Proceeds With Ordinance To Condemn Solberg Airport Property Despite Overwhelming Opposition

On Wednesday, Nov. 6, a crowd of about 500 residents and airport supporters attended a meeting of the Readington (NJ) Township Committee continued from the previous Monday held for the purpose of allowing public comment and Committee deliberation on an ordinance concerning embattled Solberg Airport. This was the second reading of a measure which would authorize the Township to proceed with condemnation of the airport.

According to an ANN reader who attended the meeting, during 3 1/2 hours of generally civil public comment, a clear majority of attendees who addressed the Committee were residents of the municipality with standing as taxpayers. Every one of the 50 speakers who spoke in the public comment period were opposed to the Committee's continued efforts to condemn the airport.  Most expressed the sentiment that the public officials should "leave the airport alone."  Others spoke to the continuing tax burden that airport ownership would impose, the complete lack of experience of the Committee in operating an airport, and the loss of tax revenue from the property should the property pass into public ownership.

This has been a long battle, stretching back nearly twenty years.  The Committee members said they are concerned that the privately owned, public use airport which the Solberg family has owned since 1939 would be sold for development.  To date, the town has spent over $5,000,000 in taxpayer funds on legal expenses and bond interest in their efforts to limit any improvement of the airport or development of the property.

The town residents passed a $22,000,000 bond issue in 2006 which was to be used for "open space acquisition."  At the time the bond measure was proposed, the town hired a public relations firm that plastered the town with lawn signs decrying conversion of the airport to a regional air carrier service facility.  The familiar graphic was a red circle around the outline of a 747 with a line through it.

Many residents also spoke to that taxpayer funded deception which frightened many residents to vote in favor of the bond ordinance.

Perhaps the best public comment was a suggestion that the town purchase a right of first refusal from the Solberg family which would give the town some control over any future development of the property while allowing the owners to continue operating without any loss of their rights.

After the period of public comment was closed, the Committee members made statements for the record.  The ordinance to proceed with condemnation was moved and given second. It passed by a 4 to 1 vote.

Mayor Julia Allen said at the initial meeting Monday that the purpose of the ordinance was to preserve the airport as an aviation facility, but NJ.com reports that the Solberg family, which has owned the property and operated the airport for generations, said in written statement that the township "has no sincere desire to 'save' the airport, and anybody who has lived in Readington for these past 13 years knows that."

FMI: www.readingtontwp.org/Twp_committee.html, www.solbergairport.com/eminentdomain/story/story.html