Township and county given 4 new conditions
By Bill Greenwood, Staff Writer
MONROE — The state Department of Environmental Protection is willing to grant approval for a land swap between Monroe and Middlesex County that would pave the way for a new high school in Thompson Park.
Amy Cradic, assistant commissioner for natural and historic resources with the DEP, said in a letter dated Sept. 10 that the department would release 31.4 acres of the 35-acre proposed school site, which is protected by Green Acres restrictions, once four conditions are met.
According to Ms. Cradic’s letter, Monroe must agree to have an archaeologist on site to monitor the school’s construction, revise the survey and metes-and-bounds description for the parcel to indicate the 31.4 acres to be released, and transfer all replacement parcels to the county for the release. In addition, the county must place $627,000 that it will receive from Monroe into a bank account set aside for park improvement projects.
Once the conditions are met and official approval is received, Monroe will trade 175 undeveloped acres for the 31.4-acre portion of the school site, which then will be transferred to the Board of Education. Restrictions will be retained on the remaining 3.6 acres pending further investigation, according to the letter.
The letter does not specify the nature of the investigation but states that restrictions will be maintained until “analysis and reporting and/or data recovery” is conducted. Data recovery is an intensive excavation.
The 3.6-acre portion could be released once further investigation is completed there.
The DEP, which needed to grant final approval for the swap, came to its decision after reviewing the results of an archaeological investigation conducted by Richard Grubb and Associates, of Cranbury. The company had been trying to determine whether David Brainerd’s Bethel mission, an 18th-century community of Leni-Lenape Indians, was located on the proposed school site.
Officials from Grubb and Associates said last week that they felt the 3.6-acre portion of the site was historically significant, though they could not link it to Bethel. The company recommended that the DEP require data recovery on that portion and release restrictions on the rest of the land.
Assistant Township Attorney Peg Schaffer said Tuesday that the township is making progress on meeting the conditions. She said the survey and metes-and-bounds description for the site are in the process of being revised and should be complete within a few weeks. In addition, she said a resolution passed by both the township and the county last month authorized the transfer of the $627,000.
Ms. Schaffer said resolutions satisfying the remaining conditions would be voted on by the Township Council at its Sept. 24 meeting.
Once the conditions have been met, the DEP will issue an official “release of restrictions” letter, she said. DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said she did not know how long it would take for a letter to be issued.
Ms. Schaffer said she was happy with the DEP’s decision and thought the conditions for approval were fair ones. She said the township does not want to “infringe upon any historic significance of the site.”
”We’re anxious to dig up and preserve whatever’s there,” she said.
However, Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic attorney Richard Webster said the DEP should have preserved the entire site.
”Because it is likely that the rest of the site also contains much valuable historic information and many artifacts, we believe the whole site should be preserved,” he said in an e-mail received Tuesday. “Furthermore, from a practical standpoint, the likelihood of encountering remains means that moving forward with the school project on this site carries a major risk of further delays and cost escalation.”
Mr. Webster is petitioning the state Supreme Court on behalf of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group and local group Park Savers. The groups want the court to reverse a decision made in the Appellate Division of state Superior Court that upheld the State House Commission’s January 2006 conditional approval for the swap. Mr. Webster must ask the Supreme Court to hear the case because the Appellate Division’s ruling was unanimous.
Archaeological Society of New Jersey President William Liebeknecht said he also believes the whole site should be preserved.
”I feel that there has been enough evidence presented so far that says it is associated with Bethel,” he said. “They should find a new location.”
He also said data recovery should not be conducted on the 3.6-acre portion of the site, which he believes has yielded “exciting” artifacts and features.
”Data recovery is a very destructive process,” he said. “It’s irreversible.”