Clear Cutting Hearing Continued at Rumson Planning Board Meeting

Tensions were raised at Monday night's Planning Board meeting as the board came closer to resolving the clear cutting case on 35 Navesink Avenue.

The hearing was a continuation of the where Rick Jones and Cindy Zipf, along with their lawyer Andrew Provence, first presented their case. Jones and Zipf are appealing the actions of town officials which they feel led to clear cutting on .

At the August 1st meeting, the construction developer of 35 Navesink did not attend. The board felt that his attendance and testimony is vital to the case, so they extended the hearing to Monday night's meeting. Petcon developer John Segaris was in attendance Monday night.

Monday night's meeting began with new evidence provided by Jones and Provence. According to Jones, his property has suffered severe flooding as a result of the tree removals at 35 Navesink (see Youtube videos to the right of this article). This flooding, according to Jones, resulted in the loss of vegetation on his property. Jones and Provence provided the board photos of flooded areas on Jones's property and demonstrated the severity of the situation.

"I have a great deal of concern for the future of my property," Jones said during his testimony. "I am concerned that our property will continue to bear storm water due to the removed trees."

Mark Aikins, John Segaris's lawyer, questioned Jones about weather or not he was aware that Petcon had made plans to correct the drainage issues. According to Aikins, there are wells in place on the property that are designed for drainage and recharging water. However, these wells won't be active until after the construction is complete.

John Segaris was called to testify, and he was questioned by Provence and the Planning Board. Provence asked Segaris questions about the accuracy of the tree removal permit, the number of trees that were removed and the accuracy of the construction plan.

According to Segaris, the construction plan was revised. "The plan was ultimately changed because so much soil had to be removed," Segaris said. "An additional plan was created with a revised area of disturbance."

The Board members asked Segaris many questions about his decisions to remove so many trees from 35 Navesink Avenue. According to Segaris, he did the best he could and his decisions were supervised by town officials. "We saved all the good trees on the property that we could," Segaris said. "It's a judgement call and Doug Spenser and Fred Andre overlooked the trees that we considered taking down."

Also at the meeting was Steve Becker, the tree expert who's name appears one the tree removal permit. According to Becker, the trees on 35 Navesink were second growth and their lives were maxed out. "Many of the trees were not planted and grew due to lack of maintenance to the property," Becker said during his testimony.

Concerned citizens were given the opportunity to ask questions and make statements throughout the hearing. At the end of the meeting, Mary Beth Thompson read a letter that she wrote to the Planning Board. In her letter, she thanked the board for all the hard work that they do and said that she understands how hard their job can be. "I hope that the Board will make the right decision and hold people responsible for their actions," Thompson said.

Rick Jones said he was happy with the way meeting went. "I thought the Planning Board let everyone say what they had to say and they were truly trying to understand everyone's side of the issue," Jones said. "I am very happy with the way the meeting was carried out."

With all the different testimonies, evidence, statements and questions, the meeting ran well past 10p.m. Due to the late hour, the Board decided to push hearing back again until October 3rd at 7:30p.m. Before that meeting, Petcon has agreed to submit a plan to the board for review and their engineer will contact the Board to discuss drainage solutions.