Council ready to move on county land swap

Thompson Park may be used for new high school in Monroe.

By: Al Wicklund
MONROE — The Township Council may endorse a plan Monday to use 35 acres of Thompson Park playing fields as a building site for the proposed new high school.
   The council’s endorsement will be a step in the council’s efforts to help the Board of Education put together a new school referendum in time for a Dec. 9 vote.
   A previous referendum, with a $112 million price tag, was defeated by the voters Sept. 24.
   Mayor Richard Pucci, at a council meeting earlier this week, asked for the endorsement of the use of county land.
   He said, with the council’s action, the idea can then be offered to the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders in the next 30 to 60 days.
   The mayor said the use of the 35-acre site could cut some $9 million from the next referendum and help the school board develop a referendum that could be perhaps a third less than the previous public question.
   To use the Thompson Park land, which borders Perrineville Road and includes the soccer fields north of the current high school site, a swap of open-space land would have to be worked out between the township and the county. The county would want equivalent open space property.
   Township Engineer Ernie Feist said Thursday the township is looking for two tracts of land, one to trade with the county and another for soccer fields that would replace the 14 fields currently located on the proposed building site.
   Among several properties being considered for a possible trade with the county is 77 acres of woodland off Buckelew Avenue near School House Road.
   The land currently is owned by Renaissance Properties, Inc., developer Robert McDaid. It has preliminary approved by the Planning Board for the construction of 60 houses.
   However, Mr. McDaid could give the land to the township in return for transferring those building rights to another piece of property where, under the township’s cluster ordinance adopted in December, housing units could be grouped closer together to create an open-space area around them.
   Mr. Feist said the Bank of China land, some 800 acres in Monroe Township, which has been added to Thompson Park, could be a source of land for soccer fields, but not for the construction of a school or anything else.
   He said the agreement, when the county acquired the land from the Bank of China in a condemnation suit, was that no buildings would be constructed on the property.