” and it recognizes the need for protecting the areas zoned Land Use Conservation, “public acquisition, or uses which result in large contiguous open space are to be encouraged.” Expanding development onto these tracts is wanton disregard for the Master Plan, Smart Growth and environmental benefits.

We have a petition to lift the City’s moratorium on open space purchase. We need signatures. Presently we await the City Commissioners’ response to the Planning Board recommendation to create a Redevelopment Area on those 4200 acres. We would like to work with the City in protecting large contiguous tracks of land and seeing what areas might be logically added to the industrial park. If the entire area is deemed “Redevelopment Area” we believe it would leave us no choice but to challenge that determination on statutory grounds. We need everyone to pitch in on this issue.

Sincerely,
Jane Morton Galetto
President, Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc.

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