Feasibility of community center will be known by October

A study that would determine the feasibility of building a community center in Brick is due in two weeks, acting Business Administrator Scott Pezarras said Sept. 12.

Although two feasibility studies for a community center have been completed for the township within the past five years, one for free, the other for $40,000, the Township Council approved the administration’s decision to commission a third $4,600 study to determine if a community center would even be financially feasible.

The resolution also allows for the study’s authors, KBA Architecture, Millville, to charge the towns $4,950 for each additional location the township wants studied.

The proposed site for the community center has changed at least once and may change again.

The township purchased a 23-acre tract behind Kohl’s Plaza in 2000 for $2.1 million, with the intent to build a community center. The proposed site was changed when the township purchased the former Foodtown property in 2003 for $6 million to prevent a Home Depot from being built on the location. The first site was sold in a January land auction for $12 million.

Both Republicans and Democrats made the community center an issue in the November 2005 campaign, with both camps promising residents a community center if elected.

Now members of the Township Council and Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli say the former Foodtown site may not be the site of a proposed community center despite Republicans putting out campaign material that showed them holding a sign on the property that read: Future home of the Brick Community Center.

Some residents, including All Around Realty owner and former Republican Councilwoman Helen Fayad, have urged the council to sell the Foodtown property to a developer who wants to build a hotel on it.

Township officials have discussed enacting eminent domain to take the Stavola asphalt plant, located next to town hall, and building the community center or expanding town hall onto the property.

Stavola sued the township’s Zoning Board in March after the board voted to deny Stavola’s plans to raze the over-40-year-old plant and build a new one that meets today’s environmental standards for emissions and noise.

Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority officials testified at Stavola’s public hearing before the board that the Metedeconk River was showing elevated numbers of toxins near the Stavola plant.

Stavola representatives disagree.

“The positive criteria outweighs negative criteria,” said Thomas Branch, Stavola’s director of engineering and development. “We’re certainly open to discussing I guess some sort of settlement if they want.”

– Colleen Lutolf