Andover Borough officials are being sued again for their refusal to let a major developer triple the town's population.

The lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of Sussex Properties Ltd., the company that owns 235 acres slated by Beazer Homes for a 590-unit development, virtually mirrors one filed March 9 by Beazer. The Atlanta-based developer is under contract to purchase the land from Sussex Properties.

Sussex Properties' 38-page lawsuit — filed by the Morristown-based law firm Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti in Sussex County Superior Court — names the borough and its mayor and council as defendants.

Much like the suit filed by Beazer, Sussex Properties says members of the Borough Council worked "surreptitiously with various objector groups as well as neighboring municipalities, without giving any notice to either Sussex or Beazer."

Mayor Shirlee Bollard said she did not want to comment on the lawsuit, but added, "I am not aware of the council working with any kind of groups."

A leader of Save Rural Andover Borough, a group possibly among the "various objector groups," also disputed the lawsuit's claim that the group had worked with borough officials, surreptitiously or otherwise.

"It's absolutely not true," said Fred DiRenzo, co-chairman of Save Rural Andover Borough. "It's just not the case."

Attorneys for Sussex Properties and the borough could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Borough officials have discussed the development with officials from other municipalities, including officials from Byram and Andover Township.

On March 13, the council voted to revoke the zoning, or planned unit development district, that would have allowed Beazer to build its mix-used development. The site of the proposed development is west of Route 206 and north of Brighton Road and the Lackawanna Cutoff.

In February, the council passed a resolution revoking a general development plan that had been approved by the Borough Planning Board and Borough Council in 1989 and 1990.

The lawsuit calls for the general development plan to be reinstated and for the borough to pay compensatory damages and legal fees for delays caused by the Borough Council's actions.

The application for the development, which would add approximately 1,300 people to the borough's population of 660, was submitted to the Borough Planning Board in December and was deemed complete last month. A Planning Board hearing on the proposal is scheduled for May 1.

© 2006 The New Jersey Herald