Though the judge did not invalidate the entire policy, he recommended that the county make some changes
BURLINGTON COUNTY -- A Burlington County judge on Friday rejected a request by New Jersey Natural Gas to completely invalidate a county policy that the utility company claimed would impede construction of its natural gas pipeline.
NJNG filed suit in February challenging the county's policy regarding permits to close and excavate roads where the pipeline would be buried.
The utility company argued the policy was "adopted not for any legitimate governmental purpose, but for the wholly improper purpose of granting Burlington County unfettered decision to impede NJNG's installation of a natural gas pipeline within the roads and rights-of-way of the county."
The 28-mile, 30-inch pipeline, known as the Southern Reliability Link, would begin in Chesterfield and continue through North Hanover, Upper Freehold, Plumsted and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst before connecting to the company's system in Manchester.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Bookbinder did not invalidate the county's entire policy as requested, but recommended that some changes be made.
The company's central concern was that some provisions gave the county and county engineer too much discretion in determining when they could approve, deny or revoke a permit or require that certain plans be submitted with an application.
Bookbinder voided the challenged provisions, giving the county 60 days to revise its policy and make clear the conditions for a denial.
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"The county contends that the engineer's discretion is governed by the 'specific rules' in the policy. However, the county did not explain what rules in the policy limit the engineer's exercise of discretion," Bookbinder wrote in his 57-page decision. "Instead, the county engineer is empowered to 'approve...deny...and/or revoke' a permit at his discretion, with no objective criteria limiting that exercise of discretion."
Under the policy, for example, the county engineer or the Board of Chosen Freeholders could, at their own discretion, deny a permit application or revoke an issued permit "in the interest of public safety."
"It is unclear what conditions or for what reasons the county engineer would deny an application or revoke an issued permit, other than in the 'interest of public safety,'" Bookbinder wrote. "This reference to public safety is unsupported by objective standards or governing criteria to guide the county engineer's exercise of discretion and cannot save the challenged provisions."
The judge found that the "remaining conditions and restrictions" were valid and that applications for road-opening permits could proceed.
"We'll be making the minor changes to the policy as recommended by the judge, but we continue to vigorously defend our road-opening policy to ensure that New Jersey Natural Gas has to play by the same rules as everybody else," county spokesman Eric Arpert told NJ Advance Media on Monday.
Michael Kinney, spokesman for NJNG, said the company was pleased with the court's decision.
"Judge Bookbinder granted our motion to strike certain provisions of the county's road-opening policy, agreeing with NJNG that those provisions gave the county unfettered discretion over road-opening projects and are clearly illegal," he said in a statement. "Furthermore, Judge Bookbinder retained jurisdiction to review any re-writes to the policy ... and to address any improper action by the county engineer with respect to NJNG's permit application for the SRL project."
Editor's Note: This post was updated to include more information from the judge's decision.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.