Council works to preserve theater space for the arts

The Sussex Borough Council on August 16 instructed the borough attorney to put together a deed restriction on the Crescent Theater property to require a possible new owner to use the property only for theatrical productions, concerts, or other performances.

Councilman Mario Poggi said he’d like to have that added to the deed for the property’s next owner, or into a lease for the theater, should the borough lease the building to a non-profit.

“The sole purpose for the theater is to have performances and such,” Poggi said. “I wanted to engage with the rest of the council about that and see if we can put this into practice as soon as possible.”

Borough attorney Frank McGovern said if the property were to be deeded to a non-profit, it would include a reversion clause.

“If these conditions are not met, the property would automatically return to the ownership of the borough,” he said. “That’s required by the state in that kind of transaction. This isn’t something you would need to act on today. It’s something that would be available at such time as you would have somebody to whom you would want to convey the property.”

Councilman Charles Fronheiser was concerned about the ability of a future council to overturn this council’s decision and remove the deed restriction.

McGovern said if the property is transferred to a third party with the deed restriction, it can’t simply be undone. However, he said if the borough put the restriction on the property now, while it’s under borough ownership, a future council could undo it.

“I’d like to have it so it cannot be reversed,” Fronheiser said.