Council Adopts Shackamaxon Redevelopment Plan

The Scotch Plains Mayor and Township Council voted 3-2 Tuesday night to adopt a redevelopment plan for , the Scotch Plains Municipal Building, the public library and the public works yard, areas that the township had declared “in need of rehabilitation” March 1.

Shackamaxon, a member-owned course that has struggled in recent years with declining membership and rising costs, went on the market for sale in December. It is currently in negotiations with RDC Golf Group, a Monroe-based golf management firm that owns Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township, Tuscawilla Country Club in Winter Springs, Fla., Van Saun National Tennis Center in Paramus and operates Putnam National Golf Club in Putnam County, N.Y.

In approving the measure, the mayor and council approved a three-phase strategic plan drawn-up by planners John Madden and David Roberts, of the Red Bank-based firm Maser Consulting. The plan, which can be viewed by clicking the PDF thumbnail at right and cost $19,600 to study and produce, makes keeping Shackamaxon a viable golf course its top priority, but provides alternatives should the course ultimately fail. As described by Mayor Nancy Malool and council members Mary DePaolo and William Vastine, who voted for the measure, it as an “insurance policy,” one that restricts a developer from buying Shackamaxon and building 96 single-family homes on the 146-acre parcel.

“We as a council like to keep our options open, but we like to plan in the worse case scenario,” DePaola said. “All of us were shocked and dismayed to find out that there was a problem at Shackamaxon. We don’t want to interfere. We don’t want to interfere with business, we don’t want to interfere with the way the golf course is operating. People who are applying to the golf course and want to be members should go ahead and do that. The number one plan is for it to continue as a golf course.” 

If that proves unsuccessful, Phase Two calls for the construction of 24,000 square-feet of public meeting rooms – plus 336 off-street parking spaces and access roads to Martine Avenue or Lamberts Mill Road. The meeting space, the plan states, would ideally support the continued operation of the golf course. 

Should that still fail to sufficiently support the club, however, Phase Three calls for the construction of five to 25 acres of age-targeted luxury apartments over retail space, surrounded by restaurant and catering facilities, a health and wellness spa, a culinary institute and a fitness center. The plan also includes the much talked-about “land swap:” The developer who owns or purchases Shackamaxon and agrees to Phase Three would build a new municipal building, library and public works yard at the site, in exchange for the current municipal properties, which could be converted to retail space. The property owner would also pay for renovations to the township's two firehouses.   

“Every study we have conducted over the past 25 years said that the key to a vital downtown is to have shopping on both sides of the street,” Malool said. “Every study has suggested moving the municipal facilities out of the downtown, because it’s prime real estate for retail.” 

Malool added that the public works yard is in heavy need of repair, the public library has “outgrown” its facility, and the firehouses require upgrades – projects that would otherwise cost the township millions of dollars. However, she also strenuously emphasized that the plan is subject to change, and Phases Two and Three may not go into effect for decades, if at all.

“If RDC continues with the purchase of Shackamaxon and they run a golf course there for the next 100 years, that’s fine, we’re not doing anything,” Malool said. “The plan is in place merely to protect 100 homes from being there. There’s a strong possibility that this plan will never be enacted, because if it continues to be a golf course, we’re not going to do anything. It’s there just in case.” 

Nevertheless, the measure sparked strong opposition from Council Democrats Kevin Glover and Mickey Marcus, and at least a dozen members of the country club, many of whom spoke at the meeting Tuesday. 

“I do not understand at all why we tied the downtown revitalization efforts to what might or might not occur at Shackamaxon,” Marcus said. “The plan that has been proposed, in my view, encompasses a development of Shackamaxon, which is what I thought we were trying to prevent.” 

Glover also voiced skepticism regarding Phase Three’s land-swap proposal. “My opinion that it is not feasible, economically feasible, for anyone to walk in here, a developer, to propose that they could relocate our municipal facilities even-up. It just wouldn’t happen,” he said. “This ordinance would place significant control and power in the hands of this council or future councils. I’m concerned about that, because how are our interests protected by that?”

Attorney Jennifer P. Smith, who is representing Shackamaxon in a lawsuit it filed against the township to challenge the “rehabilitation” designation, argued that because the plan could ultimately require the property’s owner to convert half the parcel to public park property, it “would amount to a taking” or land-grab. 

“The owner of the property would be forced to give up to 70 acres to public park,” Smith said.

Others argued that Shackamaxon’s potential sale to RDC effectively alleviated the council’s worries regarding the construction of homes on the property. 

“I understood your concern of having 90 homes built on 100 acres,” Scotch Plains resident and former Shackamaxon president Dennis Turner said. “But then RDC came around, and I feel your concerns are not warranted at this time. RDC has an excellent reputation as an owner of golf courses, and only golf courses. Their desire to maintain Shackamaxon is quite evident.”

Malool, Vastine, and DePaola, however, pointed to the so-called “Time of Application” rule, a measure passed last May and effective Thursday that prevents municipalities from changing a property’s zoning once the owner has submitted a development application.

In other words, if the township did not adopt the rehabilitation plan Tuesday, “come Friday morning, any developer could file for 100 houses,” Malool argued. “We are constrained by that time constraint, which is why we have to do this so quickly.” 

Christopher Schiavone, president of RDC, was incredulous. He argued that his company had tried to compromise with the township by proposing the construction of 50 to 60 age-restricted townhouses in the interior of the property, roughly where the pool and tennis courts are located.

“We made a proposal, we thought it was a win-win,” Shiavone said, adding that the plan’s restrictions on development at Shackamaxon “can have a chilling effect on potential investment in your community.”

Township Attorney Jeffrey Lehrer countered that the construction of townhouses would have required the township to rezone the property, a process that would have lasted far beyond the implementation of the Time of Application rule. 

“We were told that there were 80 bidders on the property, many of them developers,” he said. “The township was concerned, rightfully so. There was a deadline.”

Vastine strongly agreed. “I heard from developers that Shackamaxon was one of the hottest properties in the state,” he said. “We as a council, and I personally as an elected member of this council, could not in good conscience believe or trust in good faith on a handshake that people involved were going to do the right thing. That’s not upholding my fiduciary responsibility to this town.” 

Malool added that townhouses would have worsened traffic on the residential roads that serve as Shackamaxon’s only access. “We said, would you consider another access, and they said you can’t,” she stated.