Steelman School sale requires zone change Group would use building as private girls H.S. BY AMANDA BELING Correspondent The pending sale of the Fred G. Steelman School will require amending Eatontown's master plan to permit its use as a private school and has highlighted its historical significance. AMANDA BELING Fred G. Steelman School The Borough Council approved a motion to introduce an amended zoning ordinance 23-2007 at the council meeting Aug. 22. Steelman, the borough's first school building, is currently classified as a public school and the site is zoned P-1. To accommodate the sale, Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo said a modification of the P-1 zone needs to be made. "The P-1 zone is a public property zone, and it includes all municipal properties, schools and parks. There's roughly about a dozen P-1 zones in the borough," he said. Currently, the Board of Education administrative offices are located at the Steelman School located on Broad Street. "With all of the new school renovations that are currently under way, our plan was to move all the administrative offices of the Board of Education to an addition onto the existing Memorial School building, and make that part of the new construction," said Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo at a Borough Council workshop meeting Aug. 8. "With plans to move them to a different location, it presented us with the question of what to do with the Steelman School," Tarantolo said. "The Board of Education then indicated that they would honor requests for purchasing Steelman, and there have been several potential buyers, but the problem that arose was the zoning of that area," he added. According to Superintendent of Schools Barbara Struble, the potential buyer of the Steelman School is a nonprofit organization that wants to use the building to house a private all-girls high school. Struble said the contract purchaser is known as Block 301, Lot 51 LLC. At the Borough Council meeting Aug. 22, Tarantolo mentioned that without the zoning change, the potential buyer would have to apply for a use variance in order to use the building as a private school, which can be a complicated process. Eatontown resident Rosalie Sneath commented at the council meeting that she was upset by the fact that the public apparently has had no knowledge of the sale of the Steelman School. "I went to a few Board of Education [BOE] meetings and they gave me the impression that the school was sold and that there was a closing date, and I don't even think the town knew that a sale was going forward," said Sneath. In response to her concern, Tarantolo said that the school technically hasn't been sold, but there is a contract in place. "There are many incidents here in town where a piece of property is for sale, but the potential buyer can't use it for what they want to use it for. What they tend to do is go into a contract on the basis of getting the special permission that's needed to do their project, and I envision this sale being in the same category," said Tarantolo. Sneath's other concern was the additional traffic that would come to the area. "I don't mind it being used as a school, but my house borders on the property, and I just don't want to see a lot of buses parked there in addition to all the extra traffic added on to the Fort Monmouth traffic," said Sneath. Borough Attorney Gene Anthony noted at the council meeting that the amended zoning ordinance would also address the issues of parking on the school property. Tarantolo added that the ordinance is not official until the council goes through the process of a second reading, public reading, and then a public hearing. "At that time, we will have an opportunity to allow for the public to comment at the Sept. 19 public hearing meeting," said Tarantolo. In addition to the proposed zoning change initially mentioned at the workshop meeting Aug. 8, Borough Planner Rich Cramer of T&M Associates, who drafted the proposed ordinance, indicated some detail about the historical significance of the school. "He felt there was historical value there because it was the first school built in Eatontown," said Tarantolo. Originally built in 1907, the Steelman School was a six-room brick building. "It later had two expansions: one in 1938 and again in 1948. The first expansion added two more classrooms and a fireproof stairwell, and the second expansion added four more classrooms, which is what it looks like now," Tarantolo added. Right now, Tarantolo said, the Steelman School does not appear as part of the borough's historic district master plan definition. "Our concern was that we didn't want to alter the historical character of the building, but the language Cramer proposed in the new zoning ordinance would essentially put some impediments on adding additions to the school," he said. After reading the supplemental information in the ordinance, Tarantolo said he indicated to the council that it would have an impact on any modification made to the building to accommodate the private school, so council carried the item. "We sent a copy of what Cramer drew up to the Board of Education, to the potential buyer, and to the Historical Committee of Eatontown to get their input on the issue," said Tarantolo. "In conjunction with changing the zoning, we want to change the master plan to say that this building has historical significance and that any buyer needs to keep the historical characteristics intact. And if any expansions should be done, they must maintain any historical characteristics it already possesses," he added. "Steelman won't become part of the historical district, but by separate master plan amendment, it will have in there that it is a designated site, and it will be listed as a historical landmark," added Anthony at the council meeting Aug. 22. Struble said that the Steelman School will be sold for $1.4 million and that the closing is pending and everything should be finalized soon. "They're planning to open the school in September 2008. The buyer is very excited about it," she said. Struble feels the sale is a win-win for everyone. "This building will be maintained, and it's going to be used for a school, which is what it should be used for," she said.