Dear Editor:
This weekend, Mayor Barberio sent a letter to Intervale residents inexplicably criticizing my efforts to protect the neighborhood from a proposed Target, Whole Foods, strip mall, and large-scale housing project just 50 feet from our property lines. I, along with many other people, organized to push back against the egregious proposal while the Mayor’s administration openly supported it.
It should be noted that the Mayor never reached out to anyone who would have been directly impacted by the development; we had to reach out to him.
And while the Mayor did eventually accept my invitation to come to my house and meet with us, he sat in my living room espousing all of the reasons why we needed to accept the developer’s proposal as-is, not once making an effort to explore a compromise.
Mayor Barberio can claim all he wants that he tried to preserve Waterview. His words are one thing, but his actions were clearly another. For example, in his recent letter, Mr. Barberio asserted that if I really wanted to preserve Waterview, I should have proposed to him taking the property through eminent domain. Is he actually admitting that it would have been that easy and that he was waiting for someone else do that for him? If that is the case, then it is clear that Waterview’s demise was ostensibly his fault and his leadership ability was woefully apparent.
Mr. Barberio is taking credit for the preservation of 10+ acres that will serve as a buffer between the neighborhood and the development. Here is the truth: When Mr. Barberio couldn’t get his Council’s support and the project was initially defeated, then when the Freeholders rejected his anemic attempt to apply for open space funds, the developer’s attorney threatened to build 666 housing units only 50 feet from the neighbors’ property lines. Shortly thereafter, the developer called me and asked to speak with the citizen’s group to work out a compromise in lieu of the housing project. We met and spoke with the developer on several occasions, looking at various iterations of plans, topography maps, and traffic patterns to find a solution that we felt would be acceptable to the neighbors, while simultaneously protecting the neighborhood with what would ultimately become a 400-foot buffer. We painstakingly tried to preserve every possible square foot of land, and did that over a period of several weeks – without the Mayor.
In the Mayor’s letter, he also accused me of agreeing with the settlement proposal. Obviously, that is true. The Citizens For Health, Safety, and Welfare group and I eventually and reluctantly did. No one at that time, including council members, had a choice. However, Barberio didn’t write that I, and many other residents, spoke at multiple Council meetings and Planning Board meetings stating that it was our preference to have the township preserve the entire 26 acres. He didn’t write that given the COAH situation, we no longer saw full preservation as a viable option, so we ultimately agreed by default to what we thought was the best deal for the neighborhood. The mayor didn’t write that there was an entire group of residents that spent more than $50,000 hiring experts and lawyers to protect our interests because he couldn’t or wouldn’t do so.
Finally, the Mayor’s letter overtly accused me of having some sort of agenda in my efforts to preserve Waterview. If by working to keep a Target out of my back yard that meant I had an agenda, then I suppose he’s correct. If having the will to stand up for what I thought was best for my community meant I had an agenda, then again, I suppose I did.
I find it pathetic that Mayor Barberio would pick a fight with a citizen who is not running for any office and who undoubtedly did what anyone would have done faced with the same threat to his and his neighbors’ quality of life.
At the final Planning Board meeting, when the development was ultimately given the blessing to proceed, Mayor Barberio, on the record, thanked me for my efforts and stated that even though we disagreed, I handled everything in a classy way. What has changed since then? I guess he’s upset that his campaign sign isn’t in my yard – or in the overwhelming majority of the yards in Intervale. I, like many others, are supporting his opponent, Mr. Peluso. But after seeing Mayor Barberio’s character revealed as he desperately approaches the electoral finish line, I suppose I’m not surprised.
Good luck to all of the candidates and I applaud everyone for giving their time to run for public office.
David Kaplan
