Local Farm Sues Holmdel Township After Land Lease Goes Up For Bid

HOLMDEL, NJ — Following a vote to put the DePalma Farms & Greenhouses lease up for bid during a June committee meeting, Farm Manager Patrick DePalma has filed a complaint against Holmdel Township and the Holmdel Township Committee in an effort to prevent the land from being leased to another bidder.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday, comes after a battle between the farm and the town to renew the farm’s lease. The lease started in 2000 when Holmdel Township purchased the land from the DePalma family and is set to expire this year.

Once Patrick DePalma was notified that the farm’s lease would soon expire, he requested a lease extension with the town, which was later denied.

According to township officials, the extension could not be granted because NJ Local Lands & Buildings law requires them to put the property lease up for public bid to guard against “favoritism, improvidence, extravagance, and corruption" and to secure "the benefits of unfettered competition" for the public.

During the June committee meeting where the lease was put up for bid, Holmdel Mayor Brian Foster added that even if the town could extend on a no-bid basis (which the town says they legally cannot do), doing so could harm Holmdel taxpayers.

“The [lease] extension as requested would mean the Township may lose money, which would leave taxpayers to subsidize a private farm operation that was given favoritism,” Foster said.

“The Township has no issue with Mr. DePalma and has honored the lease for all 25 years with them,” Foster continued. “They are welcome to bid, and if they win, the Township looks forward to continuing with them as their landlord."

In his complaint, DePalma argues that the bidding law the town used to put the farm lease up for bid contains an exception for leases of real property for agricultural and horticultural use, and said the provisions of which “fit the DePalma Farms lease to a tee.”

The lawsuit also claims that township officials have contradicted their reasoning for putting the farm lease up for bid.

In the complaint, DePalma argues that the town didn’t initially recognize that there’s an agricultural exception to the public bidding law, and said that Township Attorney Michael Collins referred to it as a “purported exception that does not apply" during a town committee meeting.

Later in the same meeting, DePalma said Collins appeared to acknowledge that the exception does apply by saying that the town was complying with it through their offer of a temporary, six-month extension to DePalma before the publicly bid lease would take effect.

According to the complaint, Collins also stated that the town would put the new lease up for bid, “Whether the agricultural exception applied or not.”

DePalma argued that this contradicts what he and Township Committee members previously said about putting the lease out for bid “only because they believed they were required to do so.”

“The Township and Township Committee claim that they are taking this action only because the state’s public bidding law requires them to do so,” the complaint said. “But the bidding law does no such thing.”

In the complaint, DePalma also accuses Township Committee members of “actively soliciting other bidders” to compete with him in bidding for a new lease on the property.

DePalma goes on to say that what began as the town’s “misunderstanding of the law” has turned into a “near vendetta” against him, which threatens to “deprive [him] of his livelihood and to deprive Holmdel of one of its few remaining agricultural and horticultural treasures.”

DePalma is seeking a declaratory judgment that the Township Committee’s interpretation of the state bidding law and agricultural and horticultural use exception is wrong and that the town and township committee acted “arbitrarily, capriciously, and unreasonably in putting the new lease for the DePalma Property up for public bid.”

According to the complaint, a declaratory judgment is necessary to prevent “ongoing uncertainty and potential harm” to DePalma, who, at the age of 57, is almost at the end of his farming career and needs to work for about five more years to recoup losses he experienced when local deer ate many of his crops.

Without a lease extension, the complaint said DePalma has “no other way to earn a living.”

“The actions of the Township Committee are antithetical to that strong state policy, putting Mr. DePalma in jeopardy of losing the farm that his family has been farming in Holmdel for about 100 years and losing his livelihood,” the complaint said.

In an email statement sent to Patch, Collins said the bidding process for the lease is already underway and will continue uninterrupted despite the complaint.

"The Township looks forward to defending against this baseless lawsuit asking the court to mandate the negotiation of a no-bid lease to a particular party,” Collins said. “The bidding process is already underway and will continue uninterrupted by this court filing."

Prior to the complaint being filed, the farm started an online petition for the town to extend its lease. As of Thursday afternoon, it has collected 832 signatures.

During their June 13 meeting, the Township Committee passed a resolution to prevent development at DePalma Farms and permanently dedicate “all portions of the property for recreation, conservation and farming purposes.” Later in the same meeting, the committee also voted to put the lease up for bid.

“I’m in disbelief at what’s happening to a lifetime farm that’s been in Holmdel Township and is trying to stay there,” DePalma said at the meeting. "...You're taking my livelihood away. How would you feel if this was you standing here? What would you do?"

“This outcome saddens me,” he later told Patch. “They broke my heart.”

Previous Coverage

• Holmdel To Vote On Action To Restrict Development At DePalma Farms & Greenhouses
• 'DePalma Is The History Here': Holmdel Community Rallies For Local Farm At Town Meeting

Correction: A previous version of this article listed the farm as up for sale. It has been corrected to leased. The headline on this article has also been clarified to reflect that the lease on the land is up for bid, and not the land itself. Patch regrets the error.