Up to top
Township: No record of revenue estimate for WW Warehouses
In campaign literature, and elsewhere, elected officials of West Windsor Township, New Jersey have claimed that the construction of numerous warehouses on land owned by Atlantic Realty will result in increased property tax revenue of $15 million. This figure includes the combined levy for County and School as well as Municipal.
Records of estimation process requested
On October 14, 2021, a private citizen of New Jersey submitted public records request #2021-705 to West Windsor Township, asking the Township to provide whatever records it had on file reflecting any analysis, estimate or methodology that would arrive at such an estimate, which is presumed to have informed a major decision by the Township to allow Atlantic Realty's tenants to build the warehouses. The identity of the requestor is omitted here as it is considered irrelevant, and also in order to discourage retaliation by Township officials and their political supporters for the exercise of his or her rights under the open records laws. The exact request was for:
Reports, analyses, correspondence, Emails, exhibits, both printed an digital form, dated January 1, 2021 through October 13, 2021, with estimates and methods of valuation for tax assessment or estimate of future tax revenue, for parcels in West Windsor tax Blocks 8, 15.14, 22, and 23:
Block 8: The 16 Lots: 1, 2, 2QFARM, 3, 12, 16, 20, 28, 32.01, 39, 40, 41, 45, 47, 46, 49
Block 15.14: The 9 Lots: 18, 18QFARM, 19, 19QFARM, 20, 20QFARM, 22, 22QFARM, 75
Block 22: The single lot: 5
Block 23: The single lot: 5
The lots referred above are those owned by Atlantic Realty at Clarksville and Quakerbridge Roads, and on CR-571, where warehouses have been proposed to be built.
Township responds: no records exist
On October 22, 2021, West Windsor Township responded to the request with a 12-page set of documents containing records of existing taxation on the property, but no record at all of any exercise by the Township to estimate future revenue related to the proposed warehouse developments. While information about current taxation, unrelated and non-responsive to the request was included, the Township advised:
We also sent this to the Tax Collector who has advised us that their office has no information in regards to estimates and methods of valuation of tax assessments or estimate of future tax revenue for the request Block and Lots.
It is therefore reasonably concluded that no estimation of expected revenue from the project was done by West Windsor Township before agreeing with Atlantic Realty to go forward with it.
DISCLAIMER: This is not a government web site,
and while every effort has been made to ensure completeness and accuracy, is to
be used at the user's own risk.