During the September 14th Council Meeting, Ordinance 2026-1345 was introduced for first reading. The Ordinance is to acquire a portion of the Rustic Mall property for "developing new public facilities". For those unaware, "Rustic Mall" is the large area of vacant land behind South Main Street.

According to the Ordinance, which is set for a public hearing and Council vote at the September 28th Council Meeting, the Borough would like to purchase the land from the owner, or resort to property condemnation. The portion of the Rustic Mall property Manville is looking to acquire is slightly over 4 acres of the approximate 12-acre property and is located along the railroad track section. It does not include the "main" fenced off area of the property.

In reviewing the Ordinance, it appears this could be related to the Resilient Communities Grant, which we covered extensively here.

According to the Ordinance, this 4-acre plot of land appraised at $1,018,450. This appraisal was conducted by an appraisal firm hired by the Borough. ManvilleToday has submitted an OPRA request for a copy of the appraisal report which has not been received as of the publication of this story.

As ManvilleToday previously reported here, the Rustic Mall property was changed to "Municipal" zoned property, which most likely has an impact on its appraised value due to the limitation of what elements can be developed on "municipal-zoned" land.

The "public facilities" referenced in the Ordinance were not specifically called out, but it can be assumed that the expectation is to move the Department of Public Works and OEM to the Rustic Mall site based on a review of the Resilient Communities Program Grant at the link above.

The Ordinance lays out two options for acquiring the land - either through purchase or condemnation. The Ordinance states: "The Borough finds the acquisition of 33 E Camplain Road (4.0738 acres of property consisting of the entirety of Block 310.01, Lot 2.02 and a portion of Block 310.01, Lot 2.01) by purchase or condemnation is necessary for the expansion of municipal facilities and is hereby authorized."

The Ordinance further states that legal counsel is authorized to engage in good faith negotiations with the owner of the Rustic Mall property. It is assumed that if potential negotiations are unsuccessful, the Borough would move to condemnation of the 4-acre plot of land they wish to acquire.

As this was presented for first read, comments from the public were not open during this meeting. However, during public portion a resident raised concerns about acquiring the land. This resident was concerned with effectively making these 4 acres tax-free once Municipal owned and controlled. They also referred to other areas of Manville, where the Borough already owns land, and suggested they should consider these areas before resorting to using the Rustic Mall site for public facilities.

"I don't really know why we would want to take some of the Rustic Mall that is paying taxes to make it into a municipal purpose that will no longer pay taxes. So like, that's more lost tax revenue" stated the resident.

"We don't have much high ground left," responded Mayor Onderko.

The resident mentioned vacant land by the Library on South 10th, which is Borough-owned, and the vacant land at Firehouse #2 on 13th Ave. They wanted to make sure the Borough is investigating all options, of which the mayor responded by saying "it all takes money,"

ManvilleToday will continue to monitor the status of Rustic Mall, as we have for the past two and a half years.