The Dock Watch Quarry at the south end of town, abandoned for nearly 20 years, is today only an ugly scar in the beautiful fabric of the Second Watchung Mountain. But it was not always so placid. For 30 years, from 1952 until it closed, the quarry was a scene of noise, dust and civic controversy. Before the battle was over, it had spawned three Superior Court cases, numerous complaints in Municipal Court, a change in the boundary between Warren and Bridgewater - and a lot of very raw feelings. The story of the first part of the quarry controversy is best told in a decision by Superior Court Judge Halpern in Moore v. Bridgewater (69 NJ Super 1), a l961 case which the quarry operators won. "In 1926," wrote the judge, "the defendant, Harry E. Von Osten, came into possession of a tract of mountain land consisting of 20.47 acres; 6.06 acres is located in Warren and 14.41 acres in Bridgewater. On December 31, 1946 he acquired title thereto. The tract is located on the second mountain of the Watchung chain and lies north of Washington Valley Road and mostly west of Dock Watch Hollow Road. Its lowest point at the brook is 300 feet above sea level, and it rises to a point about 600 feet above sea level. Washington Valley Road runs along a valley, for about nine miles, between the first and second Watchung Mountains, and extends from Pluckemin, in Bedminster Township, to the Borough of Watchung. Dock Watch Hollow Road extends northerly from Washington Valley Road and cuts across a small portion of the easterly end of the Von Osten tract. Von Osten lived in an old house situated on the west side of Dock Watch Hollow Road. A small area of the property near the house has been cleared and leveled, and practically all of it comprises a sheer cliff of rock, with tree growth thereon, which rises almost perpendicularly from the leveled portion. The topography of the property makes it impractical, if not impossible, for residential or agricultural use, and its highest use is that of a quarry. The tract contained a unique deposit of commercially usable rock from which an estimated six million tons were obtainable without blasting. In the early 1930's there were few, if any, residences near the property. In fact, even today, there are no residences for miles on the same level with the Von Osten tract on the second mountain. In recent years homes have been built along Washington Valley Road and some home development south and east of the quarry property toward Washington Valley Road has taken place. The locale however is still essentially a rural mountain area. During 1930 Von Osten had a geological survey made and, realizing he had a valuable natural resource, commenced to exploit it despite his limited finances. In 1931 and 1932 he started to "break the mountain down" and to quarry stone, in a small way, at a point in Warren near his house. He sold the stone so obtained and tried to get financial support from others to develop this business. He marked off the boundaries of the entire tract by erecting a fence which enclosed three sides of the property; the fourth side had a brook for a natural boundary. He continued his digging and quarrying, using a stone crusher and other equipment for that purpose, from 1931 to about 1949, continuing into the mountain from his starting point in Warren near his house. While he did some digging and stone removing on a portion of his Bridgewater land, such was abandoned prior to 1950, but the operation from the Warren side was continuous. During these years he slowly, but steadily, increased his quarrying operations. In the early 1940's he had surveys made to more accurately determine the quality and quantity of the stone on the entire tract. He had test holes made "all over the acreage on top of the hill." He hired others to help him clear trees in the area being quarried. He continually sold stone to masons, friends, neighbors and construction contractors. In 1947 he entered into a written contract with one Roger Dealaman giving Dealaman the exclusive right to remove dirt from any part of the entire tract. On November 2, 1937 Bridgewater adopted its building and structure ordinance, and on August 28, 1950, it adopted its land use ordinance. On February 2, 1948 Warren adopted its building and structure ordinance, and on May 5, 1952, adopted its land use ordinance. Warren's land use ordinance classified Von Osten's property as rural; and Bridgewater's land use ordinance classified it as residential. Quarrying on Von Osten's land was forbidden under both ordinances. Despite the passage of these ordinances Von Osten continued his operations without objection or hindrance from either township until sometime in 1952. In May 1950 Von Osten entered into a written contract with Roger Dealaman and Edward Mundock for the digging and removal of all dirt, stone and rock, from the entire tract for a 20?year period, and gave them first refusal to purchase the entire tract. The lessees commercially operated the quarry under this lease. In February 1951 Von Osten entered into a written contract with Joseph Mondak, John W. Mondak and Edward Mundock for the digging and removal of all dirt, stone and rock from practically all of his land for a 20?year period; the operations to begin and continue at the site near the "Homestead area." These lessees continued to commercially operate the quarry. In July 1954 the lessees assigned their rights to Dock Watch Pit & Quarry, Inc., which corporation thereafter continued the quarry operation. In September 1956 Von Osten, Edward Mundock and John W. Mondak formed a corporation known as Dock Watch Quarry Pit, Inc. to dig, quarry and sell stone, etc. This corporation is presently operating the quarry business. Sometime in 1952, residents in the area began complaining of the quarrying operations to the officials of Warren and Bridgewater. This resulted in the development of a strange and unusual situation. Both townships refused or delayed taking any affirmative action, each contending that the Von Osten property was not located in its township. The answer filed by each township in this suit denied that the Von Osten property was within its respective boundaries. The townships took this position despite the fact that for years prior to the institution of this suit they each levied and collected taxes on portions of the property. The manner in which the taxes were levied only confuses the picture but it is briefly mentioned to show the inconsistency of the positions taken by the townships. It is obvious that both townships, for reasons best known to themselves, wanted no part of the quarry. Each township assessed two acres of the land for about 20 years. From 1949 to 1958 Warren assessed nine acres of the quarry land. In 1954 Bridgewater adopted a new tax map in which it placed 14.41 acres of the quarry land in Bridgewater and the balance of 6.06 acres in Warren. Despite this fact, Bridgewater has also been assessing the quarry defendants' realty, personal property and equipment, although such personalty was located in Warren. Warren's new proposed tax map places all of the Von Osten property in Bridgewater Township. This attitude on the part of both townships has only served to muddle the situation and to create uncertainty and confusion in the minds of all interested parties. For this reason the quarry defendants were unable to get zoning relief from either township. When pressure by citizens intensified in the early part of 1952, Bridgewater's engineer and its building inspector examined the quarry site. On February 13, 1952 they reported, in writing, to the Township Committee that the quarry was located entirely in Warren. In June 1952, upon request of the Bridgewater Township Committee, its engineer drew a sketch of these conclusions. Meanwhile the quarry defendants continued their quarrying operations without molestation. In 1958, because of complaints being made, these Bridgewater officials made a further investigation of the quarry property, took pictures, prepared a map and reported to the Township Committee that quarrying had continued in Warren but was now getting closer to the Bridgewater line. In 1959, after this suit was filed, they made another examination and reported that the quarry operations were now about 150 feet within the Bridgewater line. As the result of complaints made by residents of Warren to the Warren Township Committee it directed its attorney to investigate and report on the situation. The attorney, after a thorough investigation, reported to the Committee on February 9, 1954, that Von Osten had a nonconforming use in Warren, and could not be prevented from continuing it." The neighbors who filed suit in the Moore case sought to halt the expansion of the quarry operation and force both Warren and Bridgewater to enforce their zoning ordinances. The judge in his opinion found that the quarrying operation was permitted on the entire 20.47 acre parcel (whichever town it was in) Von Osten bought in l926, thus handing a significant although only temporary victory to the quarry owners. By l969 development around the quarry site brought another wave of homeowner protests. Citing seven-day-a-week blasting, clouds of dust from the stone crushers [local residents claimed that an endemic cough, which they called the "Dock Watch Quack," was due to quarry operations], and heavy truck traffic on local roads, the Warren Township Committee adopted a new ordinance regulating operations at the town's only active quarry. What wasn't clear, however, was whether Warren or Bridgewater had jurisdiction over the portion of the quarry where the most active work was being done. A six-acre area which Warren claimed was in Bridgewater and Bridgewater said was in Warren had not been taxed by weither town since l959 and, claimed the irate neighbors, was unregulated by either township. In the spring of 1971 both Warren and Bridgewater petition the State Legislature for special legislation redrawing the boundary line between the two towns so as to include all of the quarry in Warren. Once the requested legislation was signed by the governor on June 30, 1971, Warren began to step up its enforcement of the ordinance, tightening it with amendments adopted in l974. Quarry operators challenged the legality of Warren's ordinance, filing suit in l972 to overturn its key provisions with the argument that only the state could regulate quarry operations. A year later a Superior Court judge struck down key sections of the ordinance; the township appealed and in l976 the Appellate Court ruled in favor of the town. Finally, in l977 the State Supreme Court upheld the Appellate Court, thus handing Warren its first major victory and paving the way for the town to control nearly every aspect of quarry operations. In just four years the battle had cost Warren over $40,000 in legal fees, a sum well worth spending, said then major Alvin Florey, who called the Supreme Court decision "a landmark." It was, he added, "the first in this state where towns have this much restriction over quarrying operations…." As soon as a new quarry ordinance was adopted, said Florey, the quarry would be cited for violating the l974 ordinance. The battle between the quarry and the township was not over yet, however. In l978 the township filed another lawsuit, seeking to close down the quarry as a public nuisance, a case that ended in a draw in l979 when Superior Court Judge Morton Greenberg ordered that the quarry be closed down only when it had depleted its own natural resources. When that would be was anyone's guess, with the township estimating 30 months and the owners three to five years. Quarry owner Martin Mahan's 1980 proposal to built a 10-story apartment building on the quarry site once operations ended met with the Planning Board's stony silence. The quarry closed in the early l980s and has remained vacant ever since. In l988 a developer applied for approval to build 65 townhouses in the defunct quarry pit, a proposal the Zoning Board voted down following an outpouring of opposition led by the township's Public Advocate, Richard Sasso. Since then the cost of reclaiming the site has prevented development. [Harry Von Osten, b. 1884 in Bombay, India, died at his home on October 12, 1979, at the age of 95. An artist (he decorated the old Schwaebische Alb's Rathskeller) and sculptor, he was affiliated with the quarry operation from 1926 until he retired from active management in 1969. The remains of a second quarry in Warren can still be viewed at #8 Saw Mill Road. A contemporary house was built some years ago on the site after much filling and grading, but some rock ledges remain visible.] © Warren Township Historical Society |