Probation likely for ex-Chesterfield Mayor in shady land deal

Longtime Chesterfield Mayor and Committeeman Lawrence Durr will not see a day in jail if he adheres to probation for admitting that he lied about a financial arrangement with a developer on ethics forms filed with the township, according to terms of his guilty plea to New Jersey prosecutors.

Durr, 66, took a guilty plea to a third-degree charge of conspiracy to tamper with public records, according to the office of acting New Jersey Attorney General Robert Lougy. Sentencing is scheduled for June 17.

Prosecutors are recommending four years of probation, with the stipulation of a year minus a day in a county jail if he fails to meet requirements. Durr also agreed to forfeit $250,000 to the state, authorities said.

Durr, also a former Chesterfield Planning Board member, admitted concealing his dealings with Renaissance Properties, Inc., in forms filed during 2006 and 2007.

State investigators accused Durr of hiding the sale to Renaissance of transferrable rights for a 104-acre farm in a preserved spot, then using his office to support the company's plan for a mixed-use project elsewhere in the community.

Detectives said that Durr bought the tract in 2006 for $2,000,000, and sold the transfer development rights (TDR) to Renaissance for $2,372,500. Prosecutors said it was tantamount to getting the land for free and profiting by $372,500. Durr was indicted in 2014.

TDRs allow farmers in preserved areas, or sending areas, to retain title to their tracts while selling development rights, which are used to build in receiving areas where development is permitted.

Investigators established that Renaissance bought a major tract in a receiving area in 2005, and needed 260 TDRs to build homes, apartments and commercial space. They said that in February 2006, Renaissance agreed to pay ^65,000 per credit to Durr, who did not yet own the acreage.

Durr allegedly knew that the farm's 26 TDRs could be increased if appealed. Renaissance paid a non-refundable $150,000 deposit, and in April 2006, Durr reached his $2,000,000 termss with the Martin Family Partnership, authorities said, adding that he supplied a $400,000 down payment, mortgaged the balance, and included details about the Renaissance agreement on the loan application. The closing took place in July 2006.

According to investigators, Durr succceeded in increasing the TDRs on the Martin farm to 38.5 in May 2006, before he owned it. He was a planning board member and township committeeman at the time and didn't vote in the matter, but didn't formally recuse himself, authorities said, leaving the dais to represent himself on the application.

The following September, authorities said, Durr told the Burlington County TDR Bank Board that Renaissance faced difficulties buying credits from farmers, and recommended sale directly from the board to the developer, reversing a policy stance he previously held. Renaissance bought them at a board-arranged auction.

In April 2007, as a planning board member, Durr pushed through a zoning plan amendment that reduced the TDRs needed to complete the project to 17. Renaissance pursued it through a subsidiary, Chesterfield LLC, investigators said.

Three months later, on the Township Committee, Durrr introduced a proposal that the governing body ultimately approved, to buy land called the Wilkerson Parcel for $1,500,000, intervening for Chesterfield LLC, which had agreed to a $2,250,000 price and would pay $750,000.

Investigators said that the figure was a half-million more than township officials had considered, but that Durr touted its value as a site for a school that could serve families in housing that would be built on it.

Renaissance sought the tract's 17 TDRs, investigators said. No school was built on the parcel.