O'port council vexed over fort authority

O’port council vexed over fort authority
Public forum, withdrawal from reuse plan on the table
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

OCEANPORT — Borough officials last week bounced around concerns about the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth and discussed options such as holding a town hallstyle meeting or even withdrawing support for the fort reuse plan.

Their concerns center on legislation that would create the Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (MERA), a state authority that would implement the Fort Monmouth reuse plan.

The bill, S 917, would lay out the guidelines by which the region would rebuild for the next 25 years following the Army’s departure from the fort property in 2011.

Borough Council President Joseph Irace suggested at the Feb. 18 workshop meeting that the council organize a town hall meeting and invite officials to explain how the bill would impact Oceanport.

“We’d like to have a public meeting with anyone from the state that wants to come and explain why this is a good bill,” he said. “We’d like to invite the sponsors from the Senate, who are Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-20th District) from Union County and Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-12th District) from Monmouth. We’d also like to invite the three sponsors from the Assembly. I’d like to have all three of them come down and explain why the bill is good.

“And Otis Jones, director of urban development for the EDA [Economic DevelopmentAuthority]— have him come in and explain to us why this is a good bill for Oceanport and Monmouth County.”

When introduced, the MERA bill raised concerns in the fort’s three host communities of Oceanport, Eatontown and Tinton Falls. The most prominent concern is that the state would have more power over the authority, and therefore the future of the fort, than the three municipalities and the county.

Of the board’s 13 members, nine would have voting powers: five members appointed by the governor, one member appointed by the Monmouth County Freeholders, and the mayors of the three host communities.

The final two voting gubernatorial appointments would be the chief executive officer of the EDA, as well as another member of the executive branch.
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The four nonvoting members of the authority would be the commissioners of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Transportation. The governor would also appoint the chairperson of MERA.

A meeting arranged by Beck between the host municipalities and the county resulted in drafting some 14 amendments that sought to balance control of MERA.

Among the changes is the requirement for a supermajority vote of the 13-person authority for any significant changes to the Fort Monmouth reuse plan. Another amendment requires approval by local zoning and planning boards of any development that takes place on portions of the fort property that fall within their borders.

At the Oceanport workshop meeting, Irace said it is important to get Beck involved in the public forum, along with representatives from Tinton Falls and Eatontown.

“I’d touch base with their administrators and tell them what we want to do,” Councilman Jay Briscione said.

Irace explained his main objections to the bill in an interview.

“The first one is the vote totals,” he said. “Currently the state has five votes, each of the municipalities has one vote and the county has a vote. In any kind of formula we lose out 5-4 in the vote totals.”

In order to get measures passed, there must be a supermajority of seven of the nine votes, but Irace doesn’t that as beneficial to Oceanport.

“That does little for Oceanport because the state can use its leverage to play one municipality against another,” he said.

Irace said another concern is the EDA’s oversight of the redevelopment.

“I have a major issue with the [EDA] being the master developer,” he said. “As far as I can tell, they have no experience of being a master developer of anything.”

Irace also took issue with the revenuesharing aspects of the bill, which allow MERA to collect a portion of the sales tax raised through sales generated on the fort property for revenue sharing for the region.

“Oceanport is the smallest municipality of the three and has the most to lose,” he said. “There are no specifics on how this money is going to be billed out.”

Language in the MERA bill regarding eminent domain also sounds an alarm.

“The use of eminent domain is permitted in the bill both inside the fort district and, what scares us more, outside of the fort district,” he said.

Irace’s final complaint is that Oceanport is responsible for a greater share of affordable housing than the other towns.

“Since Oceanport does have the lion’s share of housing do we get all the affordable housing?” he asked.

“Our concern is the current 6,000 residents of Oceanport,” he said. “It takes Oceanport’s future out of the hands of Oceanport and puts it in the state of New Jersey.”

Councilwoman Ellyn Kahle suggested the council hold a public forum at nearby Shore Regional High School and questioned Borough Attorney John O. Bennett III about whether it would be feasible for Oceanport to secede from the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth.

Bennett explained such an action would be very complicated and pointed out that the impact of the fort reuse could be beneficial.

Briscione agreed that the borough does not know what the future economic impact of the development of the fort property will be.

“We still don’t know if the costs associated with a buildout are going to be positive or negative on the taxpayers,” he said. “That has been our bone of contention — we don’t know yet.”

Bennett suggested that the development might end up being positive for Oceanport.

“If, in fact, the economic engine that we would like to see [at the fort property] happens, then you would probably want that to be a part of Oceanport,” he said.

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.


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