City seeks state funds for site remediation

City seeks state funds for site remediation
Pax plans mixed use development for site
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — City officials have applied for state funding for an environmental study on a property in the Broadway Arts redevelopment zone.

The City Council voted 4-0 at the May 12 meeting to approve a resolution reaffirming the property located on the corner of Belmont Avenue and Third Avenue as a redevelopment zone. Councilman David Brown was absent for the vote.

Business Administrator Howard Woolley Jr. said the city has a developer’s agreement with Pax Construction, which owns the property, and that the city must do an environmental study before the property changes hands.

“There was a tank in the ground when we were conveying it for Pax about two years ago,” he said. “Part of the agreement is that we had to do an environmental study on it.

“We found out we had an oil tank in the ground there,” he added. “When we took the oil tank out, we found out there was a slight amount of contamination.”

Woolley explained that the city is looking to apply for funding from the state to help with the remediation of the site.

“We are applying to the state for their hazardous discharge site remediation fund to get funding to finish the study and to do any necessary cleanup,” he said. “They made funds available, so we don’t have to use any city money.

“In order to get that, you have to have the resolution. It’s a requirement for applying for the funds.”

Woolley gave some history of the property.

“It used to be a parking lot and a small office,” he said. “It actually is in an area of redevelopment since 1996, but they wanted this specific resolution passed.”

The property sits in the Broadway Corridor zone, and Woolley said a recent court decision leaves the status of the zone unclear.

Last month the state Appellate Court ruled that because of recent landmark court decisions, the redevelopment ordinances in the Broadway Arts zone are invalid, and the city now has the option to make its case that the zone meets the tougher standards found to be necessary by the courts.

Woolley explained what Pax plans to do on the property.

“They want to build commercial space with residential above it,” he said. “We approved it, I want to say back in 2008.

“Part of our developer designation agreement with them is to convey the property before they buy it from us.”

Woolley said the city doesn’t expect much of a problem clearing the site.

“These things can go from a $20,000 or $30,000 project to a $200,000,” he added. “You never know.”

He gave a timeline for the study, which is to be done by Birdsall Engineering.

“Once we get the go-ahead, it will probably be completed within 45 days,” he said. “Hopefully we will get going on it in the next two or three weeks.”

Pax Construction and the city reached a developer’s agreement in 2008 on a proposed plan for 22 live/work units to be constructed on the property.

The project also included a 52-space parking garage, a restaurant, six stores, a rooftop café, a dance studio and an art gallery.

Principals in Pax Construction are the Pereira family, who are also partners in the Broadway Arts Center redevelopment project in the downtown Broadway redevelopment area.