Seaside Park Hires Consulting Firm to Study Annexation of South Seaside Park

A ‘Welcome to Berkeley Township’ sign in South Seaside Park. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Following this summer’s decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court to allow South Seaside Park to de-annex from Berkeley Township in favor of joining Seaside Park borough, the borough has commissioned a study by a government affairs consulting group to study the matter.

The Seaside Park council last week approved a contract with Government Strategy Group, of Wall Township, to conduct a study into the pros and cons of accepting South Seaside Park’s request to be annexed. Though the court cleared the way for South Seaside Park to leave Berkeley, Seaside Park must agree to accept the neighborhood into its jurisdiction. Government Strategy Group is a consulting firm that employs experts in various fields of government policymaking, including former police and fire chiefs, managers and administrators, attorneys and data analytics professionals.

Government Strategy Group was the only firm to respond to Seaside Park’s public request to bid on consulting services to produce an “Annexation Impact Study” that will present all of the data – positive or negative – on the potential annexation. The contract approved by the borough council sets a maximum fee of $125,000 for the study, however it may cost less depending on the breadth of work required to produce a comprehensive report. The study will be conducted under the supervision of the borough attorney.

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Mayor John Peterson has said that regardless of how the council ultimately votes on the matter, a large amount of data is needed in case the decision is challenged. In a notional case where Seaside Park goes through the due diligence process and comes to the conclusion that a merger is not a good fit, the petitioners in South Seaside Park could still choose to argue before a judge that “refusal to consent to the annexation is detrimental to the economic and social well-being of a majority of the residents of the affected land,” essentially forcing the annexation. By contrast, if Seaside Park agrees to the annexation, residents who oppose the merger could, themselves, go to court to request the annexation ordinance be vacated. Having a significant amount of data would bolster the borough’s position during litigation from either direction.

Peterson has said that after the report is authored, the borough plans to release the document on its website and hold public meetings where the matter can be discussed by the community. That portion of the process will also go beyond the borough council; a planner familiar with the borough will be preparing a report on planning aspects, including zoning proposals, and a hearing to review that specific report will be held by the Land Use Board.

The contract is open-ended with regard to its timeline. The state, through its annexation statutes, does not set forth a timeline dictating how quickly towns must act when presented with an annexation petition since the process of conducting due diligence can vary wildly depending on a wide array of variables.