Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Dover Township officials did not vote on a resolution asking the state to begin discussions about a possible purchase of the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. property last night, after a committeeman voiced concerns that the purchase could limit the township's ability to buy other properties.
The resolution, proposed by Township Committeeman J. Mark Mutter during last night's public hearing on the township's draft open-space plan, was in response to the Open Space Committee's request that the township be more involved in discussions about the future of the land.
"We need to be involved in what's going on out there," Open Space Committee member Michael Donini said last night. "We should be present to know what's going on."
Mutter's resolution called on the state to provide the majority of the funding for the property, with a "consortium" of unnamed public and private entities to provide the remainder of the money needed to buy the land, currently zoned for light industrial use.
But Committeeman John F. Russo Jr. said he could not support Mutter's resolution because he fears that using a large amount of state funds to purchase the Ciba land could limit the funds available for other properties that are likely to be developed much sooner.
"There is a finite supply of money the state is going to give us, that the federal government is going to give us," Russo said. "We can't get everything. The question is, what is most important?"
Russo said he would have to be assured by state officials that the purchase of the Ciba land would not reduce the amount of state funds available for other property purchases in the township.
Mutter introduced his resolution, but it was not voted on -- none of the other three committee members present would second it.
Russo, Gilmore and Mayor Ray Fox and George Gilmore, the county's Republican chairman, agreed to meet to discuss the state's interest in buying Ciba before any additional resolutions are considered. Gilmore is a township resident.
About 1,050 acres of the 1,350-acre Ciba site -- the largest vacant property remaining in Dover -- have never been developed and are considered uncontaminated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA officials have indicated that the remainder of the property, where Ciba's dye-manufacturing operations took place, will likely be deed-restricted even after an ongoing Superfund cleanup is completed there.
Gilmore said discussions about the future of the Ciba property have already been held with state officials, representatives of the nonprofit Trust for Public Lands and Ciba representatives about the state possibly acquiring the property.
"You have a golden opportunity, if you want it, to try to get the state to acquire this property at virtually no cost to the taxpayers of Dover Township," said Gilmore, Cranmoor Drive.
Committee members last night approved sending a copy of the township's open-space plan to the state as part of a Green Acres Planning Incentive Acquisition Application. The application package the township will submit will qualify Dover to receive low-interest loans, as well as grant funding, for property acquisition through the Green Acres program.
Published on June 28, 2001
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