Despite discord, fort reuse plan approved

T he Fort Monmouth redevelopment authority approved a reuse plan for the fort property last week despite objections from officials, residents and two of the mayors on the panel.

Freeholder Director Lillian Burry During a Sept. 3 special meeting at the Tinton Falls Municipal Complex, the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA) weighed concerns about the reliability of affordable housing numbers versus the possibility of missing the deadline for filing the plan and losing control over zoning the fort property.

The approval was originally planned for Aug. 27 but was delayed a week in an effort to obtain more information on the required number of homeless and affordable housing units from the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which some authority members correctly estimated would not come.

Monmouth County Freeholder Director Lillian Burry cast the final and deciding vote in support of the plan, which she admitted was not perfect.

"The impact of withholding our support would ultimately be disastrous," Burry said.

Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon FMERPA Chairman Dr. Robert Lucky called the plan "a unique opportunity to create a whole new community from scratch," citing the generous open space as one of the benefits of the plan for the 1,127 acres of fort property.

"It's a great plan, but it's being held hostage by the politics of COAH," Lucky said.

Authority Vice Chairwoman Virginia Bauer said the plan was a work in progress.

"The reality is if we do not take advantage of this opportunity to submit a plan, we will lose the opportunity to define what happens in our community," she said. "I think at this juncture, we do not have anything more concrete that we could expect, and I will not take the risk of missing out on this opportunity and letting someone else decide what we should do with this property."

The mayors from the fort's three host communities of Oceanport, Tinton Falls and Eatontown expressed varied concerns with the lack of information that was forthcoming from COAH.

Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon and Tinton Falls Mayor Peter Maclearie were the only two authority members to vote against the plan.

Maclearie, who had stated repeatedly that he would not support the plan without firm numbers from COAH, voted against approving the plan after making motions for a 30-day extension and the inclusion of firm numbers in the resolution supporting the plan.

Authority members waived both motions, unwilling to risk losing state or federal support.

Maclearie had a resolution from his council indicating lack of approval for the reuse plan and homeless assistance submission, which he said was a good plan but was missing vital information.

"I'm very concerned about the COAH numbers that are here," Maclearie said. "Those numbers could be devastating to our community if we had to put up additional housing. We accepted what we have the way the plan was designed, but anything over and above that could be devastating to the taxpayers."

Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo doubted that COAH would be giving the authority firm numbers anytime soon.

"If we sit here and wait on the plan, wait for COAH to give us direction, we're not going to get it," he said. "The best we can do is rely on the comments we've gotten from Commissioner Doria."

Commissioner Joseph Doria, of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, has stated in letters cited by authority members that Fort Monmouth should be subject to special treatment in terms of the state-mandated requirement to create affordable housing, but there has been no firm commitment from COAH to do so.

COAH has offered a verbal commitment that the nonresidential growth share on fort lands would be based on net increase over August 2005, the date of the BRAC commission, and civilian government work force.

In other words, the replacement of the approximately 5,000 jobs that currently exist on the fort would not generate an increased affordable housing obligation for the fort lands, unless the replacement jobs exceed 5,000.

"We've got to start somewhere," Tarantolo said. "Approving this plan as configured is the first step. We shouldn't expect Fort Monmouth to be the solution to the affordable housing issue that currently confronts us here in the state of New Jersey."

Tarantolo said that the implementation of the plan should take place on a regional basis, with shared ratables and revenues being a mechanism to pay for expenses such as new schools.

Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon disagreed with Tarantolo's suggestion of a regional approach.

"I support regional land use planning, but beyond that I do not support the regional concept for a variety of reasons," he said. "I think that model lends itself to Fort Monmouth as its own community and not pieces of the three communities as we see here."

Mahon said that despite efforts and discussions to resolve issues, the Oceanport Borough Council continues to have reservations and twice voted unanimously to support a resolution against the plan.

Prior to the authority's approval of the final plan, FMERPA heard testimony from the public, urging the panel to vote against it. Both affordable housing advocates and officials who are against additional housing stood up to speak out against the plan.

Linda Zucaro, a Tinton Falls resident and co-chair of the Monmouth Advocacy Team, which is asking for 1,500 units of affordable housing, said that not all affordable housing had to be COAH. She urged FMERPA to include more affordable homes

"The need is great and the opportunity is unparalleled at Fort Monmouth," Zucaro said.

Tinton Falls Council President Gary Baldwin and Eatontown Council President John Schiels were both opposed to approval of the reuse plan. Tinton Falls Board of Education President Peter Karavites criticized authority members for not rechecking their numbers with schools.

"You didn't check with the schools, but you're going to vote tonight to impact our schools," Karavites said. "Our taxes will go up because of mandates from Trenton and mandates from committees like this."

Baldwin said he was disappointed by the authority's lack of support for Maclearie's request for a 30-day extension during the Aug. 27 special meeting.

"I thought that's a small thing to ask for," he said. "We simply don't think the data is right and strong and accurate, and we need better assurance from Trenton."

Baldwin noted that members of his council stand firmly behind their mayor, and submitted the council's resolution indicating their lack of approval for the plan.

The reuse plan currently calls for $1 billion in construction costs across the fort's three host towns, with 1,500 total residential units, 375 of which are to be affordable.

In addition to residential development, the plan calls for town centers for Oceanport, Tinton Falls and Eatontown, two hotels, a medical facility, and a substantial amount of both office space and open space.

FMERPA is additionally required by mandate to convey some existing buildings on the fort as homeless accommodations. The Homeless Assistance Submission includes a new, replacement homeless shelter in Oceanport, a day center, and 40 units of perm anent supportive housing for the homeless.

The plan was reviewed by Gov. Jon Corzine's office for approval before being submitted to the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where it was due to be submitted by Monday.

Fort Monmouth is scheduled to close in September 2011, when the majority of operations will be moved to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.

Garrison Commander Stephen Christian, a nonvoting member of FMERPA representing the Army, noted that he would support the plan if he could.

"We will vacate," he said, and added that his fear is what would happen to the fort if there were not someone moving right in after the Army.

"We need to move as quickly as we can to revitalize the area," Christian said.

FMERPA public member Laurie Cannon stressed that the plan was still a work in progress.

"It's not done," she said, noting that the federal government, which owns the land, is also on a deadline and wants to move on.

"We have to make the changes we're going to and make it palatable for everyone else," she said.