ELR Citation: ELR 20052
No(s). s. L 26438-70 et al (N.J. Super. Ct. Nov 15, 1971)

New Jersey statute authorizing New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to use state-owned tidelands in the Hackensack Meadowlands as the site for a sports complex does not violate the public trust in these lands and is not inconsistent with the provisions of New Jersey law that dedicate state-owned tidelands to the support of public education. The conveyance of the tidelands will promote a purpose—construction of a large sports complex—that the legislature has determined will be beneficial to the public, and adequate compensation for the lands is implicitly required by the statute. The statute is not inconsistent with any environmental rights of plaintiffs protected by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. The statute provides for administrative consideration of the environmental impact of the proposed sports complex and requires a balanced development of the meadowlands. Judicial evaluation of compliance with these requirements must await the Authority's actions that will affect the environment.

Counsel for Plaintiff
George F. Kugler Jr., Attorney General
Joseph M. Clayton Jr., Deputy Attorney General
Statehouse Annex
Trenton, NJ 08625

Counsel for Henry Cheval
Alfred A. Porro Jr.
10 Stuyvesant Avenue
Lyndhurst, NJ 07071

Counsel for Intervenors
Robert N. Wilentz
Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer
252 Madison
Perth Amboy, NJ 08861

Counsel for Defendant
T. Girard Wharton
50 West Main
Sommerville, NJ 08876