Says Township Was 'Deceptive' In Taking Of Solberg Airport Property

A New Jersey judge has ruled that Readington Township attempted to deceive and manipulate voters in 2006 in an effort to limit expansion and take control of Solberg Airport (N51), a family-run airfield west of Newark.

In 2006, voters approved borrowing $22 million for the "preservation" of lands around the airport by a 55-45 percent margin, according to a report appearing on www.nj.com. But the judge found that the township "engaged in an elaborate public agitation effort to incite voter opposition" to the airport, which led to an "opaque condemnation action." 

Under the voter-approved ballot measure, it was understood that township officials would negotiate with the Solberg family, but five months later, the Township Committee took the land by eminent domain. Judge Armstrong called that action "subversion" which "challenges the protections that sharply limit" such condemnations.

The ruling said that the Solbergs were able to show that the township had opposed expansion of the airport for decades.

The judge said that the township had hired a public relations firm specifically to raise concerns that the small, GA airport would become a jetport, and promote a "major not-in-my-back-yard" campaign to block runway expansion.

A post on the airport's website said that "the question that should be asked at this point is not what happened, but why it happened. Why were the Solbergs, who are lifelong residents of Readington and whose families intend to remain in Readington, subjected to the kind of treatment that here occurred for at least two decades and probably more? Why were the Solbergs, and all of the other taxpayers of Readington, put to the enormous expense that has saturated this matter for all of these years? The result of Judge Armstrong’s Decision is that Readington, in addition to the millions it has paid out to its own counsel, experts, and consultants over the years, will now be held responsible for such amounts as the Court determines to be due to the Solbergs under the law as a result of the Decision, which amounts will also likely be in the millions.

"None of this was necessary. It was the result of the myopic view that Solberg Airport was going to become another LaGuardia being drummed into the collective psyche of too many misled citizens."

FMI: Judge Armstrong's Ruling