Mount Laurel Township v. MiPro Homes, L.L.C.

910 A.2d 617, 188 N.J. 531, 2006 N.J. LEXIS 1767

• Court: Supreme Court of New Jersey
• Decided: December 7, 2006
• Status: Published

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

We affirm the holding of the Appellate Division for the reasons expressed by Judge Sldllman in his thoughtful and well-written opinion. We recognize, as did the panel below, that the citizens of New Jersey have expressed a strong and sustained public interest in the acquisition and preservation of open space. The Appellate Division points to the numerous statutes enacted in the 1960s and 70s, and even more recently in the 1990s, authorizing loans and grants to expand the State’s Green Acres Program. Most pertinent here, various of those statutes provide municipalities with the power of eminent domain to acquire land for recreation and conservation purposes. Mt. Laurel Twp. v. MiPro Homes, L.L.C., 379 N.J.Super. 358, 371-72, 878 A.2d 38 (App.Div.2005) (citing New Jersey’s Green Acres statutes, N.J.S.A. 13:8A-1 to -55, authorizing state and local governments to acquire land for recreation and conservation purposes). Even more telling, New Jersey residents have voted repeatedly for the issuance of state and county bonds to provide funding for open space acquisition.

That Mount Laurel Township sought to limit development, thereby to limit the overcrowded schools, traffic congestion and pollution that accompanies development, does not alter our disposition of this ease. The town’s motive is not inconsistent with the motive driving the public interest in open space acquisition generally. See N.J. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot., Smart Growth, at http://www. state.nj.us/dep/antisprawl/ (last modified Nov. 14, 2005) (stating that New Jersey is “the nation’s most densely populated state, and the most developed” and that “[i]ll-conceived land use and poorly designed development threatens our vital drinking-water supplies, devours our open space, spoils our landscape and creates traffic congestion that pollutes our air.”).

Finally, we note that on remand and the appointment of condemnation commissioners, the property will be valued at its fair market value, including value associated with MiPro’s final subdivision approval obtained twenty-two days before the filing of the declaration of taking. Cf. State ex rel. Commissioner of Trans. v. Caoili, 135 N.J. 252, 268, 639 A.2d 275 (1994) (stating that “potential subdivision is a highly material factor bearing on the optimum use of the property and its fair market value.”).