Sprawl Voices Pt. 1

Sprawl Voices was a work-in-progress rendering of an unfinished documentary that chronicled citizen's opposition to a plan by St, Mary's Abbey in Morris Township, NJ, to construct a retirement community on part of its 250 acre campus, a known environmentally sensitive area, adjacent to the Jockey Hollow section of Morristown National Historical Park, and contiguous to an improbably large greenbelt of preserved lands only 24 miles from midtown Manhattan. The Abbey is home to the prestigious prep school, Delbarton. Some of its graduates wield significant influence at all levels of government , which was leveraged in an effort to gain regulatory approvals for this project. The project was proposed and if constructed, it would be managed by Retirement Living Services, Inc. (RLS), a Rockefeller-owned company. The Abbey and RLS were absolutely confident of their eventual success.

Armed with a letter-of-interest from New Jersey Public Television, I began interviewing the players and chronicling citizen objections (and supporters) at the Morris Township Planning Board and Township Committee Hearings (representatives of the Abbey refused to be interviewed). This 22-minute "progress report", prepared for NJPTV, was dismissed by them as entirely one-sided. At that point, without funding, or a broadcast outlet, I abandoned the project. I later learned the the Chairman of the NJPTV Foundation also was a board member of the Delbarton School.

Despite citizen's cogent arguments and those of NJ's leading environmental groups, Morris Township changed it's zoning to accommodate the Abbey and it's proposed dense development. However, the project was killed by the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection, who would not approve the necessary sewer extension. NJDEP's decision, under then Commissioner Bradley Campbell, was announced in a scathing and admonishing letter to Morris Township.

Fast forward to 2009: The Abbey never acted on its threat to subdivide its property into 3-acre homesites if the retirement facility was not approved. The land was purchased for preservation in a deal coordinated by the Trust for Public Land, bundling funds from NJ's Green Acres program, Morris County's and Morris Township's Open Space tax funds, and the Great Swamp Watershed Association.

The ultimate irony was that, in the pomp and ceremony surrounding this preservation accomplishment, very little credit was given to the people seen in this video, who rallied and dedicated their time and resources, to fight a Goliath-backed project. If it weren't for their perseverance, this land would never have been preserved.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• elliottruga
• sprawl
• Delbarton
• St. Mary's Abbey
• Morris Township
• New Jersey
• Morris County
• home rule
• NJLOM
• master plan
• planning board
• elliott ruga
• planning
• smart growth
• development
• citizens
• activism
• stanton peele
• redevelopment
• julia somers
• jeff tittel
• sierra
• club
• great swamp
• watershed
• environment
• environmental