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LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - A Zoning Board meeting to consider a use variance for the Atlantic Off-Highway Vehicle Park has been delayed.

The application was scheduled to be heard at a meeting Wednesday evening but now is scheduled for Sept. 9.

Dale Freitas, director of Atlantic Off-Highway Vehicle Park, has been before the board regarding his application three times already, amounting to hours of testimony from a handful of planning and land-use experts, along with tens of thousands of dollars from the state to pay those experts.

Freitas said he submits invoices to the DEP, which then writes checks to the professionals who are testifying on behalf of the application.

"We've spent about $80,000 on professionals. The town knows the state is paying for this, and they're hoping to burn me out of money," he said.

Freitas wants to transform 120 acres owned by Shoreline Materials off Thomas Avenue into a riding area for off-road vehicles. The state Green Acres and federal grants and economic-development funding would pay for the project. According to John Flynn, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Green Acres Program, Green Acres will provide $1.15 million for a conservation easement on the property, and the Recreational Trails Program will provide another $1.15 million.

Freitas said Thursday that the Zoning Board meeting was delayed because one of the professionals he needed to testify was on vacation. Freitas' attorney Howard Butensky also had a scheduling conflict, Freitas said.

"We've asked for a special meeting because these meetings generally consume a lot of time. I kind of feel like I stepped into a minefield in this township. It's extremely frustrating because we're trying to do a good thing," he said.

E-mail Donna Weaver:

DWeaver@pressofac.com

6 comments:

• LouToti (33) posts 9:00 pm

  WOW Fred! What are you saying that the Egg Harbor Police and the PAL are bad guys and would retaliate against anyone who didn't support their position? I thought the police were the good guys? Fred you know and I know there are no similarities between Egg Harbor and LEH, other than both towns having Egg Harbor in their names. These towns are polar opposites! The only similarity that I can see is you coming to the meetings and spreading false information within the community. The bigger question I have for you is how many TREE FROGS have you killed driving back and forth from the LEH off-road park meetings and your home in Buena Vista?

• FredAkers (11) posts 9:42 am

  It is fact, not fiction that NJDEP and EHT PAL failed to sell the big regional ORV Park that would have brought thousands of outsiders and their ORV machines into EHT almost 10 years ago. The town council gave the proposal very serious consideration, and heard comments from all sides over a time period of about 2 years. The applicant there was not a dealership shell organization from out of town, like the one in LEHT this time -- it was the town’s own Police Athletic League. Like in LEHT, the fear mongers were out in force trying to frighten the locals away and blowing lots of smoke about how beneficial ORV riding is. I was there, and I recall that the town citizens were even afraid of getting retaliation tickets from the EHT Police for objecting to their PAL proposal. The PAL application was seriously misrepresented by the applicant, like the AOHVA application is; intensive motorized recreation was not an approved use in the zone (which would have required a zoning variance or Master Plan change) like in LEHT; no environmental reviews were produced to prove site suitability or need for mitigation, same as in LEHT; no one was tricked by the so called multiuse claims that other recreation would be compatible with an ORV Park, same as in LEHT. The local residents opposed to the Betsy Scull park organized and put a lawyer to work questioning the misrepresentations in the proposal, Atlantic County was against it because the applicant used 500 acres of county land as part of their proposal without even asking the county, and the hunters, horseback riders, and adjoining golf course users that were already enjoying the quiet use of the areas involved were all against it. So after judiciously weighing all of the positives and negatives, the EHT governing body decided that the site was not suitable and the use was not inherently beneficial and told the EHT PAL no. Ultimately, NJDEP was forced to cancel the grant. It is important for LEHT to know this story, as the outcome of the Betsy Scull proposal is a historic precedent that can inform their decision about the similar set of circumstances in LEHT today.

• LouToti (33) posts 7:01 am

  No, Fred it should be going before the township so that it's a township decision and not YOUR decision! The majority of the residents here in LEH support the off-road park, because that's what kids do down here! Why isn't there any opposition to the off-road park at the zoning board meetings other than YOU Theresa, Margaret and your wife who aren't even LEH residents? You live down in Buena Vista! This park isn't going to cost the township a dime and if anything is going to generate revenue for township, local volunteer groups and local businesses. On top of that it's going to eliminate illegal off-road riding in the area! Why would anyone want to oppose that unless they have another agenda? Everyone knows the Off-Road park in Chatsworth eliminated illegal off-road use in that township! Ask Woodland Twp. Mayor? Ask the local state forest superintendent and the DEP who's land surrounds the OHV park property? If you want facts go down there on a Sunday and walk the woods around the old park. All the old off-road trails on state land are all grown in with grass and trees! That doesn't happen on it's own. The only people not telling the truth here are those from your community.

• FredAkers (11) posts 10:24 pm

  Given the big flow of public money for these questionable ORV Park proposals approved by NJDEP and the Recreational Trails Council, bringing up the EHT PAL is most appropriate. EHT PAL has had a 30 acre site at Ridge Avenue in EHT for many years now, and they are the poster child of how to milk the Motorized Recreational Trails money out of NJDEP. EHT PAL Ready to Ride Program Ridge Ave. had a representative on the NJDEP Recreational Trails Council, and received from NJDEP $83,643 in 1996, $25,000 in 2001, $143,750 in 2003, and $50,000 in 2004, for a grand total of $302,393. All for a 30 acre ORV Park, but this was not enough. Starting in 1999, EHT PAL applied for 3 grants from the NJDEP Motorized Recreational Trails Program totaling almost $500,000 to create a 1000 acre ORV Park in the Betsy Scull area of EHT. One of the justifications for this big ORV Park project was to reduce illegal riding in EHT, as the smaller 30 acre ORV Park was supposedly not enough. NJDEP gave EHT PAL over $186,000 to purchase 92 acres to start the project, but the project planning was so fatally flawed and corrupt, and the objections by the people of the town and local area were so extensive, that the EHT elected officials denied the project, even though they had resolved to support it in 1999, before it even got to the Zoning Board process. EHT PAL then tried to sell the 92 acre parcel for a 10 unit subdivision development, but in the end sold the parcel back to NJDEP and Atlantic County for passive open space for $460,000, netting EHT PAL a tidy profit for their efforts. If the 30 acre PAL ORV Park in EHT is really eliminating all illegal ORV riding in EHT, why did the EHT PAL try and fail to create an unnecessary 1,000 acre ORV Park? The NJDEP/Atlantic Off-Highway Vehicle Park Inc. ORV Park application in Little Egg Harbor Township and Eagleswood is a lot like the EHT PAL Betsy Scull ORV Park, except that there are no township resolutions to support it, and it should have never gone before the Zoning Board to waste all that public money.

• LouToti (33) posts 7:24 pm

  I certainly hope he doesn't give up. The kids down here need a safe and legal place like this to ride that teaches ATV and Dirt Bike safety education and environmental responsibility. If the Little Egg Harbor PAL were smart they'd supported this project, just like Atlantic Counties Egg Harbor township PAL did when they created their Ready-To-Ride ATV program: http://www.ehtpal.com/ready_to_ride.htm which has all but eliminate illegal ATV and Dirt Bike use in their township. Then again you have to have a police department that's interested in being proactive instead of reactive.

• Sincerely (37) posts 10:10 am

  Dale don't lose heart on this. This park is backed by most of the residents here and the State. If the State wants it..it will override the Township and the senior squealers ! I think it is a good thing you are trying to do and we appreciate it! A trained ATV rider is at less risk than a skateboard rider in a skateboard park !

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