Evesham sanctuary

B

bach2yoga

Guest
LANDOWNER SUES STATE, PINES PANEL AND DEP

Date: 040108
From: http://www.phillyburbs.com/

By Paul Leakan, Burlington County Times, January 7, 2004

Evesham - The primary owner of the remaining open land in the
Sanctuary housing enclave here has filed a new lawsuit against the
state Pinelands Commission, alleging it is abusing its regulatory
powers to stop development on the property, home to two types of
protected snakes.

Attorneys for Iva Samost of Berlin Township, Camden County, filed the
suit against the commission, the state of New Jersey and the state
Department of Environmental Protection in U.S. District Court in
Camden on Dec. 23.

The suit alleges that the commission and the DEP have misused their
powers to block, hinder and delay plans to build and sell homes in the
Sanctuary.

Samosts' attorneys could not be reached for comment yesterday
afternoon.

Fran Rapa, commission spokesman, declined to comment, referring all
questions to the state Attorney General's Office.

Neither the Attorney General's Office nor the DEP could be reached
for comment.

The Sanctuary is off Hopewell Road in the protected Pinelands, a 1.1
million-acre region that covers Burlington and six other counties in
South Jersey.

The Pinelands Commission, which oversees the reserve, first halted
construction at the 665-acre Sanctuary in 1998 after timber
rattlesnakes, which are classified as endangered, were discovered.

Samost, who had completed 103 homes by that time, sued the
commission, Evesham and the county in an attempt to overturn the
decision.

In November 2000, the commission reached a settlement with Samost,
allowing the developer to build another 144 homes.

In exchange, Samost agreed to sell more than 1,000 acres of land
owned by the developer in the Pinelands to the state and Evesham, and
to install fences and culverts designed to protect the rattlesnakes in
Sanctuary.

While the commission has allowed permits for some homes since then,
it put most building projects on hold again after northern pine
snakes, which are protected by the state, were discovered on the
property in October 2001.

Samost's latest lawsuit contends that the commission should have
known about the existence of the pine snakes long before a first
settlement was reached in 1993 providing more open space to protect
the habitat of endangered species.

Moreover, the suit alleges that the commission has reneged on the
1993 and 2000 settlements and is seeking to force another settlement -
this time regarding the pine snakes - in order to acquire more open
space and exact further "unjustified" concessions without paying
Samost or the site's developers just compensation.

The suit contends that the DEP is misusing its powers to interfere
with Samost and the site developer's plans to reconstruct a lake at
the Sanctuary.

The DEP has concerns about the presence of swamp pink plants, which
are protected by the state, and the Pine Barrens tree frogs on the
site. The tree frogs are considered a threatened species.

Samost is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as court
costs.
 
Top