Stafford group fights for off-road vehicle park
By MIKE JACCARINO Staff Writer, (609) 978-2010

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP - Why would a dozen guys from Stafford with no prior development experience think they could compete with large-scale companies for the right to develop the township business park? The group, known as Stafford Township Area Riders, or STAR, has one answer: There is a desperate need for an off-road vehicle park in southern Ocean County.

This year, STAR submitted a little-known, not-often-spoken-of third proposal to develop the Business Park, the sprawling 220-acre site on the western portion of town that officials think is the golden goose for the town's future. Much attention was given to the two other proposals, one by a national firm, Benderson Development and the other, local developer Walters Homes.

STAR's plan was to construct an off-road vehicle park on the site, filling what members said is a large need. Currently, the New Jersey Off Road Vehicle Park in Chatsworth along with Ready-to-Ride, a small park in Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County, are perhaps the only two sanctioned ORV parks in the state.

Both places, local riders complain, are often crowded, and so they take to the numerous dirt paths that wend through the Pinelands - illegally. "There's just too many people," said Keith Flynn, a 35-year-old Ocean Acres resident and member of STAR's board of directors. "It's dangerous."

Last month, The Business Park Commission recognized Walters as its "preferred developer," and instructed municipal officials to draw up a contract with the firm that most likely will be signed at the March 23 meeting.

Once completed, officials expect the site to create 500 jobs and generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 million in annual taxes, an amount roughly equal to about one-tenth of last year's total municipal budget. Benderson Development boasts to be the largest privately owned development firm in the nation, and Walters Group is as big as southern Ocean County gets.

Despite such odds, STAR meant business. Once the town voided its contract with Stafford Resort Developers, the firm which held the sole right to develop the business park since 1998, last spring, the group quickly assembled. Every Thursday night, as many as 15 people - and never fewer than 10 - met at the Southern Ocean Cycle Center on Route 9 to plot strategy.

The group's members hail from a variety of economic backgrounds. Some are in sales, one is a doctor, and a few are construction workers. Yet according to Flynn and Robert Lalonde, also a member of STAR's board, they all shared two things in common. Everyone was from Stafford, and everyone wanted desperately to see the construction of an ORV park somewhere in the area.

In part, the problem is a product of the immense development experienced in southern Ocean County, where ORV riders once kicked up dirt with abandon without concern for nearby homes and businesses. It was easy, since there simply weren't any after trekking far enough off Route 9.

Now, authorities, pressured by residents' complaints over ORV riding, cite riders, including Lalonde, who received a ticket from a state Fish and Wildlife officer last year while sitting on the side of Route 72 with son Joey, both their vehicles out of gas and "mom," Marie, on the way.

In the end, township Administrator Paul Shives told Keith Flynn that the ORV facility was not what the township had in mind for the business park. Still, the effort was not without success. In all, the group assembled a petition supporting the construction of an ORV facility at the business park with 1,500 signatures, all of which, they said, were from Stafford residents.

In the summer, the governing body passed a resolution urging Ocean County to construct an ORV facility somewhere - but not in the business park. The formal motion was made after STAR made several visits, including a May appearance where 30 supporters attended, at committee meetings. And, as Flynn and Lalonde note, the recognition of Walters does not mean the end of their fight.

"We're not giving up until the first house is built," said Flynn. "We'll keep petitioning. We have a groundswell of support." The task will not be easy, with the big business names - and big money - involved in the park's development. Yet, as Flynn noted, that didn't stop them the first time around. Why would it now?

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...04PARK_13.html

 

Keep up the fight. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]