Highlands residents might not be aware of it, but it seems that if you “infringe” on borough property for any length of time, eventually the borough will just get a subdivision and turn it over to you at no or little cost so you won’t be infringing anymore.
Even more than that, the borough will use that same opportunity of offering three more chunks of the land it wants to subdivide to other adjacent property owners, the only ones to whom this land would be of any use. It will then save the biggest piece for the borough to sell or do something with sometime in the future.
Even if it’s waterfront property.
Once those smaller pieces are signed off to the property owners on Matthew Street, it certainly appears there will be no access to the waterfront property the borough retains other than through private property. The borough is requesting a 10 foot wide “flag stem specified as “not a public street” for access from Matthew Street to the largest piece of property the borough is reserving.
Land Use Board Meeting
That’s all to be decided at tomorrow night’s meeting of the Land Use Board at 7 p.m. at the Community Center, in addition to action on the conditional approval for a cannabis retail sale license at 132 Bay Ave. Borough residents should either become informed, attend the meeting, ask questions or not complain at some future date when they wonder how this all happened and why did they not know about it.(see related story)
Navesink Park Taxpayers Association
The encroachment on borough property by the Serghis owned house at Matthew St. that is prompting this subdivision request appears to be a paved walkway that has been on the site for more than two decades. It was there, according to records submitted with the borough’s application, both before and throughout the time when the borough had signed a ten year lease with the Navesink Park Taxpayers Association which expired in December, 2020. Association officers at the time of the lease ending, former Councilman Donald Manrodt, identified as the Association president, and Lillian Kanarkowski, identified as Association secretary, were both deceased.
Throughout the terms of the lease to the Borough, the lessee was exempt from paying taxes on the property the borough was leasing. When the lease expired three years after the deaths of the two Association officers, apparently no taxes were paid on the property. In 2021, the following year, the borough took ownership of the property through the failure to pay taxes. Available records for the Land Use meeting tomorrow do not indicate whether the borough ever notified the Association of the taxes due or how the borough specifically took ownership of the land.
Recommendation of Engineer
If approved as presented, the Land Use Board is apparently acting without the full recommendation of its own engineer, Edward Hermann. In his report, which is included with the package of more than 80 pages of information on the hearing, Hermann recommended the borough as applicant shows that the variances would not be substantially detrimental to the public good or impair the intent and purpose of the zone plan or character of the neighborhood. Since the smaller lots will only be offered to the adjacent owners, Hermann also recommends the borough present testimony on what would happen to the proposed small lots if negotiations with the adjacent owners for their purchase are not successful. He pointed out that all approvals or waivers should also be gathered from the Monmouth County Planning Board and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.
In order to secure bulk variance relief, the borough must also provide proof that either a hardship in developing the site in conformance to zone standards because of narrowness, shallowness or shape, or exceptional topographies or physical features that are unique or an extraordinary situation affecting the property or existing structures. If it can be proven to promote a public purpose of that the variance substantially outweighs any detriment, then it could be approved.
The property is in a mapped flood zone and should the application get board approval, “a final major subdivision plat consistent with the state’s Title Recordation Act would be required.”
