TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—A group of residents under the banner of Stop Township Overdevelopment Projects is urging township officials to confirm that the appraisal of 450 Pascack Road—to be used for upcoming property negotiations—is guided by the 3.2-acre tract’s physical limits, constraints, and zoning, which they contend makes the property unbuildable in its current condition.
An appraisal of the property was approved Feb. 16, with council unanimously approving a $5,500 appraisal bill from McNerney & Associates of Glen Rock.
“We were assured to hear the township attorney, Ken Poller, affirm that any such appraisal would certainly be done in accord with the current zoning requirements for the AA district. As you may be aware, the developer has resorted to the pressure tactic of listing the property for sale at an absurd price of $2.1 million,” Amherst Drive resident Diane Ferrara of STOP wrote on Feb. 27.
“Yet, we are fully aware—as you, no doubt, are as well—of existing constraints that appear to make that lot unbuildable for any such intents or purposes,” she added.
Once an appraisal is received, the township is likely to make an offer on the property, said officials familiar with the matter. Then negotiations occur between the township and property owners on a final sale price.
Should negotiations fail, the township could move to condemn the property.
The appraisal notice sent to 450 Pascack Road notes the possibility of “condemnation,” according to one of 450 Pascack Road’s owners.
“We want to move on this [appraisal]. We believe we have more than enough justification for condemnation,” Poller told Pascack Press last week. He declined to elaborate.
He added that the township was “willing to negotiate in good faith,” and if negotiations are not successful, the township will file for condemnation, he said.
Efforts to reach Robert Morris, one of 450’s owners, were not successful before press time.
Poller told Pascack Press March 2 that site constraints and current zoning are taken into account in an appraisal, and that the previous development proposal for a 48-unit senior complex does not factor into an appraisal.
In their Feb. 27 letter, STOP urged township officials to make sure its hired appraiser appraises the property with five specific zoning/site constraints taken into account.
The letter, composed by Diane Ferrara, states that a 48-unit senior complex previously proposed on the site by Nick Tsapatsaris’s Lakos Construction Co., Inc.—and since withdrawn—cannot be factored into an appraisal for the property.
The mostly wooded site, which is privately owned and zoned AA for single-family homes on half-acre lots, currently hosts a run-down single-family home, plus a barn and garage near Pascack Road.
The bulk of the site contains more than 700 trees, including 200 mature trees, according to STOP, which is interested in preserving the property as open space.
Ferrara wrote, “In checking with individuals who have land use expertise, we confirmed that case law has established that if an approval is speculative (e.g., the previously proposed (senior) apartments), it cannot be the basis of an appraisal.”
She added, “Hence, we would like to confirm that the considerable constraints which characterize the property at 450 Pascack are absolutely at the core of any appraisal prepared for that property. The objective being that the township would consider acquiring that property through eminent domain or other means in view of its importance to the public interest.”
She said “The appraised value is of singular consequence in this matter.”
Poller told Pascack Press that the tract will be appraised at “fair market value” and that following an appraisal valuation, negotiations will begin with the owners for property acquisition.
Poller noted that should the appraiser not be able to access and walk the property—he said on March 2 this wasn’t a sure thing—then the appraisal could still be completed by an external off-site inspection and review of property records.
Poller said the property’s municipal assessment is not used to assess fair market value but that the property’s current conditions, zoning, and constraints do affect valuation.
STOP highlights five constraints that it wants reflected in the appraisal:
- That the lot is “zoned, assessed and has always been taxed at merely one single-family lot in the AA district.
- That the property is “landlocked” by surrounding homes, Memorial Field and Washington School and is “extremely narrow at only 100 feet wide” with a steep drop-off in terrain down to Memorial Field, and lacks street access to the rear of the property.
- No workable plan has ever been proposed there that would allow for a subdivision, required property setbacks, required street widths, required on-street parking, and street access for fire and emergency vehicles.’
- An appraisal “cannot rightly assign value to speculative possibilities never proposed much less not even remotely approved” for the site.
- The property owner cannot claim any personal or financial hardship to request Zoning Board C or bulk variances. Here STOP cites a source who stated, “hardship generally cannot relate to any personal or financial hardship you will suffer.” It was not clear why such variances might be needed, except if another development was to be proposed.
Separately, the township is negotiating—and wielding the threat of eminent domain condemnation—with seven property owners for easements to overhaul the Pascack Road/Washington Avenue intersection.