Members of the East Brunswick Planning Board opened a redevelopment investigation on a stretch of Route 18 that reaches from N.J. Turnpike Interchange 9 to West Ferris Street.
The April 29 meeting served as a preliminary foray into the investigation, which will highlight blocks of commercial properties along the highway that are either vacant, underutilized or in disrepair.
Included properties will be slated for zoning changes as a way to spur new activity, according to Frank Banisch, a planner with Banisch Associates, consultants for the township.
“The thing you should think about is we’re creating value where things have been devalued, if we do a good job,” Banisch told the planners at the meeting.
Under state law, properties can be included in a redevelopment area if they are considered substandard, underutilized, vacant or covering an excessive amount of land, Banisch said.
In addition, properties surrounded by similar conditions, but not experiencing those conditions directly, can be included in a redevelopment area.
The Township Council previously decided not to include eminent domain or the condemnation of properties as part of the redevelopment investigation to reassure owners whose properties are included in the final redevelopment area.
Instead, properties selected for the redevelopment area would be subject to changes in zoning, which would be intended to serve as incentives for new economic activity.
The owners would retain the right to make any changes in ownership or usage of properties; the zoning changes would simply permit new uses. “What you’re going to do is change the zoning and allow somebody to do something different with the property,” Banisch said. “That ‘something different’ is going to be why someone sells the property.”
East Brunswick currently has a 12 percent commercial vacancy rate. According to Banisch, a decline in people age 25 to 34 has also contributed to the flight of commercial ratables.
Jeff Otteau, a real estate expert with the Otteau Valuation Group, has pinpointed the area between the Turnpike and West Ferris Street as a particular concern, noting that it would take 121 years to fill the retail space in this corridor at the current development rate.
The designation of a redevelopment area would be intended to reverse those trends.
While no action was required at the initial meeting, several members of the Planning Board stated their support for the prospect of a redevelopment area.
“I’m glad that we are reviewing the entire area,” Board Chairwoman Jeanette Tugya said at the meeting. “We need a redevelopment. We need this study and review.”
Tugya added that there has been “a big change” in factors affecting Route 18’s economic activity, and the township should respond to those shifts in the market.
Board member Laurence Reiss agreed, stating, “I think it’s a given that it needs to be redeveloped.”
Board member Charles Heppel said, “We all know [that area] is blighted.”
Planning Board Attorney Lawrence Sachs noted that there has been little activity in the way of applications before the township’s land-use boards for the area under consideration in the redevelopment investigation.
“As I was sitting here, I was looking at those pictures [of Route 18 buildings] and saying, ‘Have we had any Planning Board applications … in these areas?’ ” said Sachs, an East Brunswick native. “We haven’t. We haven’t had an application on the northbound side of Route 18 going toward the Turnpike.
“Clearly, the lack of activity … is a perfect indication that it’s an area that’s really in need of redevelopment.”
At the end of the workshop meeting, Mayor David Stahl encouraged the planners to look at the properties in question with an open mind, adding that just because a property looks to be in good shape does not mean it should be excluded from a redevelopment area.
The next step of the process will be for Banisch to return to the board with a draft investigation report, which the board will then review.
Banisch would then draw up a final report based on the board’s recommendations, which will be up for discussion at a public hearing before the Planning Board.
According to Banisch, it typically takes about four to six weeks from the initial workshop for the public hearing to occur.
After the hearing, the Township Council will vote on the Planning Board’s final recommendations to create a redevelopment area.