Boro to offer comments on reuse plan for fort Eatontown to establish ad hoc committee to evaluate FMERPA plan BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer EATONTOWN- Borough officials have 60 days to evaluate the preliminary Fort Monmouth reuse plan before they submit comments to the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA) for review. The reuse plan was presented to the Eatontown Planning Board at an April 21 meeting held by representatives of both FMERPA and the acting project master planner, San Francisco-based consulting firm EDAWInc. The reuse plan calls for the creation of a retail center,municipal complex, residential housing and continuous large-scale open space areas. Planning Board member Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said at themeeting that hewill establish an ad hoc committeemade up of key borough officials in order to review the plan within the 60-day time period. "We probably have a 60-day interval or window to respond to what we have heard," Tarantolo said. "I think it's probably a good idea for us to create an ad hoc committee to address what we heard. "I think we should have members of the Planning Board represented, maybe some members of the environmental commission represented, and Zoning Board members," he said. According to Tarantolo, the committee will be taskedwith evaluating the FortMonmouth reuse plan and address any issues the boroughmay have with it, including the proposed zoning, environmental issues and the economic impact the fort's closure will have on the area. The borough ad hoc committee will submit comments for review to EDAWInc. and FMERPA, who will then craft a draft plan based on the committee's findings. The plan will then be submitted to Gov. Jon S. Corzine for approval in August, according to Tarantolo. Pending Corzine's approval, a final redevelopment draft planwill be presented to the public at anAug. 13 public meeting. The plan will then be submitted for final approval to the FMERPAboard onAug. 20. Should the FMERPA board approve the final plan, it will be submitted to the Department of Defense's (DOD) Housing and Urban Development section on Sept. 8. According to Frank Constantino, executive director of FMERPA, if the DOD does not approve the proposed final redevelopment plan, they could request that FMERPA begin the redevelopment process again by drafting a second reuse plan. Eatontown's portion of the Fort Monmouth reuse plan calls for the construction of approximately 300mixed-income residential houses, 150,000 square feet of retail shopping, 145,000 square feet of office space and 126 acres of open space, explained Tim Delorm, vice president of EDAWInc. The plan also calls for the construction of a hotel and conference area near the existing Sun Eagles Golf Course, which will be preserved for the borough, he added. According to Delorm, before any construction at the site can begin, the DOD will be required to remediate any contaminated areas within the fort that will be developed. "So if it's a housing area and there is contamination, they have to bring it up to a housing-area standard," Delormsaid. "If it's going to be commercial or industrial, they only have to bring it up to that level. "The DOD is responsible for that cleanup," Delorm said, adding, "It's never going to be the community's responsibility or the county's responsibility to clean that up." Tarantolo questioned whether the DOD would also be responsible for cleaning up the WampumLake located near Route 35 in the borough. "Its been said that the contamination of ourWampumLake is due to FortMonmouth operation," Tarantolo said. "We have heavy metal concentration in the lake. It has been declared by the county as one of the worst [contaminated] lakes in Monmouth County. "Whowould assume the responsibility for cleaning up our lake, once Fort Monmouth closed?" Tarantolo asked. Constantino replied, "I'm not going to pretend to know the absolute answer, but the guideline as I understand it, Mayor, is that if it can be proven that the military's use created a contamination circumstance, that it is their responsibility to clean that circumstance. "I'm not aware that there is any indication of that circumstance that you just described as being part of their obligation or their concern," Constantino said, adding, "but I can look into that if you wish." In addition to discussing any environmental impact that the fort's closure could have on the borough, EDAW Inc. representatives also discussed the kind of economic impact borough residents can expect as a result of the fort's closure. According to Todd Poole, director of Economic Planning for EDAW Inc., approximately 3,043 employees are expected to lose their jobs when the fort closes in 2011. Planning Board Chairman Paul Kirzow disagreed with Poole's estimate, stating that well over 10,000 people including 5,000 fort employees and 5,000 independent contractors, will lose their jobs when the fort closes. "There are a lot of FortMonmouth people who live outside these gates," Kirzow said. "There are people who depend on [the fort]. "You're talking about $3.2 billion a year in salaries that come out of Fort Monmouth," Kirzow added. With the reuse plan expected to take approximately 20 years to be fully implemented, Kirzow said that despite extensive planning, the fort's projected 3,043 former employees will not wait that long for new jobs to become available. "We are not saying that they are going to have to wait 20 years," Poole said, adding, "On the same token, on day one, there won't be 3,000 jobs materializing." Citing a study of base closures from around the country done by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Poole said that on average, 40 to 50 percent of the jobs that were lost as a result of fort closures were replaced within 10 years. "Redevelopment on this scale and reuse in terms of a military base takes time," Poole said, adding, "You are also subject to the vagaries of the marketplace. "So all of those things factor into how quickly this may or may not happen," Poole said. The Fort Monmouth reuse plan includes plans for the three towns that host the fort: Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport. Included in the reuse plan is the concept of individual town centers to be located in each of the host towns. The town centers would be connected by updated roadways, jitney service and a continuous "blue-green belt" of open space and trails. The reuse plan also calls for attracting "green industry" companies to corporate parks, as well as the creation of 450 acres of open space by incorporating clustered development. The plan also includes 1,500 units of mixed-income housing, 1.5 million square feet of office space and research and development facilities, two hotels, and the preservation of many of the existing housing and high-tech facilities, throughout the fort. Planners anticipate that about 40 percent of the plan would be realized within 10 years and stated that they would be trying to attract high-tech companies to occupy the facilities and equipment in the existing Myers and McAfee centers. The three host towns are being encouraged to look into sharing services and revenues on Fort Monmouth lands.