BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer
EDISON – Is it time?
The Township Council tabled a resolution recently to award a contract to a professional planner to evaluate Hartz Mountain’s plans for the old Ford Motor Co. site on Route 1.
Council members want to meet with representatives of Clark Caton Hintz, a specialized planning and urban design firm, at a future public meeting.
“I thought it was premature,” said Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano. “Nothing is happening with that site. There’s been so much going on; there’s been so much turmoil going on in the township. Let’s get the cleanup done.”
The planning firm would receive $17,500 through an escrow account funded by Secaucas-based developer Hartz Mountain, the new owners of the 102-acre site.
Township officials and residents had little enthusiasm for Hartz’s initial proposal earlier this year of what to do with the site. Since Hartz has not yet presented any alternatives, some council members questioned the new contract’s timing.
The Ford site was scrutinized recently when it was announced that crushed concrete tainted with low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was trucked from the site and distributed to 11 redevelopment projects throughout Middlesex, Mercer and Ocean counties.
Ford spokesman Jon Holt said last week that Ford would hand over complete ownership of the site to Hartz Mountain once the state Department of Environmental Protection deemed the site clean and ready for residential use. That has not happened yet.
Mayor Jun Choi said the administration was not being premature in proposing to bring Clark Caton Hintz on soon.
“This administration is being proactive in developing plans for our community that strongly represent our interest,” he said. “The purpose of Clark Caton’s professional services is that they respond to the proposals that Hartz has made already. They critique it from a professional planning perspective. They look at long-term impact studies in all regards – sewage infrastructure, road impacts, the increase in the number of students in the school system. All of that.”
Still, some council members questioned the role of McManimon and Scotland, the redevelopment attorneys that are already expected to oversee the redevelopment of the Ford site.
“Let’s be honest with what’s going on,” said Councilman Peter J. Barnes III. “The lawyer [McManimon and Scotland] is simply a draftsman for the documents. That’s it.”
Barnes, an attorney, said he felt the law firm was overpaid at $185 an hour. He had originally opposed hiring McManimon and Scotland when the rate had been $195 an hour.
Despite the mayor’s assurance that was a fair market rate, it was much