Council Votes ‘Yes’ on Shackamaxon Condos

With a 3-2 vote, Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool and the Township Council passed an ordinance that will allow up to 60 age-restricted luxury condos to be built on 12 acres of land at Shackamaxon Golf and Country Club, which was put up for sale in December after accruing millions of dollars in debt. The vote followed on the heels of a heated public-comments section of the meeting, with residents lining up to voice their concerns about the Shackamaxon deal.

The ordinance codified the settlement of two lawsuits brought against the township in June by Shackamaxon and its likely purchaser, New Jersey Golf Group, a limited-liability company that shares the same principals as RDC Golf Group, a Monroe Township-based golf management company that owns Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township, Tuscawilla Country Club in Florida, Van Saun Tennis Club in Paramus, and Putnam National Golf Club in Mahopac, N.Y., according to the RDC website.

RDC had entered into a contract to buy Shackamaxon in January, according to Malool and Scotch Plains resident Bernard Katz, a long-time Shackamaxon member who said he has been serving as the club’s interim financial advisor since October. RDC withdrew from the deal, however, upon learning that the club’s 146 acres were zoned as R-1, which restricted development to single-family, one-acre homes – not townhouses, as RDC had hoped to build to help shore-up the country club’s golf operations. In March, the township further limited the type of construction that could occur at Shackamaxon by declaring it an “area in need of rehabilitation.” Shackamaxon and New Jersey Golf then filed their lawsuits, alleging that the rehabilitation declaration – as well as its accompanying rehabilitation plan – improperly devalued the country club.

At the council meeting Tuesday night, Malool reiterated her argument that the rehabilitation declaration was the only way to ensure that Shackamaxon would not be converted into a large housing development, which she said would strain local schools, emergency services and infrastructure.

“Our options were to do nothing and let 100 homes be built, or to give them [New Jersey Golf] a shot and let the golf course run as long as it can,” she said.

The legal settlement, announced Aug. 30, places a deed restriction on Shackamaxon, limiting its operations to a golf course. It also stipulates that the 60 condos – to be built at the site of the country club’s tennis courts and pool, located at the center of the property – have direct access to Lamberts Mill Road, thereby reducing traffic on the backstreets that now serve as the only access to Shackamaxon. A construction plan for the condos must be approved by the planning board and council, and New Jersey Golf must pay the township $475,000, which will be put toward the township’s Business Improvement District Fund and Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Kevin Glover and Mickey Marcus, the council’s two Democrats, questioned whether the settlement provided sufficient protection for Scotch Plains. They echoed residents’ concerns that the condos will increase traffic and worsen drainage that is reportedly already poor in the neighborhood around Shackamaxon.

Glover said he feared that applying the “rehabilitation” label to Shackanaxon would create a “real-estate stigma,” reducing property values for homes that neighbor the country club. Marcus added that he felt the agreement was rushed and, as a result, unduly favored New Jersey Golf. Both said they worried that the settlement would not significantly penalize New Jersey Golf if it chose to ultimately abandon its condo development.

Councilman Bo Vastine, one of the council’s three Republicans, said he disagreed. “It goes against any grain of common sense [for New Jersey Golf] to spend millions on the property and build condos with the intent of running it into the ground,” he stated.

The vote ultimately fell along party lines.