BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
TINTON FALLS – – Despite questions on the part of public officials about the real economic and safety costs of closing Fort Monmouth , the Fort Monmouth Economic Redevelopment Planning Authority (FMERPA) is pushing forward so that it can meet the Dec. 8 deadline imposed by the federal government’s Department of Defense.
The public meetings held in each town and the county last month are over and the information has been analyzed.
Frank Cosentino executive director of FMERPA, said at the July 18 meeting of the authority that the information-gathering public meetings were well attended with between 70 and 130 people at the charettes (meetings).
According to Todd Poole, who is with EDAW Inc., the San Francisco-based firm that has been hired to oversee the redevelopment plan, the Visual Preference Surveys that came out of the public input portions of the meetings, are complete and will probably be ready in a little more than two weeks.
Cosentino recently explained that the Visual Preference Survey (VPS) was created by Professor Anthony Nellessen of Rutgers University, whose specialty is vision planning and urban design.
Poole said, “The next step is to brief FMERPA on what they entail,” but, he added, that is just one component of the process.
“We are still in the information gathering stage and will be through the summer,” he said.
Also critical to the timely completion of the draft master plan and study is the input from the various committees formed to analyze the myriad components involved in the realignment and closure of the 1,126 acres which encompass three towns, Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport.
Poole commended the various subcommittees of FMERPA for moving ahead with their meetings so quickly, but, he said that everything has a timetable and they won’t be ready to analyze the committee reports until other things are done.
“Everything is running in a concurrent fashion,” he noted, adding, “It’s better to take our time and get it right.”
Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said that the borough’s master plan is ready for EDAW. Tinton Falls Mayor Peter Maclearie said the borough’s plan has also been approved.
Tinton Falls’ master plan includes a wish list of buildings it would like to have and a vision for a town center that would be a vibrant mixed-use development with commercial, residential, entertainment and public uses in a traditional main street setting.
Oceanport is in the process of completing a plan.
The first charette was held June 12 at Monmouth University in West Long Branch. That meeting was followed by local meetings in the three host towns and one at the county level.
At each of the meetings, there was a description of the process and then the public was invited to present ideas.
“If there is a vision that is going to form the plan, the public will be a big part of it,” Cosentino said last month.