The EnCap project, taken over by Trump in November, has been a touchy subject in Rutherford and Hipp opposes the landfills-to-golf courses and housing project as it stands.

Trump asked Hipp to allow the development to go forward, or lose the financial benefits associated with the development. In addition, Trump would seek reimbursement of $6 million in impact fees it claims it already gave to the borough.

In the letter, Trump said he remains committed to the cleanup. Trump pointed to positive reactions to his progress on the troubled site and said his company’s involvement in the project would be a great benefit to Rutherford, financially and environmentally.

The letter continued to call Hipp’s actions "false and foolish" and said he would hold the borough responsible for damage caused by Hipp’s comments and actions. He added he was considering abandoning all work in Rutherford other than remediation, claiming the tax revenue would "be felt by all of your taxpayers."

Trump added he was disappointed about the lack of communication between his organization and Hipp. "I know how busy you must be but it would be nice if you could return the many phone calls made by my representatives to you. Perhaps by doing so you could start to reduce the very high taxes of your constituents," wrote Trump.

Hipp said he was not surprised by Trump’s "aggressive stance." Trump said, in the letter, he would supply Rutherford with a formal legal response to Rutherford’s default notice and Hipp said he would wait for that letter before proceeding further. As for seeing Trump in court, Hipp said Trump could do so if he chooses. "The courts are accessible to anybody," said Hipp.

Hipp added EnCap has appealed the assessments on land it owns in the borough, adding the case would soon be dismissed for EnCap’s failure to pay taxes. As for recouping $6.5 million in impact fees, Hipp does not believe Trump will succeed in this. "He won’t get anywhere," said Hipp.

The borough of Rutherford now joins two other towns, three state agencies and a banking syndicate in declaring brownfield super developer EnCap Golf Holdings in default of its agreement.

A letter from borough redevelopment attorney Joseph Maraziti to Trump’s EnCap executive Michael Cohen dated April 30 claims EnCap owes the borough over $1.2 million in impact fees, land taxes and legal and engineering expenses.

In addition, Maraziti argues that the agreement is null and void because EnCap is behind on its construction schedule to the point where a 2009 completion would be impossible. Also, the letter said the project would be impossible to complete without PILOT bonds, which the state has refused to approve so far.

Rutherford’s agreement with EnCap gave EnCap permission to take a percentage on future tax revenues on housing built above Rutherford landfills in exchange for cleaning up the landfills and forking over millions in impact fees during construction.

The letter also listed the litany of defaults to EnCap’s agreements with several state agencies, including the NJMC, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Infrastructure Trust.

"It appears the Financial Agreement entered into between the borough and EnCap has been rendered inoperative by a combination of EnCap defaults and the evident failure of the project, as more particularly described below," wrote Maraziti.

Maraziti’s letter also pointed out details from a Feb. 28 report from the Office of the Inspector General. The report said the PILOT bonds were well in excess of the cost to clean the landfills and the borough did not know about a $212 million loan from the state when signing the agreement.

The agreement was signed in December 2004. EnCap has since come under scrutiny from the state for failing to live up to its side of the bargain with separate agreements with state agencies, who gave EnCap multi-million dollar loans to clean up the dumps.

Meanwhile, EnCap cut deals to take future tax revenues from Rutherford and Lyndhurst, but the state would not loan the money to the developer up front. Governor Jon Corzine put a stop to the PILOT bonds, the money EnCap would collect to build its massive real estate project, claiming the local taxpayers would be left with the financial burden if EnCap failed.

Read Hipp's letter to Trump

Read Trump's response to Hipp