Morris presents plans for mobile home park

More mobile homes, strip mall proposed, but no plans submitted

BY COLLEEN LUTOLF

Staff Writer

Laurelton Mobile Home Park owner and prominent developer, Jack Morris, addressed his tenants last week for the first time since he purchased the park 19 months ago.

"There has been some questions and I'd like to come before the council tonight to clarify some of the rumors going around," said Morris, principal of Edgewood Properties, a Piscataway development firm, at the July 11 Brick Township Council caucus meeting.

Morris presented to the council, and the approximate 15 mobile home park residents in attendance, plans to expand the 9-acre mobile home park his firm, operating as JSM at Martin Blvd., LLC, purchased for $3.85 million in January 2005.

Morris and Edgewood Properties acquisitions manager John Muly presented a site map that detailed the proposed changes at July 11 meeting.

The property, which sits on the corner of Jack Martin Boulevard and Route 88, would be transformed from a 90-lot mobile home park with dirt roads and weekly exploding sewer pipes, into a 103-lot mobile home park.

Morris described an improved park with paved roads wide enough for emergency vehicle access, new sewer and water lines, open space with park benches, and a 21,600-square-foot retail space with parking that would front on Route 88.

Room for a car and up-to-code storage areas will be provided for each mobile home, Morris said.

He also offered to provide monetary assistance for mobile home upgrades for the park's residents.

Morris' presentation was interrupted by park residents, one of whom Morris said cursed at him.

"We must treat him with respect or I will ask him not to stand there and take abuse," council President Anthony Matthews said.

Matthews then got up and sat in the audience for the duration of Morris' presentation.

"I know people in here may not like what I'm here to say, but I'm here because I do care," Morris said at the untelevised caucus meeting. "I would've sent someone else here, but I came here because I care."

He said he wasn't proud of the current condition of his mobile home park and that it "needs a lot of work."

Residents' rocky relationship with Morris began in January when Edgewood Properties informed them their rents would increase by up to 40 percent in February.

The residents had received a letter in April 2005 stating sewer and water pipes and road paving "required immediate attention." They were further notified that their rents may increase to offset expenditures.

But the residents' rents increased without any of the promised remediation. They also received a 24-page lease that stated the new rules and regulations of the park. Residents responded by contacting the local media and attending council meetings regularly to demand help from town leaders.

Edgewood agreed to temporarily leave the rents flat, but the situation flared again during the described "cooling off period" when it was discovered that the park received recycled construction material from the demolished Ford Motor Co. site in Edison that contained elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) deemed unsafe by the state Department of Environmental Protection for residential use.

"I apologize to everybody if I came off the wrong way," Morris said at the meeting. "It might not have been handled the right way."

Councilman Stephen C. Acropolis asked Morris at the meeting if he would dedicate 15 to 20 percent of the 100-plus units as affordable housing, and requested Morris to hold off raising rents until after the first of the year.

"Would you consider, if you're going to raise the rents, to phasing in the increase over a multiyear period of time and working with the residents there?" he asked.

"The answer is: absolutely," replied Morris. "We want to work with the community. Despite what I hear, I didn't buy this to kick people out of their homes or turn it into something else. I bought it as an investment."

It wasn't until after Morris purchased the property that he found it needed a lot of work, he said.

"I'm willing to put money where my mouth is," Morris said.

Lee Cooper, a 21-year resident of the mobile home park is not so sure.

"He's a billionaire," Cooper said. "To him, that park is nothing. I'm starting to get very discouraged. It's getting to the point where I think I'm going to sell."

After Morris' presentation, Morris and Muly left town hall, taking their proposed site map with them. Morris refused to answer questions from reporters.

Morris did speak to Bonnye Spino, president of the park's home owners association, after the meeting.

Morris asked Spino to write him a letter listing the issues she has with the park. He said he would set up a meeting with her.

"I'm excited," Spino said. "I'm not excited because of what he said. I'm excited because he showed up. He knows we're not stopping."

Spino said Monday she sent her list over to Edgewood Properties.

"He's supposed to get back to me," she said. "I think the man knows we're not giving up. I'm trying to be positive. Maybe he's going to do something about it."

Spino said the tenants continue to deposit their monthly rents in a trust instead of sending them to Edgewood Properties, something they've been doing since the PCBs were found on the property.

A request for a copy of the proposed site plan from a spokesperson from Beckerman PR, the public relations firm on the Edgewood Properties payroll, was denied.

Site plans for Morris' proposed mobile home project have not yet been submitted to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, said board secretary Christine Papa last week.