TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—The immediate past mayor told the governing body on April 19 that her administration was willing to offer owners at 450 Pascack Road up to $700,000 for their property, but that one current owner asked for another $100,000 when they were close to concluding the deal.
Meanwhile, Township Attorney Kenneth Poller was asked April 19 about the general status of negotiations for 450 Pascack Road, as the appraisal was ordered in mid-February.
“Let me just say this: There haven’t been negotiations. We’re waiting for the appraisal,” he said.
450 Pascack Road, adjacent to Memorial Field and Washington Elementary School, would be a plumb property for the town, say residents who have turned out to press the current governing body to act before the tract goes to a developer.
Mayor Peter Calamari, recently explaining his rationale in pursuing this 3.2-acre mostly wooded tract and the 6-acre private Washington Township Swim and Recreation Club, said, “We look back and question why previous administrations chose not to proactively acquire 450 Pascack Road when they had the opportunity to protect it from overdevelopment.”
He said, “The cost back then was significantly less than it is now. There were grants available back then to further reduce the cost to the taxpayers.” (See “Calamari explains his interest in two key properties,” April 17.)
Janet Sobkowicz, a member of the town Republican committee, who wielded the gavel before Calamari, said that two prior administrations to hers had negotiated off and on with Robert Morris, one of 450 Pascack Road’s owners, to attempt to purchase the tract.
Characterizing those negotiations by phone, Sobkowicz said, “I went up to $700,000 and he [Morris] said ‘This is great’ because I was applying for a grant, and a few weeks after that he came in and said I need another hundred thousand.’”
“So I really believe he never really wanted to get to the end of it. He wanted to stay where he was and I don’t blame him,” said the former mayor— noting the benefits of living on Pascack Road near the shopping center and other amenities.
She said during her negotiations with Morris there were rumors that some developers were interested in the property, although she could not confirm that. She said she believed that Morris “never really wanted to end negotiations” as they were ongoing over 15 years.
She said she believed that there were “inheritance issues with the heirs” that prevented Morris from concluding negotiations and that he did not want to vacate the property.
Sobkowicz said at the public meeting that she was interested to see if the township-ordered appraisal comes in lower than previous amounts offered, noting ingress and egress to the property “was kind of tough” and given lot constraints, “apparently there’s a lot less value now that quite a few years have gone by.”
We reached out to Morris for comment on Sobkowicz’s recollection and opinions, and have not heard back by press time.
We also had reached out to Sobkowicz to discuss her administration’s negotiations with Morris but she declined to elaborate.
Morris has claimed Sobkowicz, and other administrations he dealt with, had “dropped the ball” in trying to acquire his property for the township.
Morris has not revealed any details about prior negotiated offers on his property.
Developer Nick Tsapatsaris of Lakos Construction Inc. proposed and last summer withdrew an application for a 48-unit senior complex at 450 Pascack Road. The application was withdrawn in part over public opposition to the plan.
On April 20 he said of Sobkowicz’s remarks, “I cannot comment on any negotiations that I was not part of except to say that I have copies of certain offers made by the township several years back, none of which obviously materialized into a sale of the property. At this time, however, any offers will have to be negotiated with the contract purchaser, which is Lakos Construction Inc.”
He added, “To date we have not received any offers from the township and continue to list the property for sale.”
The property also is being marketed by STEAM Realty for $2.1 million on a build-to-suit basis.
The township ordered its appraisal Feb. 16 by approving a $2,500 invoice for McNerney & Associates as part of its bills list. Poller said that the appraiser was hired so that it could provide legal testimony.
He told Pascack Press in early March that the township believes it has “more than enough justification for condemnation” of the evidently dilapidated site.
On April 5, Poller said “There’s a process for that to move forward once we get the appraisal.” He did not elaborate.
No public discussion of the appraisal occurred then and officials have confined most discussion to closed sessions, citing negotiations and potential litigation.
Previously, several council members commented on the blue tarp-strewn home at 450 Pascack Road, and wondered about the health of its occupants.
A township wellness check revealed that at least one occupant, Morris, appeared well. Morris called the township’s concerns about his well-being “silly.”
Officials familiar with the process have told Pascack Press that the mayor and council will discuss the appraisal in closed session, due to it being a negotiation and potential litigation, and likely make an offer to the property owner.
Residents urging preservation of 450 Pascack Road have been calling council meetings regularly since last summer and stepped up calls for the appraisal to exclude any future development potential.
Poller said the appraisal would not include the property’s development potential but rather would be guided by the property’s zoning, conditions, and constraints.
Resident Diane Ferrara, a member of Stop Township Overdevelopment Projects (STOP), has called the property unbuildable over environmental constraints, its limited width, and its “AA” zoning for single-family homes on half-acre lots.
“It seems some individuals have the mistaken impression that since the lot is 3 acres, the amount of undeveloped land behind the existing home would increase the appraisal value beyond that of a single lot with one home,” Ferrara told Pascack Press on April 20.
“However, a factual appraisal must be based on what’s legally possible and already approved for the property. So the appraisal would necessarily be constrained by existing zoning laws for the AA District, which require 35- and 25-foot front and rear yard setbacks, [plus] the lack of any existing approval for subdivision of that property,” she said.
She added, “The considerable setback and District AA lot size requirements—not to mention the precipitous drop in terrain toward Memorial Field—would prevent any possibility of constructing a public access road to the rear of the property, and make it unbuildable according to existing zoning requirements.”