Afederally mandated deadline for completion of a Fort Monmouth reuse plan has been extended just in the nick of time.
Chairman of the Fort Monmouth Economic Redevelopment Planning Authority (FMERPA) Robert Lucky announced last week at the FMERPA monthly meeting that the federal Office of Economic Adjustment, an arm of the Department of Defense, granted the request for more time that was submitted by the authority last summer.
The deadline, which had been Dec. 8, has been extended for nine months, to Sept. 8.
According to Frank Cosentino, executive director, the Office of Economic adjustment recognized that the extension was well founded.
“We have a plan for a public vetting process where we are going to go to each of the communities and the county to present the draft plans for comment. All of that takes considerable time and we do not want to rush that process.”
He added, “I recognized in March that the Dec. 8, [2007] deadline was not feasible. I instructed the planners some time ago that we needed to extend this. It wasn’t official yet, but they have not been working toward a Dec. 8 deadline. It was never attainable. For us to have anything close to what is required, a plan that will serve this region for the next 50 years, we need more time.”
He noted that the Sept. 8 extension should give them the time they need. But, he said, “As we go through this process, we will measure it each step of the way.”
Members of the authority were in agreement that an extension was necessary. At the August meeting of the authority, Cosentino recommended to the panel that it request a 270-day extension and requested permission to draft a letter asking for the extension.
At that meeting, Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo expressed his concern that the December deadline was much too tight. He said that 270 days was the minimum extension needed.
Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, who chaired the meeting, said she was going to suggest one year. In a voice vote, members approved the 270-day extension for completion of the reuse plan.
On its Web site, FMERPA describes its task as working with the Army, government officials and other interested parties in both developing a new vision for the property and to develop a specific plan of action to achieve the vision.
Earlier in the year, when the master plan consultants, EDAW Inc., were hired to draw up the reuse plan that involves mapping out the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth, which covers approximately 1,126 acres and three towns, they told the authority that it usually takes 12-18 months to come up with a draft plan for a closed military installation, but they planned to complete the draft plan by the deadline.
Timothy Delorm, vice president of EDAW, explained that his company, which has worked on the redevelopment plan for about 60 military installations, said the company had never before had to work in such a short time span.
EDAW’s contract runs through April 25, 2009, and can be extended if necessary.
The next meeting of the authority will be Dec. 16 at the Agriculture Building in Freehold Township.