MAHWAH WELLHEAD PROTECTION UPDATE
IS THIS A PICTURE OF THE MAHWAH TOWN COUNCIL’S REAL VIEW WHEN IT COMES TO PROTECTING OUR WATER? Is our Council really looking to protect our water supply through a Wellhead Protection Act? Or are they in reality looking to protect developers from being restricted by having to deal with such protections? DON’T LISTEN TO THEIR WORDS. WATCH THEIR ACTIONS.
As I have previously documented, the issue of Wellhead Protection in Mahwah has been before our Council since 2008, but NOTHING has been done to enact such protections. All the while, the Council has continued to allow developers to bring projects to Mahwah without their having to deal with the potential restrictions that a Wellhead Protection Act might impose. Perhaps most notoriously was the Council’s backroom brokered approval process for the Crossroads site which, as I brought to light during the Planning Board hearings on the issue, allowed the developer to draft the zoning ordinance that was adopted by the Council for the Crossroads site over the objections of the Planning Board. Allowing a developer to draft the zoning ordinance for its own site plan is akin to giving the fox the keys to the henhouse. A Planning Board that then reviews the site plan for that site has its hands legally tied since the site plan will, not surprisingly, meet the requirements of the zoning ordinance that was drafted by the developer and adopted by the Council.
We now are now seeing legal maneuvers and hearing rumors about the same developers at the Crossroads site wanting to change their plans to not only bring retail use to the site, but also to bring potentially hundreds upon hundreds of housing units to the site as well. Let’s not forget that Mahwah has wellheads in the area of the Crossroads that would be protected by the scope of any Wellhead Protection Act the Council might adopt.
At this past Thursday night’s Council meeting, Council President Hermansen stated that he was looking to correct “misstatements in the public” about Wellhead Protection. He made similar statements subsequently on social media. Oh the irony of his statements! The only “misstatements in the public” about Wellhead Protection have come from the Council itself in its statements to the public. Mahwah residents are too smart to be fooled any longer by our Council.
As the minutes from the October 13, 2016, Council meeting show ( http://www.mahwahtwp.org/uppages/WSPMM10132016.pdf ), when I challenged the Council about where they stood on enacting a Wellhead Protection Act that I had raised ten months earlier, then Council President Roth had the Township Attorney address my questions on behalf of the Council. “The Township Attorney said he has been working with Boswell Engineering to develop a Well Head Protection Act Ordinance. He commented they will probably have an Ordinance within the next sixty days”.
If this statement from the Council to the public back in October of 2016 was factually accurate, then we should have seen a draft Wellhead Protection Act presented to the Council in December of 2016. Certainly, it should have been ready by January of 2017!
Thus, you can imagine my SHOCK when at this past week’s Council meeting on January 16, 2017, the Council President asked the Township Attorney to once again speak on behalf of the Council and correct the “misstatements in the public” about the issue of Wellhead Protection. As can be seen in the video of this past week’s meeting beginning at the 17:47 mark (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/99366577), the Township attorney now states that “Boswell Engineering recently made a request for funding to do the work necessary for an ordinance to be drafted. We expect probably within the next 3 months to get a final version to the Council.” HELLO? IS ANYONE LISTENING? LET'S RECAP:
OCTOBER 13, 2016: “The Township Attorney said he has been working with Boswell Engineering to develop a Well Head Protection Act Ordinance. He commented they will probably have an Ordinance within the next sixty days”.
JANUARY 16, 2017: “Boswell Engineering recently made a request for funding to do the work necessary for an ordinance to be drafted. We expect probably within the next 3 months to get a final version to the Council.”
Seems to me that the only “misstatements in the public” have come from the Council itself in making excuses to the public about where they stand in protecting our wellheads from developers. They clearly were making “misstatements” to us back in October. Are we to believe that they are now suddenly telling us the truth? Does the Council now expect us to just “go away” and not ask any questions about Wellhead Protection for another 3 months while developers continue to eye up the last morsels left in Mahwah for development?
This past week’s Council meeting was ended uncharacteristically early so that the Council could exclude the public and go into a multi-hour closed session meeting where “affordable housing” was on their agenda. We now see members of the Council taking to social media and making public statements where they claim that they want to be “transparent” to the public about affordable housing and what it means to the future of Mahwah. Just because a politician uses the word “transparent” doesn’t make it so. The Council has a clear public record of their LACK of transparency on what they are doing to protect our wellhead areas from developers. Mahwah residents are too smart to be fooled any longer.
You fooled us with Crossroads. You have been fooling us with Wellhead Protection. You won’t fool us any longer!
Major development is coming to Mahwah. Our Council’s actions clearly show us this. The question is whether our Council is seeking to protect residents or seeking to protect developers?
Past actions of this Council stemming back to the Crossroads dealings raise plenty of red flags. Are there other red flags to consider? Has anyone taken a look at the new composition of the Council, including the hand-picked, non-elected members added to the Council? Does it surprise anyone that over a majority of our current Council members have backgrounds in real estate development or have taken campaign contributions from labor unions who benefit from real estate development?
One Councilman describes himself as a seasoned construction professional with over 20 plus years of experience in the commercial/retail sector. Another describes himself as a licensed real estate broker, president of a property management company, and is about to embark in a career as a real estate attorney. Yet another describes himself as a commercial loan officer specializing in the financing of Apartment Complexes, Retail Buildings, Shopping Centers, Mixed-Use Properties, Industrial Buildings, Office Buildings as well as Construction Lending.
Going further, another Councilman’s campaign finance filings show that (CLICK HERE TO SEE FILING), in his last election to earn his seat on the Council, he took the maximum campaign contribution allowed under law from the NJ Laborers PAC which is the political action committee run by the New Jersey Laborers Union (LiUNA) who describe themselves as working “collaboratively with project owners, contractors, and government officials to promote the union construction industry and encourage economic development.” For those unaware, LiUNA represents construction labor unions that do business in Northern New Jersey, including construction that might occur right here in Mahwah.
It should be noted that the Council’s new Ordinance Committee, which is the subcommittee that works on new ordinances to be considered in Mahwah (including any future Wellhead Protection Act or changes in zoning at sites such as the Crossroads which may be forthcoming) is comprised of two Councilman from the above list with the third member not being a seasoned member of the Council who would have background and experience on the various issues our town is facing, but rather one of the newest members to the Council who is politically aligned with the real estate development related majority of the Council. Red flags to consider?
So I ask again: Is the photo depicted in this posting symbolic of what is actually occurring in Mahwah when it comes to protecting our water supply from the impacts of future development? The Council has already proven that we cannot trust their words. We must simply watch their actions to see their true intent. Mahwah residents are too smart to be fooled any longer by politicians using buzz words such as “transparency”. Mahwah residents are WATCHING to see what actually occurs.
Residents should certainly listen respectfully to what our Council has to say. Likewise, we certainly should respectfully continue to share with the Council what our concerns are with regard to protection of our resources and the concerns we have over future development. However, let us not forget how this Council has previously treated residents such as when hundreds upon hundreds of us showed up at the municipal building during the Crossroads fiasco demanding that our voices be heard. We must not allow ourselves to be fooled any longer by their WORDS. We must carefully watch their ACTIONS and continue to fact check them against their words.
In my personal interactions with the thousands of residents in Mahwah I have come to see that Mahwah residents are smart, savvy and concerned about protecting their quality of life and their environment in Mahwah. KEEP THOSE EYES OPEN MAHWAH!
