NJAS Opinion: Winter, 1992

This July, NJAS learned that the National Park Service (NPS) was planning to swap 96 acres of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area land in Sandyston Township for two parcels of privately owned land along the Delaware River totaling just 7.63 acres. The NPS declared the lands equal in financial value, but said the appraisal on the swap was not governed by the Freedom of Information Act, so we couldn't see it. Because the Environmental Assessment put out by the NPS was less than convincing in its reasoning as to why this swap was a good thing - to protect allegedly threatened plants and provide greater river access - and because it also announced another 95 acres of federal land to be swapped sometime in the future, NJAS and the NJ Conservation Foundation decided to investigate the details. Field visits were made in August; congressional help allowed us to view the appraisals, followed by press coverage in the New York Times, Star Ledger and The Times (Trenton).

Here's where we stand as of mid-September: It turns out the appraisals were actually done in late 1987, quite out of line for a swap announced in 1991. The deal has been cooking since at least early 1987 and was opposed by New Jersey's Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife, which told the NPS that the land was good for woodcock, grouse, wild turkey, black bear and that if the NPS didn't want it New Jersey did for inclusion into its nearby Hainesville Wildlife Management Area. We agree with this position for it's good forested land for neotropical migrants and raptors. In our opinion, the seven acres the NPS says are threatened are not, with the northern five-acre parcel protected by Montague Township's tough "no build" conservation zoning, and the southern two acres in Walpack Township constrained, according to townships officials, by the NPS itself.

Once again, as in the Allamuchy land swap of just over a year ago, we have a deal initiated by private financial interests with shallow conservation rationale and poor financial terms for the public's purse. Although it is not clear who suggested it, a conservation easement was drawn up by the NPS for the departing federal land which allows for the building of a motel/restaurant and "not more than one residential dwelling...on a given lot...." It's a strange "easement," because it really doesn't alter the building density from what municipal zoning would allow, but it ends up reducing the market value of the government's land from $2,500 to $1,600 per acre, making it worth some $170,000 to the developer if all 192 acres are eventually swapped.

As we view the entire proposal, it becomes clear that the swap is unnecessary on any ground. We are working hard to find out which public officials, if any, have spoken up in favor of the swap.

This long chronology of the Delaware Water Gap swap sheds new light on the lessons that were apparently not learned during the controversy over the state Allamuchy-Green Acres land swap in 1989-90. Despite considerable press coverage that could not have been much appreciated by some of the principals in the Allamuchy swap, this proposed federal land exchange continued to unfold right through the evolution of the state's land swap. Which brings us to the question of why Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden's (R, D-22) bill (A-3254) is getting such a legislative cold shoulder. This bill would close the door entirely on the selling, leasing, and swapping of state or municipally obtained Green Acres' lands, and create better public notice and hearing procedures for the scrutiny of the disposal of other state lands. We think that it is time to remind Governor Florio that he indicated his administration would consider changes to the State House Commission and the fate of Green Acres' lands procedures in the wake of the public unhappiness over the Allamuchy situation. Call or write: Governor Jim Florio, The State House, Trenton, NJ 08625; 609-292-6000.

William Neil