Town Condemns Large Portion Of Property For Development
There was bad news Wednesday for a family fighting to save its
private airport from condemnation by a New Jersey town.
Solberg Airport has deep aviation routes. In 1935, Thor Solberg
completed the first flight from the US to his native Norway. Four
years later, he opened Solberg Airport Readington, NJ. He raised
his kids there and put them through Readington schools.
His son, Thor Jr., went on to Princeton University and became a
777 captain for United. Since Thor Sr., died in 1967, Thor Jr. has
run the airport and FBO. In the intervening years, he's been joined
in the family business by his sisters, Lorraine Solberg and Suzy
Solberg Nagle.
The airport hosts a variety of community events each year, and
had peacefully coexisted with the town for decades. But in the
mid-1990s, the Readington Township Board voted to site a new school
in a legally mandated runway safety zone, and the political clouds
began gathering. When the Solbergs attempted to draft a new master
plan calling for airport improvements, the storm hit.
Former Mayor Julia Allen set about to condemn the airport, an
initiative which the town is still pushing today. As is often the
case in NIMBY battles, protestors have frightened nearby residents
with wildly exaggerated tactics. In the case of the Solberg
Airport, picketers carried signs which said, "Stop the 747s,"
implying that runway improvements would lead to jumbo jets flying
in and out of the small, rural community.
The town did ultimately condemn 624 of the airport's 726 acres
in 2006, and seize development rights to the remainder, saying it
wants to preserve the land as a greenspace. The Solbergs counter
that if that was the real goal of the politicians, leaving the
airport as-is would provide a greenspace at no taxpayer expense,
and in fact continue the airport's contribution to the town's tax
base.
The family challenged the condemnation, but on Wednesday
Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone ruled that the Solbergs had
not adequately proven their case that the town was taking the land
just to prevent airport expansion. The judge ordered an appraisal
process to start, with a report to be delivered by May 19.
The Solbergs, and their attorney, Laurence Orloff, told the Star
Ledger newspaper they had not yet had time to study the ruling.
They'll have until early March to file an appeal.