Despite Club's Announced Sale, Shack. Resolution Remains On Track

One day after the president of announced that the club to sell the 146-acre property to a New Jersey-based golf management company, the Scotch Plains Mayor and Township Council reiterated their support Tuesday night for asserting greater control over what is ultimately built at the township's single largest tract of land. At their monthly business meeting, the mayor and council voted 4-1 to contract with a planning consultant and to direct the Planning Board to study the viability of declaring the property "an area in need of rehabilitation" – a slightly different version of the measure they passed at their monthly conference meeting Feb. 1.

Shackamaxon, which went on the market in December, is zoned as a residential property, specifically R-1, which would allow a developer to build up to 96 single-family, one-acre homes there without any need for a variance. On Tuesday, Mayor Nancy Malool and members of the council said they are seeking to take "an insurance policy" against Shackamaxon's falling prey to a housing developer. 

"A majority of the council and myself feel that with 100 single-acre homes in Scotch Plains, we have the potential for 300 kids, and it would be detrimental to the schools and to the services that we are providing," Malool said. 

Malool and council member subsequently approved a contract with Maser Consulting, based in Red Bank, to help the township expand its authority over future development at Shackamaxon. The firm's expertise, they pointed-out, had already made a difference: its planner suggested that the township amend its Feb. 1 ordinance to substitute the word "rehabilitation" for the term "redevelopment." 

As planning consultant Dave Roberts explained, rehabilitation offers a less powerful alternative to redevelopment – most notably, it does not allow the township to assert eminent domain – and likewise, it allows the township to meet fewer criteria to establish a need for rehabilitation.

"Rehabilitation is taking a step backwards…before we get into a very in-depth study to establish the criteria for a redevelopment area, which is a much more serious designation," Roberts said. "All we have to establish is that whatever portion of the township that we're looking at, the age of the housing stock is 50 years old or older, or the gas and sewer lines are 50 years old or older and need periodic maintenance on a pretty regular basis."

The township's initial contract with Maser Consulting costs $5,900, Malool said. If the Planning Board approves the rehabilitation proposal, "the next step will require a plan that will cost $10,000," she said. Malool and members of the council argued that the protection that the firm's planners could provide by helping the township declare Shackamaxon an area requiring rehabilitation ultimately justified the cost.

"It's a good investment," Councilwoman Mary DePaola said. "In a week, we've already come around and come to see a much more workable and viable alternative for our town that's not going to glue us into some pretty scary words, such as eminent domain." 

Councilman Bo Vastine said he agreed. "If we sit and do nothing and hope that this new buyer can operate this new club profitably, and that for the next 100 years, Shackamaxon will remain a golf course, if we allow ourselves to fall back on that, and something does happen in that timeframe, we're completely exposed," he said. "It's not just the idea of, you know, 95 single-family homes out there. It's also the property requirement to build new schools to support that growth, which I think gets into the realm of some really big dollars on top of the money we'd need to support this." 

Councilman Mickey Marcus, however, expressed strong opposition to either hiring a consultant or labeling Shackamaxon a property in need of rehabilitation.

"I believe that some of the concerns that the council and others have expressed about the potential for development at Shackamaxon, specifically eventual development, are now allayed as a result of the fact that we have a qualified suitor to purchase this property that has stated that they intend to keep the property a golf course and a golf club," he said. "That being the case, I don't think that it's prudent, I don't that it's necessary, and I don't think it warrants spending taxpayer money to authorize an investigation into whether Shackamaxon is an area in need of redevelopment."

In a sent to Patch late Monday morning, club president Rob Schwartz asserted that the club's reported buyer – RDC Golf Group, Inc., of Monroe Township – would continue to operate the property as a golf and country club. In a subsequent telephone interview, however, he declined to state whether RDC provided specific assurances regarding future development at Shackamaxon, or to elaborate on the status of the transaction. RDC Golf Group, which 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., did not return telephone calls and voicemails seeking comment.

"You want to be an optimist," DePaola said, comparing the rehabilitation resolution to a life insurance policy. "You want to hope that everything's going to be alright…. But you just can't roll the dice and hope for the best. You want to hope for the best, but you go to plan in the event that the worst can possibly happen. Anyone who purchases that property is going to be fully aware what 100 acres is worth, especially in New Jersey. Anyone purchasing that now has to know what the zoning is… It's irresponsible for us as a council to say, ‘It's going to be OK, it's going to work out, the economy's going to get better, and people are going to want to play a lot of golf.’”

Malool added, “We don't have a crystal ball. It's nice to hear that this company's going to come in and buy Shackamaxon and operate it for 100 years. But the fact is, A, the contract has not been completed, we don't know if it's going to go through; and, B, there's nothing to say that these guys are not going to turn it around and sell to a developer.”

The Planning Board will meet to discuss the rehabilitation proposal on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the courtroom of the Municipal Building.

Check back for more news from the Mayor and Township Council's monthly business meeting.