Monroe, NJ. Residents Sue to Block Wal-Mart

Monroe residents sue to block OK of Wal-Mart [Gloucester County Times (N.J.)]

Three township residents are trying to fight the development of a super-sized Wal-Mart in town, and have filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against the planning board and the developer.

The residents Phyllis Gibson, Michael Poponi, and Joseph Rumpf claim that the township planning board was biased when it granted final site plan approvals for the project, and gave Penn Real Estate Group waivers on some of the local land use ordinances.

The lawsuit, filed in Woodbury, alleges the planning board committed procedural errors during the January hearings, such as not allowing a cross-examination of the professionals and permitting an off-the record conversation to occur between some board members and their professionals.

The residents say they were denied their rights to due process because of this.

Penn Real Estate Group, of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., was granted approval in January to build a 200,000-square-foot retail Wal-Mart, as well as two other free-standing buildings one for a bank and another for a separate retail strip mall.

The project is slated for the corner of the Black Horse Pike and Malaga Road.

Mayor Michael Gabbianelli, who supports the project because it will bring 400 jobs and about $450,000 in taxes to town, said he hopes the lawsuit can go to court quickly so a judge can rule in the township’s favor.

I want to go to court tomorrow, because by the second meeting, all the changes the residents asked for were made and the residents got up at the end and said, Thank you, Wal-Mart,’” Gabbianelli said. “The waivers were minor waivers. What they did for the residents was more important as far as making them happy.”

But, according to the lawsuit, not everyone is happy.

Gibson, Poponi and Rumpf, who live on Malaga Road, South Main Street and New Brooklyn Road, respectively, are asking a judge to vacate the approvals and the waivers for Penn Real Estate Group.

The waivers excusing them from planning landscape buffers, or limits to the number of signs were granted by the planning board without “adequate proof” to give the relief, the lawsuit claims.

Certain members of the board, including Gabbianelli, were “biased and pre-disposed to granting the developer the relief it requested,” the lawsuit claims.

“We’ve been encouraging it since we met them five years ago,” Gabbianelli said. “It’s what the town needs, it’s the proper thing for the town and I hope we can go to court tomorrow.”

The attorney for the residents, Jeff Baron of Voorhees, did not return a request for comment.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, February 25, 2008

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