Monroe’s proposed land swap, designed to make room for a new school at the site of a current park, is a necessary evil.
By: Hank Kalet
Monroe’s plan to build a high school on 35 acres of county parkland is not ideal.
Allowing already preserved property to be used for school facilities would seem on its face a bad idea, one ripe for abuse and one that could endanger the entire concept of preservation in Monroe, in South Brunswick and across the state.
That’s why many of the state’s largest environmental organizations and about a third of the 70 or so people who spoke at Monday’s hearing at the current Monroe Township High School have come out against the proposed swap of 35 acres in Thompson Park for several wooded parcels that total about 152 acres.
From the environmentalists’ perspective, municipalities, counties and the state should make every effort to gobble up as much undeveloped land as possible and keep it undeveloped. Therefore, rather than make the trade, Monroe should just add to its store of preserved property.
Seems simple, right?
It’s not. Monroe’s peculiar demographics have made this land swap a necessary evil. Seniors make up nearly half of registered voters in the township, with a greater percentage turning out to vote. That means that any school district proposal that calls for extra spending faces an uphill battle.
That’s one reason the school district and Township Council arrived at the current land-swap plan. Seniors turned out en masse in September 2002 to oppose a $113 million referendum that called for construction of a new high school on Applegarth Road. The numbers tell the story: While 39 percent of all registered voters showed up at the polls, turnout in the township’s then-five senior communities was a mind-boggling 47.8 percent, with 78.8 percent voting to nix the proposal. The raw vote totals are instructive: 4,538 voters in the senior communities voted against the plan (1,223 supported it); by comparison, just 3,493 voters outside the communities showed up at the polls, with 2,521 backing the plan.
The upshot was a 5,510-3,744 defeat that sent the school board back to the drawing board.
In discussions with voters particularly, senior voters that occurred following the defeat, two things became clear: The board was going to have to slash its price tag and it needed to build the new high school closer to the center of town.
That left the board with few options which is why the Township Council became involved and the land-swap proposal was placed on the table.
Voters in Monroe liked the plan it passed with 62 percent of the vote and was supported in four of the five senior communities but a handful of residents, organizing themselves as Parksavers, were opposed. They enlisted the assistance of the state environmental community, which is pushing hard for the state Green Acres program to nix the swap.
I can’t fault groups like the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the Sierra Club for getting involved. They have been among the most consistent and effective groups in the state in taming the development beast. In this case, however, I have to question if they understand what exactly it is they are opposing. After all, they are not at war with developers and the property that would be used for the high school is not under threat from a shopping mall or a housing development.
There also is the question of what will happen if land-swap opponents are successful in their fight. What exactly would be gained?
The 35 acres of soccer fields would remain soccer fields and the 152 acres being offered by the township would be turned to some other use some would be preserved, I am sure, while some would probably end up housing a variety of other public buildings.
And what about a new high school? The school board has $82.9 million set aside from its December 2003 referendum for the building a figure it already says is too low to build what is needed. And without the land swap, the board would be left without a place to build, meaning it would have to find a parcel and buy it, further inflating the costs.
That would mean another high school referendum putting the fate of a new high school back in the hands of voters who have shown a historical antipathy toward school spending.
What is at stake here is not the fate of a small portion of a park, but the ability of local voters to determine how best to manage the lands in their own communities and how best to use their own tax dollars. As I said, we are not talking about building a warehouse on the park, but using a small piece of it for another public purpose, one that is far more important than a handful of underused soccer fields and getting more than four times the property back in return.
In many ways, developed parkland which often includes public restroom facilities, concessions, lighting, parking and other amenities is not a whole lot better environmentally than a school building. Neither are what I would call pristine land.
The environmental groups, however, don’t see it that way. All preserved land is the same, as far as they are concerned. And that does a disservice to children in Monroe and could leave other communities like South Brunswick and Cranbury without the flexibility to address their own growing enrollments, ballooning tax bills and shrinking store of undeveloped land.
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press. His e-mail is hkalet@pacpub.com.