Teaneck plans to buy open space
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Last updated: Thursday March 25, 2010, 1:21 AM
BY HOWARD PROSNITZ
Teaneck Suburbanite
STAFF WRITER
More than a decade after negotiations began, the township is on the verge of acquiring the vacant property at 640 River Road.
TEANECK SUBURBANITE FILE PHOTO/HOWARD PROSNITZ Teaneck is on the verge of acquiring the vacant property at 640 River Road.
At the March 9 council meeting, Township Attorney Stanley Turitz announced that a contract had been signed between the township and the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation that owns the one-acre riverfront site. The selling price is $600,000, if the closing takes place before July 30, and $625,000, if it takes place afterwards.
The township has applied to Bergen County Municipal Open Space Trust (MOST) fund for $430,000 toward the purchase. The township’s MOST funds will pay the balance. The council unanimously approved an ordinance agreeing to purchase the property.
"This is a dream come true," Wally Cowan, former chair of the Parks, Playgrounds and Recreation Advisory Board, told the council. "It is a beautiful location. There is no better view in all Teaneck of the Hackensack River."
The site has been owned by the Westside Teaneck Jehovah’s Witnesses at least since the late 1990s.
Cowan recalled that when the Hackensack River Greenway was first established 11 years ago, it ended at the site.
"We would begin at Terhune Park and we would end by walking up this vacant lot to River Road. One day there was a for sale sign on the property," Cowan said.
Recognizing the importance of adding the land to the Greenway, Cowan began raising money for the purchase. He said that he still has a letter from the Jehovah Witnesses dated June 22, 1999 agreeing to sell the lot to the township.
But the deal fell through, said Cowan, who did not say specifically what went wrong.
"The Witnesses never came back to the idea of selling the property. They decided to build on it instead," he said.
The property owners twice sought variances from the Board of Adjustment to build a Kingdom Hall on the site. The board rejected both applications, citing, among other reasons, the high volume of traffic on River Road and the inadequacy of the 35-space proposed parking lot.
In March 2009, the DEP conducted a hearing in Teaneck on waterfront development at the site. The hearing had been called at the Jehovah Witnesses’ request.
At the time, Paul Fantoukis, a member of the Westside group, said that the property owners did not intend to submit another application to develop the site, but that the purpose of the hearing was to remove an old violation.
According to attorney Bruce Rosenberg, who represented Norma and Marty Goetz, neighbors of the property who have long opposed the Witnesses’ plans to develop it, the property had once been illegally filled and was subject to a violation for the landfill.
Rosenberg said at the time of the hearing that for more than 20 years Teaneck’s Master Plan has identified the land for open space.
Although several houses separate the property from Terhune Park to the south, the part closest to the river connects directly to the park. Cowan said that he hopes the property will become part of the park, as well as part of the Greenway.
He said that any structure on the site would spoil its natural beauty.
"Once we acquire the property, we will have the freedom to do plantings. We can focus on how to make this site environmentally useful and protective of the river. It is a wonderful addition to Teaneck."
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