Morristown asks DEP to remove open space…to fund more open space

Towns usually ask for the state’s help in preserving open space.

But Morristown is asking the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to remove that designation from a parcel.

Town officials contend that 90 Lake Road, site of the town recycling center, mistakenly landed on a preservation list decades ago. And until that error is fixed, Morristown cannot receive state Green Acres grants to improve Burnham Park and other green spaces.

At a Zoom hearing on Tuesday, Morristown officials tried to reassure wary neighbors in Morris Township that there are no secret plans to redevelop the land with condos, or anything else, if it’s de-listed as open space.

The roughly nine-acre tract has been the site of Morristown’s recycling center since at least 1987, and will remain so, said town Administrator Jillian Barrick. Any new uses would require zoning changes with public input, town Planner Phil Abramson asserted.

Details surrounding the listing are murky. Barrick said it appears this property was added to Morristown’s “Recreation and Open Space Inventory” in the last century, when a pair of adjoining lots were preserved with state Green Acres grants.

The Lake Road site was not parkland at that time; faded newspaper clippings indicate it served as a town dump from the 1950s, according to research by planning board Attorney John Inglesino’s firm.

Barrick said the DEP became concerned around 2017, when it authorized $500,000 in Green Acres money for Morristown’s expansion of Foote’s Pond Wood. Reviewing the town’s open space list, state officials realized that 90 Lake Road was not being used as parkland–an apparent breach of Green Acres rules.

The DEP advised the town it would receive no future Green Acres grants until it resolved this discrepancy, Barrick said.

Morristown Green reached out to the DEP on Wednesday and will update this story with its response.

Logging into the 30-minute virtual hearing, residents from Bromley Way in Morris Township said they long have endured sounds and smells from two recycling/mulching centers and a sewage treatment plant.

If Morristown officials lived in the neighborhood, “You wouldn’t be sitting idly by, trusting the folks down at city hall to make the right decisions,” said Township resident Mark Ruiz.

Suspicions about the Morristown’s intentions were fueled in part by a changed zoning designation for 90 Lake Road, from “Public Purpose Undevelopable” to “Public Purpose.”

Abramson, the town planner, said the terms are used interchangeably.

The Patriots’ Path trail skirts the recycling center. It won’t be affected if the lot is removed from the open space list, Inglesino said in response to a question from Ruiz.

When Morristown Councilman Robert Iannaccone attempted to pose a question, Barrick advised that this was an administrative hearing, and queries and comments should be directed to the DEP.

The public comment period extends until March 9, 2021, and a DEP decision could follow imminently, according to a notice circulated by the state agency.

Comments may be mailed to Nancy Lawrence of the DEP Green Acres Program’s Bureau of Legal Services and Stewardship, Mail Code 501-01, 501 East State St., P.O. Box 420, Trenton, NJ 08625-0420, or emailed to her.

They also can be sent to Morristown Clerk Margot Kaye at 200 South St., Morristown, 07960, or via email.

HISTORICAL NUGGETS:

Attorney Justin Marchetta of Inglesino’s firm compiled a history of 90 Lake Road for the town’s request to the DEP, sent last October. Some findings:

• Julia Burnham Sherman donated the land to the now-defunct Morristown Improvement Association in 1902.
• The town acquired the property from that organization in 1916.
• Newspaper articles indicate the town’s recycling center has operated there since at least 1987, and served as a dump for “several decades” before that.
• In 1968, the town accepted Green Acres grants to acquire two nearby properties. A year later, the town’s attorney asked the state to release restrictions imposed on 90 Lake Road, stating it’s “not currently being used for recreational purposes, nor is it likely to be used in the future.”
• Instead, the property was included in plans for Patriots’ Path.
• In 1991, the town discovered a memo showing 90 Lake Road was included in a Green Acres Recreation and Open Space Inventory.
• No town documents identify the parcel as open space. It’s zoned as “Public Purpose… slightly different (from) ‘Public Purpose Undevelopable’ which is used by the town for all open spaces.”
• Prior deed restrictions created some confusion. The 1968 Green Acres funding agreement imposed restrictions on two parcels; applying these limitations to 90 Lake Road “was a clear case of mistaken identity.”
• At the time of Green Acres agreement, 90 Lake Road was not used for recreation or conservation, and so it could not be constrained by provisions of the deal.
• When Julia Burnham Sherman donated the land in 1902, the deed stipulated it be “used as a park and that no structures be constructed thereon.” The Chase Manhattan Bank, overseeing Sherman’s estate, lifted those restrictions and any claims against the town in 2000.