THE STATE WE’RE IN: Monroe failed to do homework

THE STATE WE’RE IN By Michele S. Byers Park purchase could set unwarranted precedent.

   How many of us were told we couldn’t go out ’til our homework was done? That’s what New Jersey’s Green Acres program does when faced with requests to divert preserved land for other uses.
   A new request is in from Monroe Township in Middlesex County. Monroe wants to use the 35-acre, county-owned Thompson Park for a new 365,000-square-foot, $82.9 million high school.
   The use of the park for a school may or may not pass muster with Green Acres, which does not allow the diversion of preserved land unless its certain tests are met, and rules are followed. The applicant must do its homework first, and that means proving that there is no alternate site, and coming up with acceptable replacement lands. The rules are designed to safeguard the public’s interest in the land — after all, tax dollars were used to buy these open spaces because of their public value — for recreation, water protection and many natural resource amenities.
   So did Monroe Township do its homework?
   No, the township did not do its homework before pursuing the park diversion. A local ad hoc committee did conclude that expanding the existing high school wasn’t a good idea, but there’s no supporting documentation on alternatives and a full alternatives analysis has yet to be conducted that would show that this would be the only feasible school site.
   As a replacement for the 35 diverted acres, Monroe proposes to preserve 77 acres of what is known as the "Billy Warren" property, adjacent to the existing high school. This land is owned by the township and already is preserved as part of a previous cluster development approval. This property also is inaccessible because it is made up of two sloped, wet parcels of land — hardly a fair trade for prime parkland. Green Acres requires replacement lands to be at least comparable in value to the lands being diverted. The "Billy Warren" tract isn’t close.
   Finally, the $82.9 million high school approved by township voters was not tied to a site, nor did it include the necessity of obtaining a Green Acres diversion for the site. So if the township doesn’t get free land, the final cost of the project could jump significantly. And Monroe voters previously denied a $113 million referendum for construction funding for the school, presumably because it was too expensive.
   Before proceeding any further, Monroe must backtrack and finish its homework by doing the alternatives analysis, and then determining the value and quality of replacement lands.
   Ultimately, if this diversion is granted as currently requested, every town that needs a new school, library, police station or other municipal facility will look first to preserved parkland to keep costs down and take the easy way out. Green Acres will be inundated with requests, and we will surely lose our lands we all thought were "preserved."
   I hope you’ll contact me at 1-888-LAND-SAVE or [email protected], or visit NJCF’s Web site at www.njconservation.org, for more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources.
Michele Byers is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.