"DELINQUENT & PAST DUE"

EnCap Holdings owes $265,917.86 in back taxes on 6 parcels of property while Cherokee North Arlington owes $1,868.63 on various Saw Mill lots!

NORTH ARLINGTON - According to a Tax Collector's notice in this week's Leader Newspapers, a sale of real property will be conducted by North Arlington on March 26th at 12 noon.

The said properties in question include parcels owned by Cherokee North Arlington LLC and EnCap Golf Holdings LLC, the developer currently in litigation with the municipality over the embattled Arlington Valley project which is opposed by just about every citizen in the borough.

According to the notice (click here to review), EnCap owes North Arlington nearly $270K in property taxes for 2007 while Cherokee North Arlington owes nearly $1,900.

According to the notice Morton Street Holdings, another potential development on the Belleville Pike is also delinquent to the sum of $17,384.90.

EnCap Golf Holdings has six different parcels on the notice while Cherokee North Arlington has five for a total of eleven delinquent locations all within the redevelopment zone under litigation. According to sources, the deposition process has begun and several EnCap executives will be deposed by Borough Attorney Anthony D'Elia. The same sources claim that Mayor Pete Massa and Council President Steve Tanelli were deposed last week by the DeCotiis law firm that represents the litigant, EnCap Holdings.

In a Record exclusive this week, Donald Trump announced plans to pitch and even larger housing development that includes 2 million square feet of retail space without an affordable housing component to state officials.

In the same article, Trump proclaimed that "if this new plan isn't approved, then we're going to build what is approved." That statement flies in the face of the so-called goodwill the project was going to take on in the wake of mass opposition by the people of Rutherford and North Arlington to the project.

Trump described the current agreement with North Arlington as "ironclad" without referencing or mentioning the litigation in process. While state officials have tried to temper the emotions that this project has created, Rutherford and North Arlington remain steadfast in opposition despite mounting political pressures outside of local government.

After Trump's proclamation of a new deal or construction of the old deal, State Senator Paul Sarlo called the potential new plan "outrageous" and sought to bring the stakeholders together for further consultation and input.

"Putting a gun to local government and saying it's my way or the highway does nothing to move the project forward. The problem is that nothing seems to change in terms of presentation and politics. It's a developer basically demanding and pronouncing the terms while the communities remain cautious and hostile to the plans because they've had no input," said one North Arlington resident after reading The Record story.

"This stinks. Who wants more housing? When does North Arlington get a chance to have any say in these plans? When do the people most effected by this project get a chance to speak? It's a replication of the arrogance of EnCap to simply dictate and the municipalities follow. Those days are long gone," said another frustrated homeowner.

"Mayor Massa can't back down from EnCap, Donald Trump or anyone else. These people seem to have no interest in what we want or think. These are small towns. These are suburban communities that want to remain suburban. When are these developers going to understand we don't want thousands of units of housing?" questioned Councilman Al Granell, long a proponent of overdevelopment and himself a target of eminent domain seizure.

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