Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
REDEVELOPMENT RESOLUTION
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
Dover Township Council members took the first step Tuesday night toward having the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. property declared an area in need of redevelopment, a move Dover officials believe would give the township more control over the property's future use.
"This allows us to control what occurs on the Ciba-Geigy site," Councilman Michael J. Fiure said. "It is a step in the right direction."
Mayor Paul C. Brush has said he strongly supports the idea. As cleanup operations continue at the site, now owned by Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp., Dover officials have grown increasingly concerned about potential development plans for it.
Brush has said putting commercial ratables on the sprawling site is necessary to help stabilize municipal taxes in the coming years. The Ciba property, bounded by Route 37 West, Oak Ridge Parkway, the Toms River and the Pine Lake Park section of Manchester, is the largest vacant tract left in Dover.
Only about 200 to 300 acres were ever used for Ciba's industrial dye- and resin-making operations. That leaves nearly 1,000 acres of uncontaminated land that could potentially be developed.
Some residents feel talk of potential development is premature at best.
Linda L. Gillick, who chairs the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, said she does not believe township officials are even discussing potential redevelopment at Ciba.
"How anybody can think about redeveloping an area where there is still such a serious problem that exists, I don't understand," Gillick said Tuesday night. "It's beyond my comprehension that anything is going to be put there."
After receiving the council's redevelopment resolution, the Planning Board will likely authorize a study of the site and conduct a public hearing. The board then would make a recommendation to the council with its findings and a suggested redevelopment plan.
At that point, the council would have to decide whether to create an independent redevelopment authority or oversee the redevelopment itself.
Douglas J. Hefferin, vice president for Environment, Health & Safety at the Regional President's Office of Ciba Specialty Chemicals, attended Tuesday night's meeting and expressed some concern afterward about the council's initiative.
"I don't think that we need to have a separate entity just for this site," Hefferin said. Speaking earlier to the council, Hefferin noted that Ciba officials have been talking to the township about potential plans for the site for more than two years.
"We can probably work together," in spite of the council's decision to adopt the redevelopment resolution, Hefferin said. "It's an extremely important issue for Dover Township."
Hefferin said Ciba will soon hire a professional planning firm to produce a master plan for the site. Four firms, all from outside the area, have submitted proposals, he said.
The planning firm that is hired will be asked to get input from the community and the governing body, he said.
"We haven't made any decision," Hefferin said about the property.
Hefferin said any proposal for redeveloping the Ciba site would have to be approved by the Planning Board and would likely involve rezoning. The site is currently for industrial use.
He said Ciba officials have been concentrating on the ongoing cleanup of soil and the removal of drummed chemical waste from the property. Hefferin said officials expect the cleanup to continue for another four to five years.
One major sticking point in any future discussion of Ciba redevelopment is likely to be a lined landfill on the site that contains more than 30,000 buried waste drums. Brush, council members and many residents have demanded that the drums be removed.
The cleanup plan being overseen by the federal Environmental Protection Agency does not include removing the drums from the lined landfill, although more than 40,000 drums of waste have been taken out of an unlined pit on the site.
Both McGuckin and Brush said the township will continue pushing for removal. Brush said he spoke to state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell about the drums at the state League of Municipalities Convention in November, and the mayor remains confident that will be accomplished.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 01/26/05
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