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Woodbine campground residents want year-round status
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CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - The Carol Lynn Resorts Home Owners Association wants a judge to declare that Carol Lynn Resorts, a Woodbine campground with 238 campsites, is a year-round residence akin to a mobile home park.
According to a lawsuit filed by South Jersey Legal Services on behalf of the association, the campground has not been operating as a campground facility since it opened in 1979 because it has not limited residents' access to the property only for the purposes "of camping and the recreation associated therein," part of what defines a camping facility under state law.
"Specifically, Defendant Carol Lynn Resorts, Inc. has advertised the park as being open year-round; has executed 99-year leases with original residents and continued such leases with new buyers; has allowed residents to live there year-round, 365 days per year, as their full time, permanent residences; has allowed residents to convert their homes into permanent structures; and has allowed residents to construct permanent additions such as enclosed sunrooms or Florida rooms extending the size of their homes beyond 400 square feet," according to the lawsuit.
Attorney David Podell, representing about 50 residents who call the campground home, said the association wants a court to find that they can "reside there year-round."
The lawsuit is the latest action in a dispute that began this summer following a state rule that limits tenants to spending no more than six months in a seasonal campground. The resorts' owners notified campers they had until Nov. 1 to move, but in July state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, said the state Department of Community Affairs would grandfather existing park-model trailers at the campground, meaning the existing tenants would not have to move. It also meant new residents could not move in and stay beyond the six-month limit.
Podell said placing that limitation on new owners means current owners cannot sell their properties. "It decreases the value of their mobile homes," Podell said.
Residents also had to deal with a never-enforced borough ordinance that allowed residents to live in the campground unrestricted from April to November and then spend 21 days per month there the rest of the year.
The lawsuit deems that borough ordinance "unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious" and claims the restriction is unconstitutional.
Prior to the lawsuit filing, Woodbine Borough Council introduced a new ordinance that would eliminate the restriction on the number of days anyone could stay at the campsite.
"There shall be no limitation as to the number of days per year any one (1) campsite may be occupied," the new ordinance reads. A public hearing on that ordinance is scheduled for Dec. 3 during the regular council meeting.
Podell said the borough's new ordinance solves some the associations concerns with the borough, but it doesn't resolve their problem with the campsite's owners.
In the lawsuit, the association is asking a court to stop the owners of Carol Lynn Resorts from enforcing its new rules and the accompanying fines that would result from violating those rules, which ask residents to obtain permits designating whether they are year-round or seasonal residents.
While the leases specifically state that the resort is a campground and state law "does not allow the occupancy of any site as a permanent habitation," the lawsuit claims that Carol Saduk, one of the owners of the resort told residents they could stay year-round as long as they a 14-day vacation.
Saduk said Tuesday that she never told anyone the campsite was to be used year-round. "I would take a lie detector test (on that)," she said. She added that of the current residents she only leased one person a site with a 99-year lease. The others, she said, were purchased from previous leaseholders.
Saduk, who operates the resort with her husband Councilman Anthony Saduk Sr., said that as far as she is concerned, the resort is now operating as it always has.
"We have not asked anyone to leave and we have no intention to ask anyone to leave," she said.
Saduk added that she has never monitored tenants to track the number of days they spend at the campground and has no plans to do so.
Saduk said she and her husband notified owners about the state's six-month rule, but the state later grandfathered them in, meaning the current residents have nothing to fear.
Saduk also said she is concerned the lawsuit could backfire on residents because being declared a permanent residence would require the small units, which are not classified as mobile homes, to comply with building codes not applied to campsites.
"They're asking for something they already have - the ability to stay there," Saduk said.
Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky said turning the campground into a year-round mobile home park would burden the town as the need for services increased as the change would mean all campgrounds could seek the same designation, meaning more need for borough services and school facilities.
"They want to dismantle the campground law. They want to turn this into a mobile home trailer park, but it's a campground," Pikolycky said.
Pikolycky said the new ordinance, passed on first reading last week, would give the residents the opportunity to stay year-round, but council may hold off on the ordinance now that litigation is pending.
Contact Trudi Gilfillian:
609-463-6716
Posted in Cape_may on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:40 pm Updated: 7:45 pm.
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