Editorial
It’s almost like watching kids pour out the building blocks getting ready to play.
We’re referring to the discussion at the Manville Planning Board about the future of the Rustic Mall and the simultaneous State of the State address by Gov. James E. McGreevey on Jan. 14.
And the building blocks somebody’s getting ready to play with are the blocks along South Main Street and East Camplain Road.
If Gov. McGreevey is successful in refocusing development in New Jersey into urban and built-up communities instead of undeveloped farmlands as he said he wants to do, then Manville may indeed become a dramatically different looking town than it currently is.
Let’s look at the pieces we have to play with:
First and foremost, there’s the 11.86-acre Rustic Mall site, which borough officials have publicly expressed an interest in purchasing. The site includes at least some areas built on creosote-contaminated soil, so much of the future of the mall may depend on recommendations from the EPA.
But the largest part of the parcel is not the 117,000 square feet of retail space, it’s the largely unused asphalt paving in the parking lot. This means redeveloping the site will be less expensive than many others in the area, and may make it highly desirable if the state is serious about ending sprawl.
The next block is next door to the mall: the neighborhood purchased by the EPA for the creosote remediation work. The 50-acre neighborhood is undergoing removal of the creosote, and houses have been torn down to make way for the cleanup.
Combined, the area would present more than 60 acres located on a county road, next to a railroad line that could become the West Trenton service line, land that is already supplied with all of the infrastructure a new development needs.
Oh, yes, and mostly empty space.
As the cleanup progresses, we’ll see if Gov. McGreevey’s anti-sprawl ideas get turned into legislation (and if the anti-sprawl map includes Manville, which last week’s preliminary version did not).
The current thinking in state development circles is to encourage a more upscale, urban lifestyle, one that depends on bringing middle-class families into town centers where they can walk to stores and restaurants and entertainment.
The problem to achieving such plans has always been the high cost of land already built upon.
But Manville might be perfectly situated to become Gov. McGreevey’s ideal example of anti-sprawl development.
All of the blocks have been gathered now it’s time to put the pieces together to build something.

