Site of project claimed to be old burial grounds
Plans call for 18-unit townhouse complex to be built on Wall Street
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH - Borough residents protested the council entering into a developers agreement, stating concerns that the Wall Street location for the project is a historic burial ground.

The West Long Branch Borough Council entered into a developer's agreement with Martin McDonald Development Group LLC at the Feb. 6 municipal meeting.

The developer plans to construct an 18-unit age-restricted townhouse project, called the Larchwood Townhouses, on 1.96 acres on a Wall Street site believed to contain human remains.

"I guess if bones do come up, we will put them in the dumpster," said Locust Avenue resident Mary Lynch, who is opposed to the project pending further investigation into the burial grounds claim.

"I remember in Fair Haven, there was the possibility of an African American burial ground on a man's private property where he wanted to put an addition [on his house]," Lynch said.

"They went on with all kinds of testing and research before they decided whether or not [to allow him to build], and here we are saying, 'There's the dumpster. Put the bones in there,' " she said.

The developer must still be awarded various construction permits before construction on the project can start, according to Arnold Levin, attorney for the developer.

The site of the project has been vacant for decades, and borough resident and avid cemetery researcher Arthur Green said he believes the site to be a borough family's burial ground.

After hearing the concerns from borough residents, council agreed to discuss with Borough Engineer Edward Broberg about supervising the excavation of the site.

Broberg said that if the developer finds any historical remains during the construction of the project, they will be trusted to take the appropriate steps to report it.

Levin said that should any human remains be found, the applicant will take all reasonable steps to properly recover them.

"The people who would watch [the site during the development], would they have to be experienced in this, or are you just talking about volunteers?" Councilwoman Barbara Ruane asked.

Councilman Steven Cioffireplied, "You are going to need an expert."

"Someone is going to have to be there when the first shovel goes into the ground," council President Joe Woolley said at the meeting.

"The biggest problem Mr. Green has is that he doesn't have any real evidence [that the site is a burial ground]," Woolley said. "He is frustrated with that, but when dealing with history, a lot of it is hearsay."

The applicant appeared before the borough Zoning Board in 2006 and 2007 for approval to construct the project at the Wall Street site. During the hearings, an investigation was conducted to

determine the relevancy of the claims that the site is a burial

ground.

West Long Branch Zoning Board Chairman

John Aria said

the applicant was

seeking use and bulk

variances from the

board to continue with the project.

"As far as the burial ground goes, they would not have gotten approval if there was a burial ground, and no one was able to provide any evidence as such," Aria said.

"All of this was raised in front of the Board of Adjustment, and it was considered at length and it had all been resolved beforehand," Levin said.

"If you have a home and you dig up your backyard and you find bones, there is a procedure as to what you would do," Levin continued. "There is nothing to indicate in any of the [borough] records that this was a cemetery or burial ground. There are homes built all around [the site].

"If there were to be any evidence of bones, of course the developer would act properly. Theoretically this could be raised at any application," Levin said.

Lynch said the Zoning Board had "zero interest" in looking into whether the site was a burial ground before granting approval for the project.

She told council at the meeting that the Zoning Board required research on the site be done going back 60 years.

Woolley said the undeveloped site was most likely a family-owned farm at some time.

"What happened was when the sewers went in [around the area], that plot was used for the spoils of excavation," Woolley said. "People used it as a dump, and anything that was originally on the surface was covered up.

"In [the 1800s], a grave was primarily marked with stones or a wood cross, and as we all know, with the elements, things decay.

"But the fact still remains, according to hearsay evidence, there could be an old residential family burial ground at the site," Woolley said.

Woolley said that a lot of information and stories about the site is "hearsay."

"You are going back to old times, and that was what Arthur Green was trying to portray to the Zoning Board when the issue first came up," Woolley said. "If we have an agreement going through here, I just want to make sure that it doesn't get forgotten.

"We should investigate the possibility of having a third party to participate in the excavation," Woolley said.