Court OKs state permits for controversial High Mountain development

In a blow to environmentalists, a state appellate court ruled Friday that permits issued by the Christie administration for a controversial 204-unit development on High Mountain in Oakland were appropriately approved.

Aerial photos of a ridge top forest on High Mountain in Oakland, which is the site of a controversial project to develop 204 homes and townhouses in the protected Highlands watershed.

Environmental groups said they are considering whether to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

“We’re disappointed in the decision, of course,” said Julia Somers, executive director of the Highlands Coalition, which filed the suit along with the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We believe the DEP was incorrect in granting the permits.”

“This is an iconic piece of property with astonishing views of Manhattan and it’s important to protect it,” Somers said.

The 204 homes and townhouses would be constructed on an 85-acre tract in the borough’s southeastern corner, west of Breakneck Road, owned by Brooklyn-based Bi-County Development Corp.

“We were pleased with the decision by the court, which recognized that the DEP acted properly in issuing the permits,” said David Oberlander, a lawyer representing Bi-County.

Julia Somers, executive director of the NJ Highlands Coalition, which sued to block conteroversial development on High Mountain in Oakland.

Caryn Shinske, a DEP spokeswoman, said the agency was “pleased that the Appellate Division upheld our settlement of this matter.”

Conservationists thought the project was all but dead when the Legislature passed the 2004 Highlands Act, which bars most large, private development in a 390,000-acre region to protect drinking water sources for millions of state residents. The Oakland tract is included in the area covered by the act.

And in 2008, when Jon Corzine was governor, the DEP blocked a permit application, saying the proposed complex would draw too much water from the Ramapo River, create too much runoff due to steep slopes and destroy a critical habitat for at least one threatened species, the barred owl.

“They had denied this permit very emphatically for many reasons, including the need to protect water resources, the environmental sensitivity of the land and the critical habitat there,” said Elliott Ruga, the Highland Coalition’s policy director. “This project would not pass regulatory muster today.”

But Bi-County Development challenged the DEP in court. The company argued that a 1991 decision by the DEP to connect to sewer lines in neighboring Wayne was grandfathered in despite the Highlands protections that came after it.

The state DEP, under commissioner Bob Martin, left, and Governor Chris Christie, settled with Bi-County development to approve permits for a controversial 204-unit development on High Mountain in Oakland.

In a 2014 settlement, the Christie administration agreed with that position, which drew criticism from local officials, nearby residents and environmentalists. The DEP began issuing permits for the project in January 2015, which prompted the suit by the Highlands Coalition and the Sierra Club.

“We are disappointed and troubled in the court’s decision to side with the DEP and Bi-County,” said Jeff Tittel with the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We believe the court rubberstamped Governor Christie’s sellout of our drinking water and the Highlands to developers. The court tends to defer to state agencies in permitting issues. In this case, they were wrong.

“This could not only destroy an environmentally sensitive mountain in the Highlands, but also put the drinking water for two million people at risk,” he said.

Jeff Tittel and the NJ Sierra Club sued the state DEP to block permits for a controversial development on High Mountain in Oakland.

Aaron Cela, a land preservation specialist with The Land Conservancy of New Jersey, said that an effort is still ongoing by the borough of Oakland and several conservation groups to secure funding to buy the property from Bi-County and preserve it. But so far the borough has not secured enough funding.

One funding source could be a $4.75 million grant application which the Land Conservancy, acting as the borough’s open space consultant, submitted in 2015 to the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund. But Cela said the borough has never received a definitive yes or no answer on its application.

Cela has estimated the property, dubbed the "High Mountain extension," is worth about $8 million. Its preservation would help link the nearby Lt. Carey A. Arthur Memorial Park with the 1,200-acre High Mountain Park Preserve in neighboring Wayne.

Besides the Bergen County grant, the Conservancy plans to use $1.75 million in state Green Acres money, as well as other state funding and private donations.

“The conservancy is not in the business of actively buying land to stop development, but preserving land worth preserving,” Cela said. “This beautiful property should be preserved.”