Adult housing possible
at old industrial site
Aberdeen plan would include 60 units of affordable senior housing
ABERDEEN — Plans may be in the works to revitalize one of the township’s most dilapidated old industrial sites.
According to Township Manager Mark Coren, the township hopes to ask developers for proposals to build approximately 60 units of age-restricted affordable housing on the site of the abandoned South River Metals factory on Church Street, along the Matawan border.
Coren said that the factory has most recently been used as a warehouse, but was at one time engaged in smelting and metal work. He estimated that industrial activity on the site ceased about 20 years ago, but that the building has been used as a warehouse since that time.
The township is currently performing a Phase I environmental review of the property, which it currently owns, to screen for possible contamination on the site, said Coren.
"As with any old industrial site where activities such as this one were engaged in, there is the potential that things may need to be cleaned up," he said.
In order to develop the site, any development company will have to perform a Phase II environmental assessment and identify any contamination "if there is contamination present."
If contamination is found, remediation would have to take place on the site, according to state Department of Environmental Protection standards, Coren said.
Plans to build age-restricted affordable housing on the site comes on the heels of a decision last year by the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which ordered the township to provide a certain number of units for low-income seniors in the next six years.
"Putting some age-restricted units there is a good way to help us satisfy the COAH requirements," Mayor David Sobel said last week.
Coren said he is in the process of conducting meetings with the township planner about zoning issues in reference to the project, but that the township may request proposals from developers sometime this summer.