condemnation brings
out property owners
Prospect of
condemnation brings
out property owners
BY SHERRY CONOHAN
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff With Route 35 splitting Eatontown’s downtown, the borough faces a unique challenge in revitalizing the area.
EATONTOWN — The Borough Council has informally agreed to move on to Phase II of redevelopment for the downtown district.
After listening at its Feb. 4 caucus meeting to an update from Tracy Challenger, president of the Agora Coalition, Red Bank, with whom the borough has a contract for Phase I, the council directed Borough Business Administrator Michael L. Trotta to ask Challenger to prepare a proposal outlining the next steps to be taken and the cost to take them.
The council will have to vote at a regular meeting on paying for the plan.
Challenger explained to the council that redevelopment is a three-phase project, with the third phase being implementation of the plans developed in Phase II.
Council President Theodore F. Lewis Jr. said he would review the proposal that Challenger presents and then appoint a committee consisting of members of the governing body, property owners, business owners and professionals to provide a vision of what the borough would like to see happen.
"It’s a step-by-step process," Lewis said. "We have nothing to make a decision on now. We don’t have any potential solutions. There’s no guarantee that anything’s going to happen.
"After we get a planning committee," he added, "we may decide there’s nothing we can do with a downtown district split by a four-lane highway [Route 35]."
The council has approved the designation of the downtown district as an official redevelopment area in keeping with the requirements of state legislation.
Challenger told the council that along with that designation come powers, including that of condemnation, and financing tools to make things happen.
"We know the downtown area is plagued with a lot of problems," she said. "It is not going to improve on its own. It is not going to improve with private forces."
Challenger noted that Phase I was to determine if the borough met the criteria in state law for an official redevelopment designation. She pointed out that the Planning Board had recommended to the council that it make the designation. She said it may take 18 months to two years to move through Phase II and develop a plan to make over the downtown district.
One of the most novel suggestions to come out of a previous borough meeting on redevelopment was a suggestion from a resident to build a tunnel to carry Route 35 through the downtown district, which was warmly applauded by other residents at the meeting.
Trotta said it will take a great deal of discussion at the citizen level and the council level to come up with a conceptual plan on what should be done. He said he was sure Challenger would recommend in her proposal what professionals the borough should turn to for help.
Once a plan is devised, he said, the borough would move on to Phase III and name a redeveloper to carry out the plan the civic committee and professionals have drawn up.
Trotta said the borough already has received phone calls from a lot of people who want to be the developer to implement the plan. He said whoever gets the contract will have to demonstrate a previous successful track record.
"We will prepare an RFQ — a request for qualifications," he stressed. "We’re not interested in one guy, plus two John Does, who say they are sure they can figure out a way to work this out."
Trotta said the interested companies would be narrowed down to four or five for the council to screen. But, he said, that’s two to three years out — if the borough develops a plan.
"We’ve told them we’ll give them every opportunity," he said of the inquirers.
Challenger said the potential of redevelopment in the borough has attracted many people in her business. She said retail is only part of the downtown district and noted the location of borough hall and many other public facilities in the downtown area.
"It’s unusual to have that many civic amenities in one place," she said. "The opportunities are very great. You have the potential to provide a laboratory for the state."
Challenger told the council that the total assessed valuation of the 72 properties in what has been designated the downtown redevelopment district is $18 million, of which $7.5 million is nontaxable. She said 40 percent of the properties are commercial, 25 percent are public facilities, 15 percent are charitable organizations, 10 percent are residential and 7 percent are vacant.
Trotta said Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo has been working closely with the state Department of Community Affairs to seek funding to pay for the redevelopment activities.
Several members of the business community attended the meeting and condemnation was very much on their minds.
Most had in hand a letter they had received from a Morristown lawyer, Henry J. Riskin, telling them condemnation could be in their future with redevelopment and holding himself out as someone with experience in the field who could help them.
Trotta said, however, citizens and business owners should know that if the council decides to go forward with redevelopment the borough would be nowhere near taking such action for some time.