Board will not appeal decision on land value
Clayton family to be paid $11.4 million
BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

There will be no appeal by the Jackson Board of Education or Clayton Block Inc. of a jury decision made earlier this month to increase the value of condemned land on which the district’s second high school is being built.

“Because of good fortune and good planning in [the building of] the Elms Elementary School [and Jackson Liberty High School], we can [afford the difference] from surplus,” Super-intendent of Schools Thomas Gialanella said at the board’s Dec. 21 meeting.

According to school district spokeswoman Allison Erwin, $10 million for the acquisition of land had been set aside in a referendum approved by Jack-son voters in January 2002. The total bond issue was for $130 million, which included the cost of constructing the district’s second high school and the Elms Elementary School.

A six-member jury sitting in state Superior Court, Toms River, on Dec. 8 issued a decision requiring the board to pay Clayton Block $11.4 million for 156 acres on South Hope Chapel Road. Erwin said the district would use an additional $1.4 million to pay the difference if the Clayton family, which owns Clayton Block, did not appeal the decision.

Board President Michael Hanlon said there is a 45-day time period for filing an appeal.

However, attorney Peter H. Wegener, representing the Clayton family, said his client would not appeal the jury’s decision.

“I think that the final compensation awarded by the jury represents a reasonable resolution,” he said Tuesday. “While it may not totally compensate the Claytons for what they could have gotten on the open market, it’s a reasonable resolution of the case.”

Judge Marlene Lynch Ford sitting in state Superior Court, Toms River, had issued a separate decision in a pretrial hearing several weeks earlier that the property should be valued based on pre-existing R-1 zoning. The case went to a jury trial in on Nov. 29 to determine the value of the land.

Wegener said he believed the testimony of the appraisers for the district and for Clayton Block determined the outcome of the case.

According to Wegener, appraiser Pamela Brodowski, representing the school board, told the jury that residential land in Jackson was appreciating at the rate of 18 percent per year. However, appraiser Anthony S. Graziano, representing the Claytons, stated that from January 2002 to March 2003, residential land values increased by almost 50 percent. Graziano said the reason for the increase in the northern Ocean County/southern Monmouth County area was due to a demand for housing.

According to Wegener, Graziano said that had the tract been used as intended to build affordable housing units, the likely price would have been between $110,000 and $120,000 per home. Brodowski estimated that the units would have sold for $80,000. The prices were determined according to guidelines set forth by the state Council On Affordable Housing.

Wegener said Ford had ruled that the Jackson Township Committee had apparently overlooked rezoning the site of the proposed high school from 1 acre per home to 3 acres per home along with the rest of the area, increasing the value of the land Clayton Block had contracted to sell to U.S. Home for more than $10 million prior to its condemnation by the board.

The committee passed an amendment to the zoning ordinance in July 2002 which zoned most of the R-1 property as R-3, but did not rezone the subject property because it was scheduled for construction of a high school.

“The school board said it was a mistake, but the law said no,” Wegener said. “The school district said they would sue the committee if they did not rezone the property from R-1 to R-3. The letter was produced at trial.”

The June 4, 2002 letter from then-board attorney Frank Campbell to Township Attorney Kevin Starkey was included in the case file at the state’s civil court records office in Toms River. The letter was also copied to then-township planner Marc Schuster of JCA Associates, who provided the maps used by the committee for rezoning the township in 2001.

In the letter, Campbell told Starkey the board had authorized him to file an action against the township seeking a court order amending the rezoning of the school land if the governing body did not take action first.

“It’s unheard of for a board of education to send a letter threatening legal action against the governing body unless it rezones land they intended to acquire for construction of a school,” said Wegener. “I don’t think the letter showed any bad faith by the board, they were just following legal advice that may have been misguided.”

A copy of the July 2002 amendment to the 2001 rezoning ordinance was also on file in the records office of state Superior Court. Wegener said the appraisal of the property was reduced to $4.7 million as a result. The $4.7 million was put into escrow with the court after the Clayton family challenged the value of the land the district condemned.

Members of the board have said that higher figures were offered as part of the negotiating process.

Erwin said the board attempted to negotiate a price that would protect taxpayer dollars while fairly compensating the property owner for the land.

The Claytons did not view the district’s offers in that light.

“We went to court and I challenged the appraisal because it was based on the illegal rezoning and the judge [and jury] agreed,” said Wegener. “[Judge Ford] threw ... out [the rezoning amendment and] the jury verdict ... revised [the appraisal] to $11.4 million.”

School board Vice President Marty Spielman said at the board’s Dec. 21 meeting that members would discuss the matter further at the February meeting once the 45-day appeal period had elapsed.

After the meeting, board member Gus Acevedo discussed the letter sent by Campbell to the township. He stressed that the board, like the Township Committee, is an autonomous body. On that basis, Acevedo defended the board’s decision to have Campbell threaten legal action against the township after it failed to rezone the site of the new high school.

“There are times when we have to stand up for what we believe is right,” he said.