Who Paves the Parking Lot? Hungarian Club and Township Disagree Over Who Owns the Land

For decades, the Hungarian American Citizens Club has been as rock solid as the foundation of the impregnable brick clubhouse they erected on Port Reading Ave. in the early 1960s. 

Generations of kids and their families of Hungarian descent, and of every nationality, have filtered through the Hungarian American Club at one time or another, because of the clubhouse's popularity as the Hungarian Manor, a hall rental site. So many events go on there, it's almost impossible to have lived in Woodbridge any length of time and not have visited the club at least once.

Irme Herczeg, one of three trustees who oversees the club and its membership, has always been involved in the upkeep of the building and grounds. He and the other members thought it was about time to resurface the generous parking lot, which is still in fair condition, although spiderwebbed with surface cracks.

After all, Herczeg said, they always took care of their property, even building a huge addition to the original clubhouse, complete with a stage for performances, in the 1970s.

"We own it, we pave it," he said.

It thus came as a surprise to Herczeg when he discovered last month that the township was going to use public works employees to resurface the parking lot. It wasn't out of kindness or generosity, though; according to the township's attorney, the Hungarian Club membership didn't own their domain. The township did, and the township was going to pay for the parking lot upgrades through part of a $7.1 million bond without consulting the club hierarchy.

In a sense, though, Woodbridge does own the land upon which the club sits, but only as a last resort. Back in 1961, the township deeded the property, which sits in back of the White Church on Rahway Ave., to the club for one dollar and two stipulations: that the organization had to build a clubhouse on the site within five years, and that if the organization ceased to exist, the land would revert back to the township.

The Hungarian club members fulfilled the first part of the agreement when they constructed their brick clubhouse.

And to Herczeg's knowledge, his fellow club members - the total, give or take, about one hundred in number - still consider themselves to be members of their organization, thus living up to the second part of the agreement.

"We're still here. We're not going away," said Herczeg after a council meeting he attended after being informed of the township's plans on repaving their parking lot because, as Woodbridge Township Attorney James Nolan said in his verbal legal opinion, "We own it."

Herczeg was puzzled about why the township was demonstrating such an interest in the Hungarian club's parking lot and why they wanted to pay for the repaving when club members had always shouldered the burden for repairs. 

Puzzlement turned to alarm, he said, after he heard the town's legal opinion that their relationship with the Hungarian Club property wasn't that it was owned by the organization, but owned instead by the township, regardless of the deed covenants.

"I never heard of them offering to pave the parking lot. No one called us. No one asked us. We were going to do it ourselves anyway," said Herczeg, who had gotten several estimates.

The estimates the club got range from $68,500 to $82,000, significantly less than the $113,000 the township was considering borrowing to finance the parking lot repairs.

Herczeg remembered several years ago when the town used the club facilities for a play put on by a non-profit acting group, the township spent approximately $20,000 on stage lighting and other amenities. He thought it was a little odd, but didn't question it.

"We don't use the stage. If they wanted to fix it up for their play, that was fine with us. We didn't think it meant anything more than what it appeared to be, that they wanted to fix it up for their play," he said.

"It is their property. They've taken care of it. They own it according to the deed," said Councilman Bob Luban. "I'm completely against using taxpayer money for what is still private land owned by a private club."

Herzceg's distress about the thought of the club losing the property caused Councilman Charles Kenny to say he wanted any agreement with the repaving to be in writing with the organization before he would support paying for the work.

John Hagerty, spokesman for Mayor John McCormac, who has been completely behind the township using its resources to repave the lot, said that the Hungarian Club was still "technically township property."

"Given that the township is technically the owner of the property, we felt it was a good opportunity to repave the parking lot and make it a better place," Hagerty said. "The township uses the club on occasion."