By Stuart Lieberman | Published October 24, 2017 | Posted in Environmental Issues, Redevelopment | Leave a comment
Real estate transactions involving commercial and residential properties frequently employ the use of escrow agreements to address potential environmental issues. This practice is widespread in New Jersey and it permits properties that may have environmental issues to go to closing without first accomplishing a cleanup. This practice is good for the buyer, good for the Read More
Read MoreEffective September 18, 2017, new soil remediation standards govern the cleanup of contaminated sites in New Jersey. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“NJDEP”) recently updated remedial standards for nineteen contaminants based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s revisions to carcinogenic slope factor and non-carcinogenic reference dose data in its Integrated Risk Information Read More
Read MoreThe Supreme Court in Griepenburg v. Ocean Township, 220 N.J. 239 (2015), considered the circumstances under which municipal zoning ordinances represent a legitimate exercise of a municipality’s power to zone property consistent with its Master Plan and the Municipal Land Use Law (“MLUL”) goals. In the late 1990s, Ocean Township, which is bordered by the Read More
Read MoreFamily Seeks to Preserve Pinelands, Property A Township of Medford family filed suit on February 23, 2015 in the Burlington County Superior Court, alleging their neighbors engaged in the improper clearcutting of 11,000 square feet of native vegetation and trees in the protected Pinelands area of New Jersey. According to the lawsuit, filed by Plaintiffs Read More
Read MoreWhat does a governing body do when a municipality’s planning board recommends changes to its master plan? Does the council have to adopt the changes to the municipal ordinance? Can the council reject the recommendations? Or can it simply ignore the planning board altogether? On January 16, 2015, the Appellate Division’s opinion in in Myers Read More
Read MoreThe New Jersey Legislature is considering a bill (S-570) which would result in companies paying more to develop building on public land. The bill proposes that proposed projects on preserved land in the state would be assessed for how much revenue that project would generate. The proposal is intended to help balance the value to Read More
Read MoreThe New Jersey Appellate Division recently upheld a decision by Franklin Township, New Jersey to ban digital billboards along a stretch of Interstate 287, while allowing static billboards to be implemented. The Appellate Division determined that no violation of the First Amendment took place as part of the ban, with Judge Marianne Espinosa stating that Read More
Read MoreAfter New Jersey Transit used its power of condemnation to take fourteen acres of vacant land in North Bergen from a private landowner (Mori), a valuation proceeding followed. The case, New Jersey Transit v. Mori, focused on one of fourteen acres that contained wetlands regulated by the federal government (US Army Corp of Engineers or Read More
Read MoreThe New Jersey Law Division dismissed in March 2014 the complaint of Pavilion Homeowners Assn. v. Brick Twp. Planning Board, Law Div. (Ocean County) (Grasso, A.J.S.C.) (10 pp.), regarding a proposal to construct a Roy Rogers restaurant in the Township. The Court was faced with deciding whether or not the defendant’s notice to nearby owners Read More
Read MoreA state appeals court reversed the dismissal of a regulatory takings law suit on April 17th in the case of LH Wagner Realty Corp and Leo H Wagner v. the DEP, Docket Number A-3441-12T4. The procedural history of the case is a bit confusing, but the essence of it concerns the effect of a state Read More
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