Franklin Lakes September 7, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 Bergen County to acquire Omaha Way subdivision by Frank J. McMahon The Bergen County Department of Economic Planning and Development is working to acquire a 13.9-acre parcel of forested land at the end of Omaha Way in Franklin Lakes. The property is to be used for park and recreation purposes. Bergen County has a contract to purchase the property from Union builder Mark Built Homes as compensation for a proposed diversion of three acres at the Campgaw Mountain County Reservation from restricted Green Acres property. United Water New Jersey plans to construct a water storage tank on that three-acre site. The county has filed a request with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the National Park Service Federal Lands to Parks Program to divert the Green Acres land. Additional compensation for the diversion would be provided by United Water with the construction of a water line, pumping station, and related infrastructure within the three-acre diversion site in order to provide water service to the Saddle Ridge Riding Center, a horseback riding facility located on that same parcel of land. The pumping station will also provide domestic and fire flow water service to the nearby Franklin Lakes residents located west of Route 287. A public hearing to obtain public comments on this request will be held on Wednesday, September 14 at 7 p.m. at the Franklin Lakes Municipal Building on DeKorte Drive. The property at the end of Omaha Way is wooded and steeply sloped and surrounded by residential properties on three sides and by High Mountain Park in Wayne on the south. Mark Built Homes planned to develop the site and construct estate-type homes on the three large lots. The subdivision of the property would require 38 truckloads to remove the 490 cubic yards of soil and rock that would have to be removed from the site for the subdivision. However, it was estimated that between 1,800 and 2,000 truckloads would be required to remove all the soil and rock that would have to be removed during the total development of the three lots. The subdivision was opposed by many of the neighbors, but the property was approved for subdivision into three lots by the borough’s planning board in December 2009. Following that approval, Bergen County Freeholder Maura DeNicola, who was the mayor of the borough at the time, urged the borough council to purchase the Omaha Way property. She voiced the opinion that the property should be preserved for open space and that Green Acres grants and different private funding sources should be investigated to preserve the property as such. DeNicola, who was also a member of the planning board at the time, voted against the approval of the subdivision. She claimed it was a terrible application and a terrible project for the borough and for that area. The three-acre Campgaw Mountain County Reservation site was conveyed to the county in 1972 by the United States Department of Interior with a deed restriction stating that the parcel must be used for public park or recreation purposes. The deed permits the use of the property to be changed, however, if fully justified, by substituting alternative new park and recreation lands of equal or greater market value and recreation value for the land that would be released from the restrictive use conditions of the deed. A report dated July 2011 identifying the reasons for the proposed conveyance, and its impact, benefits, and detriments, has been prepared by the county. Copies of that report are available from the Bergen County Department of Economic Planning and Development offices and the NJDEP Green Acres Program Bureau of Legal Services and Stewardship in Trenton, and the National Park Service Federal Lands to Parks in Boston, Massachusetts. The final application for the diversion of parkland, which is subject to the approval of the NJDEP commissioner, the State House Commission, and the National Park Service, is available at the borough’s public library on DeKorte Drive. When United Water first proposed the water tank in March 2010, the utility proposed a concrete and steel structure that would contain three million gallons. Plans call for a circular, ground-level tank that would be 200 feet in diameter. The sides of the tank would be about 15 feet tall, and the height from the bottom of the tank to the top of the (continued on page 31)