Boro: Thumbs down on land sale near bridge Developer interested in county property off the South River BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer SAYREVILLE - Borough officials are opposing the potential sale of Middlesex County-owned property near the South River-Sayreville Bridge to a private developer. A buyer recently expressed interest in purchasing the 2.19-acre site located between Washington Road and the bridge. County officials said they are unlikely to make the sale in light of Sayreville's opposition. Middlesex County Freeholder Director David B. Crabiel directed County Administrator Walter A. De Angelo to inform Sayreville officials of the proposal and to solicit comments from local officials. The letter was carbon copied to Sayreville Tax Assessor Joseph J. Kupsch Jr., who responded with a letter to the council stating his interest in having the lot preserved as open space, since area fishermen, including himself, use the property to access the waterfront. "I personally use this area for crabbing and believe it would be a shame for this land to be sold to private interests who would most likely not allow such access," wrote Kupsch, who chairs the Sayreville Open Space Committee. De Angelo said that while the county has yet to make a formal decision, it is unlikely that it would sell the land in light of Sayreville's interest in preserving the lot. He said he told the developer that the county is not interested in selling or leasing the property. "As far as I am concerned, the matter is resolved," De Angelo said. There are no public facilities constructed for the purposes of recreation or fishing in that area, but the public's use of that section of the South River waterfront led Kupsch to voice his support of the county retaining the property as open space. Kupsch grew up in the area of the South River on MacArthur Avenue. He also lived in a house on Patton Drive that his daughter now owns. He moved from Sayreville with his wife in 2005 and currently resides in Perth Amboy, but he still visits the river. The interested buyer of the land, who the county did not name in its correspondence with the borough, was looking to turn the property into either a structured or surface parking area. The Borough Council unanimously approved a resolution recently to oppose the sale. Borough Councilwoman Kathy Makowski, liaison to the open space committee, told the Suburban that the waterfront area is one that the borough would like to see used for recreational purposes. "We want to focus on this and make sure that the land we do have gets preserved," Makowski said. The development of a historic gateway into Sayreville would not be desirable, Makowski said. The proposal to build a parking lot in that area indicates that there may be additional plans for the site in the future, she noted. "We want to do the right thing," Makowski said. "It is always a concern when you build a parking lot, what is the parking lot for?" A Stewart's restaurant operated on the land before the bridge was constructed in the mid-1970s, according to Kupsch. While it is possible that a developer would be interested in building a restaurant with a walkway out to the river, the more likely scenario is that between three and four houses would be built with a common river access, since the land is in an R-7 residential zone. However, a ditch and the slopes on the property will make development more difficult than it appears on the tax map, Kupsch said. It is possible that an extensive walkway will be built along the waterfront, since the county, the borough, and the Sayreville Economic Redevelopment Agency own pieces of property along the river in that area, Kupsch said. The county's open space plan includes a walkway that extends along the entire river from Jernee Mill Road all the way around to the Raritan River and the former National Lead site. "That is very ambitious," Kupsch said, "and there is a low probability [that it would get done], but certain areas of it could be."