Residents of a new housing development in Edison have filed
a lawsuit after the township began digging up neighboring
woods to build fields for a youth football league.
In the lawsuit, filed Friday in Superior Court in New Brunswick,
members of the Winding Brook Residents Association say they
were told when purchasing their homes that the wooded area
would remain as open space.
Instead, as some residents were moving into their homes,
bulldozers began clearing the site to provide fields for the
Shamrocks Youth Football League, which draws from the North
Edison area.
The siting and construction of a field for the Shamrocks has
been an issue before the Edison Township Council for several
years. Last month, when the residents asked Mayor George Spadoro
to intervene to stop the removal of trees, he described the
construction as "probably the most open decision we've
made."
But the suit, filed by attorney Stuart Lieberman of Princeton,
said the "use of public funds for private club purposes
violates state law and also the state Green Acres program."
The lawsuit also contends there are wetlands on the property
that provide a habitat for the wood turtle, a threatened species
in New Jersey.
Edison officials did not respond to requests for comment
on Friday, but have said previously that the township followed
the law in deciding where to put the football fields and awarding
contracts for them.
Spadoro said there appears to be a separate issue of whether
residents moving into the development were fully informed
of the pending field construction before they bought their
homes.
Joe Tyrrell covers Edison. He can be reached at jtyrrell@starledger.com
or at (732) 634-6482.
Copyright 2002 The Star-Ledger. |
