toward land swap
for high school
Green Acres approval
sought for park land
Town takes step
toward land swap
for high school
BY TARA PETERSEN
Staff Writer
MONROE — The township has taken the next step in arranging a land swap that will enable a high school to be built in Thompson Park.
Municipal officials filed a pre-application to the state Green Acres program that, if approved, will bring the township and ultimately the school district closer to acquiring a 35-acre section of the county-owned park for the purpose of building an 1,800-seat high school across the street from the current one.
The former high school would become a middle school, and the Applegarth Middle School would become the district’s fifth elementary school.
Voters approved an $83 million referendum in December to build the high school. The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders endorsed the land-swap plan in February.
The township is offering a 77-acre wooded parcel located on the eastern side of the park along School House Road and Route 522 as part of the "land diversion" through Green Acres.
The 35-acre parcel proposed for the school is at the corner of Perrineville and School House roads and is currently used for soccer fields. The fields would be relocated farther south on Perrineville Road, across from the Concordia Shopping Center.
School officials have said the current plan, which follows a failed $113 million 2002 referendum, saves taxpayers about $24 million over the previous plan. Land would not need to be purchased and there would be no duplication of athletic fields.
The close proximity of the new high school and the converted middle school would create what officials call a "campus environment" where, among other things, facilities can be shared.
The land swap has been met with opposition from a group known as Park Savers. Members have charged that the 77 acres is inferior to the 35-acre site, and that the board should not take land preserved under the Green Acres program.
Park Savers member Nancy Prohaska has said she believes the Green Acres organization is unlikely to approve such a diversion.
According to the Green Acres Web site, in order to gain preliminary approval for a land diversion, the school district must establish that there are "no feasible alternatives." It must also prove that the acreage being offered, in this case the 77 acres, is at least equal in size and value to the 35 acres being taken. Prohaska presented the school board with a letter from a Green Acres representative last year who indicated that he felt it would be difficult for the district to demonstrate that no feasible alternatives exist, given the amount of vacant land in Monroe.
Local officials disagreed. They have said wetlands, a lack of sewer and water lines in areas, and the presence of high-tension wires would make it difficult to use other properties, and that any other parcel would cost too much money.
Township Engineer Ernest Feist said Green Acres officials plan to consider the pre-application as early as next week.
The next step, Feist said, would be a full application to Green Acres. Officials also need approval from the state Board of Education and the State House Commission.