Uncle v. N. JERSEY PINELANDS COMMISSION

645 A.2d 788, 275 N.J. Super. 82
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJuly 19, 1994
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 645 A.2d 788 (Uncle v. N. JERSEY PINELANDS COMMISSION) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Uncle v. N. JERSEY PINELANDS COMMISSION, 645 A.2d 788, 275 N.J. Super. 82 (N.J. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

275 N.J. Super. 82 (1994)
645 A.2d 788

FRANCIS UNCLE AND FRED VAHLSING, III, PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS,
v.
NEW JERSEY PINELANDS COMMISSION, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Submitted May 24, 1994.
Decided July 19, 1994.

*84 Before Judges BRODY, STERN and KEEFE.

Malsbury, Armenante & Podraza, attorneys for appellants (Sharon M. Podraza, on the brief; Frank P. Armenante, on the reply brief).

Deborah T. Poritz, Attorney General, attorney for respondent (Mary C. Jacobson, Asst. Attorney General, of counsel; Rachel Horowitz, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

The opinion of the court was delivered by BRODY, P.J.A.D.

This appeal challenges a Pinelands Commission (Commission) regulation, adopted pursuant to the Pinelands Protection Act (Act), N.J.S.A. 13:18A-1 to -29, that prevents plaintiff Frances Uncle (plaintiff) from using her property for the extraction of sand and gravel. The regulation has that effect because she had failed to register the use as nonconforming by January 21, 1981, and therefore under the regulation it could not be continued as a preexisting nonconforming use. Plaintiff has contracted to sell the property to plaintiff Fred Vahlsing, III, subject to the condition that it may be used for extracting sand and gravel. The matter was transferred to this court by the Chancery Division after a factual record was developed, through stipulations and findings, so that we may perform our function of reviewing the validity of the regulation. We sustain the regulation.

The property, located in Pemberton Township, is 110 acres of undeveloped land in the Preservation Area of the Pinelands, an area of the Pinelands singled out in the Act for preservation in its natural state. N.J.S.A. 13:18A-9c. Plaintiff inherited the property in 1978 from her mother. Her father had owned it since 1944. It passed to her mother when he died. Until December 1979, the *85 family used the property for extracting sand and gravel. Operation of the business was passive. Customers extracted for themselves what they wanted by whatever manner they chose. In time the operation came under increasing governmental regulation and control, which plaintiff and her family ignored, leading to its closure in 1979.

In order to make up for the lost income, plaintiff applied for and received a forestry permit from the Commission, which enabled her to obtain a lower farmland assessment from Pemberton in 1984. The permit described the property as having "an abandoned gravel pit," the remainder being wooded with pine oak. In 1987, plaintiff entered into the contract of sale to Vahlsing who wants to resume using the property for sand and gravel extraction.

A 1973 amendment to Pemberton's zoning ordinance changed the property's permitted uses from industrial to residential. In 1975 Pemberton extended its ordinance regulating strip mining to include sand and gravel operations. Four years later Pemberton closed down the operation for noncompliance with its strip-mining ordinance.

In 1988, after plaintiff had entered into the contract of sale, she obtained a resolution from the Pemberton Zoning Board of Adjustment declaring that for zoning purposes the extraction operation was a protected pre-existing nonconforming use. The resolution made clear, however, that it gave no protection against having to comply with governmental regulations concerning the operation:

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Zoning Board of Adjustment of the Township of Pemberton that applicant be granted an interpretation that the dirt/gravel mining operation is a pre-existing use which may continue subject to all applicable Municipal and State licensing procedures. The interpretation set forth in this Resolution shall not be deemed to grant or waive any permits required to be obtained or site plan approval procedures necessary in connection with the mining operation.

The trial judge found as uncontroverted facts that plaintiff and her parents not only had failed to comply with the strip-mining *86 ordinance but also failed to comply with statutes and State regulations governing the extraction operation:

(1) Plaintiff Uncle never registered as required the operation with the Commissioner of Labor and Industry pursuant to the Mine Safety Act, N.J.S.A. 34:6-98.1 et seq., specifically N.J.S.A. 34:6-98.4(h).
(2) Plaintiff Uncle never reported as required the operations to the Commissioner pursuant to N.J.S.A. 34:6-98.6(c).
(3) Plaintiff Uncle never obtained approval as required for the mining operation pursuant to the Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Act, N.J.S.A. 4:24-39 et seq.
(4) Plaintiff Uncle never registered as required the mining operation with defendant pursuant to the CMP [Comprehensive Management Plan] requirements.[[1]]

The regulation plaintiff challenges, N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.63, is part of the most recent revision of the Comprehensive Management Plan for the Pinelands that the Act required the Commission to adopt and periodically revise. N.J.S.A. 13:18A-8. Its current form was adopted November 2, 1987 and reads:

(a) Except as expressly authorized in this Plan, the extraction or mining of mineral resources other than sand, gravel, clay and ilmenite is prohibited.
(b) No resource extraction operations shall be permitted in the Preservation Area District or Special Agricultural Production Areas other than those operations which were registered with the Pinelands Commission on or before January 21, 1981[[2]] and received all necessary development permits for resource extraction on or before December 31, 1985. In such cases, the area of extraction is limited to the value given under the category "acreage to be mined" on the mine registration application submitted to the Department of Labor and Industry as of February 7, 1979, or that area approved by a valid municipal permit as of February 7, 1979 in *87 the case of an operation exempted from registration with the Department of Labor and Industry.

As the parties stipulated, registration with the Commission had two purposes. A registrant had to submit a copy of its permit from the Department of Labor and Industry or, if it was exempt from the provisions of the Mine Safety Act, from the municipality. This provided assurance that the grandfather clause would not perpetuate an unlicensed extraction operation. Registration served another purpose. As the parties also stipulated:

The requirement for registration with the Pinelands Commission was to enable the Commission to determine the number of resource extraction sites that could potentially be approved in the Preservation Area so the Commission could determine if any changes in its regulatory or acquisition programs were appropriate prior to approving all the sites which had registered.
* * * * * * * *
Following its receipt of resource extraction registrations the Commission decided that the number of operations existing on February 8, 1979 was roughly as the Commission had estimated and, therefore, that no changes in regulatory or acquisitional programs were appropriate.

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