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By RICHARD PEARSALL
Courier-Post Staff
PALMYRA
The four houses on the 300 block of West Broad Street here aren't close enough to the railroad track to hang out a mail bag.
But they're close.
"Roughly a first down in football," sighed Jenny Morgan, describing the 30 feet or so that separates her front door from the track that, come the start of 2003, will begin carrying passengers between Camden and Trenton.
Morgan and her neighbors want NJ Transit to buy them out, citing safety considerations and loss of property value.
They think their properties would make an excellent addition to the park that surrounds them on three sides.
NJ Transit has refused, contending that its coming trains pose no particular threat to these properties or their owners.
The transit system instead is offering to install a guard rail and some shrubs.
"We do not believe the acquisition of these four properties is necessary," NJ Transit executive Dan Censullo wrote to state Sen. Diane Allen, D-Burlington.
Frederick Hardt, a Moorestown attorney who represents the residents, said the intrusion of light rail amounts to " inverse condemnation."
"The state has in essence taken their property," he said, comparing the residents' situation to that of homeowners in the path of an airport runway.
"There is no physical invasion, but the injury is clear," Hardt said.
The houses are assessed at about $75,000 each. Residents said that's not much for NJ Transit, which is spending more than $800 million on the rail line, but it's the biggest single investment any of them has ever made.
The homeowners say they feel trapped.
"I'm afraid to live in a house that may fall down," said Cathy Trommelen, a mother of three who lives next door to Morgan. "But we can't just walk away either."
"Realtors have told us these homes just won't sell - period," Morgan said.
NJ Transit officials say the residents are overstating the threat to the structural integrity of their homes, noting that freight trains have long used the rail line.
Officials also said their studies show noise and vibration levels would be well within accepted limits.
"Engineering studies can differ," Hardt said.
The structures are well over a century old, built, ironically, by a railroad company in the 19th century to house its employees.
Holding up against two freight trains a day is one thing, the residents said. Withstanding close to 100 runs a day of a passenger train moving at 35 mph is another.
"A train pushes the house one way as it approaches, then its vacuum pulls it back the other way as it passes," Morgan said, arguing that the cumulative effect could be be devastating.
Attempting to prove that in court would require professional help, however, which is one of the problems Hardt sees with pursuing litigation.
"These are people with limited resources," he said. "I was hoping that we could work something out. But so far our efforts have not proven fruitful. Everyone is sympathetic, but no one is moving in the direction of a resolution."
Allen, for one, remains optimistic that something can be worked out.
"We don't have everything lined up," she said, referring to the financing necessary for an open-space purchase. "But we really do want to move them."
Palmyra Mayor Bob Leather is more skeptical, but no less supportive of the residents' cause.
"It's ridiculous to leave those houses there," he said.
The hope is that not only NJ Transit, but other state agencies, the county and the borough may chip in to rescue the homeowners and augment the park.
Allen said she believes NJ Transit is afraid to buy the homes for fear of setting a precedent.
"There are houses on their Hudson-Bergen line that are closer," Allen said.
Others point to homes in Camden and Trenton that will be closer to the track than the houses in Palmyra.
In those cases, however, the tracks will be in the streets, not on a separate right of way, and the trains will run at a slower speed.
"This is a unique situation that doesn't t replicate itself up and down the line," Hardt said.
"Our position hasn't changed," said Charles Ingoglia, a spokesman for NJ Transit. "We developed a plan to mitigate the circumstances there. That is the plan."
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