With the challenge of drafting S-917, the N.J. Senate bill creating the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA), behind them, officials now look toward the challenges of assembling the authority and actually receiving the property from the federal government.
Gov. Chris Christie signed S-917 on Aug. 17, beginning the process of forming the new entity.
“We have virtually five votes that are chosen by entities other than the state of New Jersey,” said Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-12th District), cosponsor of A-597, the N.J. Assembly equivalent of S-917.
“Now we have to make sure the right people are put into place.”
Lillian Burry, director of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders and vice chairwoman of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA), will return to represent the county on FMERA. Monmouth County officials announced her appointment Aug. 27.
The mayors of Eatontown, Oceanport and Tinton Falls will join her as local voting members on the authority.
The bill also requires the freeholders to submit a list to the governor of five Monmouth County residents, one of whom the governor will appoint to the authority.
Two additional gubernatorial appointments, plus a member of the governor’s staff and the chairman of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority hold the four voting positions not native to Monmouth County.
The authority would also have nonvoting members, consisting of the commissioners of the departments of Transportation, Labor, Environmental Protection, and Community Affairs.
Oceanport Borough Council President Joseph Irace said recently that he was not as optimistic about the balance of the authority.
“We’re deeply disappointed with the outcome; it’s not in the best interest of the residents of Oceanport, we, the council, believe,” he said.
“There were 40 amendments that were added to the bill; each one of those amendments gives us a little bit more control, but we still don’t have total control of what can be redeveloped in our town, and that’s the concern.”
Another amendment added by legislators requires a supermajority of seven of the nine voting members of the authority on any significant modification to the plan.
Irace said that he is concerned that the state might circumvent the supermajority by playing towns against each other to arrange votes in its favor.
Additionally, an amendment also requires all issues of density and the construction of a train station to be approved by local land use boards.
However, Irace said he would have preferred if each town was given final say in what redevelopment happens within its borders.
Once all the members of the authority are appointed and assembled, the next step is negotiating with the Department of Defense (DoD) over the transfer of Fort Monmouth’s 1,100 acres.
“We have to strike the best deal we possibly can with the government, and that deal will be struck over the coming months,” O’Scanlon said.
“That is very important; we don’t have any money to buy property from the federal government.”
Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-12th District), cosponsor of S-917 and the primary advocate for most of the bill’s 40 amendments, said that she will fight to receive the property free of charge.
“It is my belief that the Department of Defense should be giving New Jersey that property, [and] it’s one that we’re going to go to the mat on,” she said.
She said that DoD initially mentioned charging the state for the land.
“Those suggestions were rejected immediately,” she said.
O’Scanlon said that the New Jersey Economic Development Agency’s (EDA) expertise will be invaluable during upcoming negotiations.
“We will benefit greatly during that negotiation by having people from the EDA as part of it, because they’ve been through it before.
“They really know what we’re looking for very specifically and how to make our case to the federal government,” he said.
All involved agree, however, that obtaining the property is just the beginning of a long recovery process.
“Once that flag comes down in a year, … what we need to do is very quickly put
that property back to productive use to the community and generate private sector jobs,” O’Scanlon said.
For Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo, this cannot come soon enough.
“The big factor here is that we’ve lost a year, and time is of the essence. We’re already starting to see the effects of Fort Monmouth’s closing,” he said.
“I’m getting vibes from the business community that some of the business is already off and that … the economic void that we’ve been anticipating has begun.”
The exodus of fort employees, he said, is beginning to affect some local small businesses, especially those that did a sizable lunchtime business with fort workers.
“We’re really going to see the impact of Fort Monmouth’s closing … probably this fall, winter and early spring,” he said.
The improvement district created through the bill, Beck said, will help mitigate and reverse these economic losses.
The improvement district allows the authority to keep 3.5 cents of the 7-cent sales tax on purchases in the area for redevelopment of the fort property.
“The reason the state was able to do this is because we don’t get sales tax revenue from that property right now, so we’re not losing any revenue by allowing for that. This is all new revenue,” Beck said.
She emphasized that it was not an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), which simply reduces the amount of sales tax collected; the full 7 percent will still be levied on purchases in the district.
O’Scanlon also spoke on the future role of the legislators now that their primary task is complete.
“We have no formal role as outlined in the legislation, and we shouldn’t,” he said.
“The role I perceive is us being here to continue to fight for the spirit and the intent of this legislation that created the authority, to ensure that the balance of power is reasonable and that it actually works the way we intend it to work.
“We have a great deal of accountability here, that we accept, to make sure that this bill and the intent of this bill is met,” he said.