The public will have its say on a proposal to exchange a 35-acre parcel of county-owned parkland, on which the Board of Education wants to build a new high school, for 152 acres of undeveloped land owned by Monroe.
By: Leon Tovey
MONROE Opponents and proponents of the proposed Thompson Park land swap will get a chance to voice their opinions at 7 p.m. Monday when the first of two public hearings on the land exchange is held at the Monroe Township High School Richard P. Marasco Center for the Performing Arts.
The hearing is being conducted as part of the application process for the proposed exchange of a 35-acre parcel of the county-owned park, on which the Board of Education wants to build a new high school, for 152 acres of undeveloped land owned by the township.
Testimony from Monday’s hearing and a second scheduled for 4 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Freeholders Meeting Room at the County Administration building in New Brunswick will be reviewed by Green Acres officials. If approved by Green Acres, the exchange would still need the approval of Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the State House Commission.
Ralph Albanir, director of Middlesex County Parks and Recreation, said that while he and other county and local officials will be present, the hearings are not a question-and-answer session for officials and residents.
"The purpose of the hearings is to gather information from the public," he said.
To that end, anyone wishing to be heard on the issue will be given five minutes to outline their position, he said. A sign-up sheet will be made available shortly before the hearing, but there will not be a limit on the number of speakers; everyone who wants to speak will be allowed to, Mr. Albanir said.
Township voters in December 2003 approved an $82.9 million referendum for a new, three-story, 365,000-square-foot high school. The referendum did not specifically name a site for the school, but the plan to apply for a diversion was announced as part of the school plan when it was unveiled in April 2003.
The 2003 plan was a scaled-down version of a proposed, $113 million plan rejected by voters in 2002.
The Thompson Park plan received the approval of the freeholders in early 2004 and county officials applied for the diversion later that year.
The plan is opposed by local group Park Savers, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club and the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic. The groups have expressed concerns that the exchange would undermine the Green Acres program and they have argued that the land being offered by the township is not of the same quality as the park parcel.
The site is currently home to six soccer fields. The township has offered to build replacement soccer fields near the intersection Perrineville and Union Valley roads.

