educational uses for
historic Fort Hancock
Bennett supports
educational uses for
historic Fort Hancock
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer
Sen. John O. Bennett III, R-Monmouth, has added his voice to the growing opposition to commercial development at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook.
"I would hate to see it changed," Bennett said Tuesday. "I support being able to make some improvements to the buildings and having them be utilized, but it would be a shame to have high-intensity development out there.
"We don’t need that," Bennett continued. "Sandy Hook is a natural treasure and should be preserved that way."
The National Park Service is pushing a controversial plan that would allow private developer Sandy Hook Partners LLC to rehabilitate 36 of the historic buildings on Fort Hancock for a mix of uses that would include bed and breakfast inns, restaurants, a pub, commercial office space and space for educational programs.
The Park Service has signed a letter of intent to give the developer a 60-year historic lease for the properties in return for revenues that NPS officials say would help fund restoration of other properties at the historic military installation.
Gov. James E. McGreevey, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6) and Judith Stanley-Coleman, a Republican national committeewoman and president of the Monmouth Conservation Foundation, have voiced opposition to the commercialization of Sandy Hook, which is the remaining stretch of unspoiled coastline from Monmouth County to Long Beach Island.
Instead of commercial uses, Bennett, majority leader and co-president of the state Senate, said the buildings at Fort Hancock should be used by educational institutions and nonprofits that are focused on the environment.
"Schools would be great. I would like to see an expansion of programs like MAST (the Marine Academy of Science and Technology) and the marine science programs run by Brookdale Community College in Lincroft," he said. "I can look toward expansion in that area, but to have a lot of development out there, I would hate to see that.
"I’m saying I’m against commercial development. I oppose that," Bennett said. "I would rather see low-intensity usage by educational institutions or nonprofits connected to the water, like Clean Ocean Action."
Bennett also said he supports having the Memoria Project, a memorial to victims of 9/11, located permanently at Sandy Hook.
Last month Bennett introduced a resolution in the Senate supporting legislation pending in the House of Representatives that would exempt the memorial from federal guidelines, which do not allow memorials to be placed in national parks until 25 years after the event being commemorated has occurred. The House resolution was introduced by Pallone.
The Memoria Project, created at Sandy Hook over the summer, was relocated to an interim site at Veterans’ Park in Highlands because a Park Service permit, allowing the project to be located at Sandy Hook, had expired.
"I felt it was the perfect place to have it," Bennett said, calling the 25-year moratorium "a silly rule."
"This is certainly something that should be an exception to that," he said. "You could look out from Sandy Hook and see the towers. It’s a totally perfect and appropriate place. It was created there and should be returned there."