The East Brunswick Planning Board has recommended that a corridor along Route 18 with multiple commercial properties, some vacant, be designated as an area in need of redevelopment.
“There are properties that do not have full occupancy and some, quite frankly, are vacant,” said Mayor David Stahl, a member of the board.
“The redevelopment process is to provide incentives for good planning to those property owners so they could say, ‘I never thought I could do that with my property.’ ”
During a contentious public hearing on Sept. 16, the East Brunswick Planning Board addressed the concerns of business owners in the proposed redevelopment area, which comprises eight areas with commercial and office spaces along the northern corridor of Route 18.
In order to be designated as in need of redevelopment, a property must meet at least one of eight criteria including: dilapidation, excessive coverage, pavement unraveling, outdated design, or lack of proper utilization.
Some business and property owners in attendance said that they fear that being in a redevelopment area would mean that the township would have the authority to condemn their properties.
Everyone would be getting a lot less resistance if [the board] at least hinted to what the next step would be. Im assuming its not going to be massive property tax reductions, said William Winters, owner of office space within one of the designated redevelopment areas.
I would imagine its going to be a developer coming in and saying, I want all this property to do X with it.
Stahl responded, This administration is never going to recommend to the Township Council that eminent domain will ever be used. I dont know if I could be more blunt about it.
According to borough officials, designating the areas in need of redevelopment would benefit the borough as well as property owners.
The beauty of redevelopment is that you have the ability to contract with the property owner and do things more freely than with actual zoning, said Frank Lehrer, who is the special redevelopment counsel for the township.
Its a great tool to get property owners to do something with their property that they ordinarily wouldnt do.
According to Lehrer, the township would like to see more multi-use development as well as mixed-use properties.
Participation in the redevelopment zone, according to Lehrer, who is with the Warren law firm DiFrancesco Bateman, is voluntary, and property owners have the choice to leave their property as is.
In a report compiled by Banisch Associates Inc., Planning and Design, eight areas along Route 18 were found to meet the criteria for redevelopment.
Area 1 includes nine lots on Route 18 between Ruth Street and Eggers Street; Area 2, which stretches from Ruth Street to the Edgeboro Road jughandle, includes nine lots; Area 3 comprises seven lots north and south of Lake Avenue; Area 4 straddles 11 properties between the most northern point of Old Bridge Turnpike and Route 18; Area 5, which contains strip malls north and south of Tices Lane, includes six; Area 6, which is situated at the corner of Tices Lane and Harts Lane, involves two lots; Area 7, located on Harts Lane, includes six lots.
However, during the Planning Board meeting the board chose to remove Area 7 from the plan, saying that the area is already optimized.
Area 8 includes a stretch of 16 properties on the corner of Route 18 and West Ferris Street.
For some, being in a redevelopment zone could be stigmatizing.
We could be cute with the language, but thats really the disconnect here. These people understand what is going on with their properties. Youre telling them that they meet the criteria that their properties should be blighted, said David Lonski at the public hearing on Sept. 16.
The law recognizes that there is a stigma attached to properties that are deemed to be blighted.
Lehrer took issue with the comments.
If its called an area of redevelopment, its not a death sentence, Lehrer said.
It means that there may be incentives provided to you. If you decide that you want to take advantage of some of those incentives such as payment in lieu of taxes, fiveyear tax abatement, there are a whole host of economic incentives.
For some residents, it is about time the township begins to look for ways to reinvigorate the stretch of the major highway.
The redevelopment of Route 18 is long overdue. It points toward the dire need to not only restore retail and economic vitality to the storefronts of East Brunswick, but to catch up with well-tested practices of smart suburban growth, said Steven Padhi, a resident of the township.
Part of the reason the township is in such dire straits in regard to its retail sector, said Frank Banisch, whose firm created the report, is the sharp decrease in millennials in the area.
If you look at East Brunswick specifically, weve lost 3,000 millennials between this year and 2000, said Banisch.
That is really concerning because as you lose those young workers, the demand for homes, retail space [and] offices are affected.
According to Banisch, this is a trend that can be seen throughout the county.
The planning board voted unanimously to approve the resolution and recommend the redevelopment designation to the Township Council. The council is expected to decide whether to accept the recommendation at the Sept. 28 meeting.