Haelig: Dover Township Taxpayers Face $30-$40 Million Overdevelopment Tax Increase From Officials Who Botched Affordable Housing And Excessive Development Problems

Brett Schundler, 2001 GOP Candidate For Governor Who Wanted To Repeal Mt. Laurel And Cure Affordable Housing Disaster, Looks Better And Better In Dover Township • • •

• • • While Whitman, Clement, Holzapfel And DiFrancesco, After Hatchet Job On Schundler In 2001, Look Worse And Worse

McGreevey Announces Program To Fight Sprawl And Declares Overdevelopment “The Greatest Threat To Our Quality Of Life, Saying Mayors Should Have The Power To Ban New Construction For A Year

Dover Township - Former Assemblyman Robert K. Haelig Jr. told the Dover Township Committee yesterday they should “find an immediate way to invoke Governor Jim McGreevey’s proposed program to empower New Jersey Mayors to ban all construction in their communities for a year”.

Haelig is the author of a plan to combine funds from the township, the municipal utilities authority and the school system to purchase enough open space “to stop excessive development by taking some of the developers’ raw materials off the table.”

Haelig, a long time Dover Utilities Authority commissioner, says a “major segment of a projected $30-$40 million overdevelopment tax increase can still be averted” if the town fights excessive development and affordable housing mandates that threaten to overwhelm the school system and the infrastructure.

“We Have An Overdevelopment Emergency In Our Community”

“We have an overdevelopment emergency in our community that has existed for at least four years but, because of a perverted profit motive, the leadership of both parties has looked the other way while the developers run wild”, Haelig said.

“The Governor is very late in coming to the conclusion he reached yesterday” in his State of the State address, Haelig said, “but at least he has finally recognized a serious problem exists, and he deserves credit for that”.

Haelig: “Whitman Left The State In A Shambles”

For more than two years, Haelig has blamed former Republican Governor Christie Whitman and former GOP Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco for “playing to the cheap seats in urban areas” and ignoring suburban communities throughout the state while the overdevelopment problem continued to grow worse.

Haelig Plan Was Approved, Then Ditched
Two Years Ago By GOP Bosses

The proposal, which could prevent a large part of a big tax increase that is sure to come if overdevelopment continues, has been pushed for the last two years by Haelig.

The issue of overdevelopment was a major issue in the platform of former GOP Gubernatorial candidate Brett Schundler whose gubernatorial campaign was sabotaged by Whitman and DiFrancesco and the Dover Township Republican leadership in 2001.

The smear campaign against Schundler had huge implications for Dover Township because Schundler’s policies, which included repeal of Mt. Laurel, would have allowed a decent defense against the rampant overdevelopment caused by bad local development decisions.

Plan To Fight Overdevelopment Was Approved,
Then Ditched By GOP Leadership

Haelig’s plan to fight overdevelopment was originally approved by every Republican “leader” in Dover Township including Boss R. C. Clement, former “Mayor” J. Mark Mutter and Assemblyman James Holzapfel, but the GOP support was withdrawn after pressure from developers who noted the proposal could cut into their development profits.

McGreevey, whose policies favoring excessive development were previously identical with those of Whitman and DiFrancesco, “has obviously undergone a massive ideological conversion”, Haelig said.

Dover Township faces a tax increase that could reach $40 Million annually because of coziness of the local GOP with developers favored by the development-friendly Planning Board.

Haelig said the township committee should find a way to invoke an immediate building moratorium based on McGreevey’s charge to the legislature.  1/15/03

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