Engineer: Crossroads could yield $189M
Twp. reports detail
impacts of proposal
to redevelop property
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

A tax ratable to the tune of almost $189 million could result from 750 age-restricted units and commercial uses on the Crossroads tract, according to an Old Bridge study.

Two leading proponents of the Old Bridge Crossroads Redevelopment Plan, Mayor Jim Phillips and council Vice President Patrick Gillespie, are pointing to that projected ratable, calculated by Township Engineer John Vincente, as evidence that the controversial plan is the best use of the site at routes 9 and 18.

The plan by the township’s Economic Development Corp. (EDC), over which Gillespie presides, calls for the Crossroads site to be a residential and commercial development with more than 700 age-restricted units at its core and a hotel and conference center at its northern end.

Vincente’s 19-page document, dated Aug. 9 and titled "The Community Impact Statement for the Old Bridge Crossroads Redevelopment Plan," was distributed to the nine-member Township Council about two weeks ago.

Vincente presented the statement’s major findings prior to the Aug. 16 public hearing on an ordinance to create the Crossroads plan. The plan was tabled at the hearing.

Projected savings in municipal and school taxes, based on Vincente’s findings, were presented during the same meeting by township Finance Director Himanshu Shah.

One of the three council members opposing the present Crossroads plan, Ward 5 Councilman Richard Greene, a Republican, showed appreciation for Vincente’s and Shah’s efforts, but said that because he had only received the reports on Aug. 13, he did not have sufficient time to review them.

About 300 residents came out to support, protest or question the Crossroads proposal that night. The council tabled it in a 5-3 vote, and the next hearing is set for Sept. 13.

In the community impact statement, Vincente compares and contrasts three different scenarios or "alternate development schemes" that could comprise the final Crossroads plan. The study lists a fiscal analysis including projected tax revenues and municipal costs of each of the three schemes. A traffic impact analysis is also featured for each.

Vincente notes that his data is based in part on information provided by David G. Roberts, a planner with the Schoor DePalma engineering firm. Roberts prepared the 37-page document detailing the Crossroads proposal presented to the council in April.

All three schemes call for a 283,000-square-foot hotel/conference center on the site of the present Legends golf center at the tract’s northern end.

The first two schemes both call for a combination of age-restricted housing limited to those over age 55, and commercial-retail development.

The third scenario eliminates the housing in favor of creating a commercial-office-industrial (COI) development only.

The scheme that predicts a $189-million ratable calls for 750 age-restricted homes, 185,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, and the hotel/conference center. A total of $891,103 would go into the township’s coffers and nearly $4.3 million in tax revenues would go to the Old Bridge Public School District under that scheme, Vincente’s report shows.

About 20,376 vehicles would be generated daily by that scenario.

Meanwhile, Shah’s figures show that the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $146,194 would save $228 in school and municipal taxes under that scheme. Those whose homes are assessed at $200,000 and $300,000 would incur municipal and school tax savings of $312 and $468, respectively, under the same scheme.

In the second development scheme, the housing is increased to 810 age-restricted homes, and the commercial/ retail space reduced to 87,000 square feet, for an estimated ratable of just over $190 million.

The township would gain revenues of $883,476 and the school district would again receive nearly $4.3 million in the second scheme. Such a development would generate about 16,900 vehicles daily.

According to Shah’s figures, the owner of a home assessed at the township average would save $228 in school and municipal taxes. The owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would save $313, while a home assessed at $300,000 would yield $469 for its owners under the second scheme.

The third scheme, showing the COI development, increases the commercial space to 761,500 square feet, and gives the township a total tax ratable of $85.6 million. That development could produce $453,087 in revenues for the township and $1.9 million for the school district, according to Vincente.

The COI scheme would add 22,496 vehicles to township roads daily, the traffic analysis states.

As for municipal taxes, the owner of a home assessed at the township average would save $112 in municipal and school taxes, while the owners of homes assessed at $200,000 and $300,000 would save $153 and $229, respectively.

Phillips has contended that the tract, also bordered by Marlboro and Texas roads, could fetch as much as $40 million from a developer wishing to build the residential and commercial mix on the land.

Proponents of the plan have argued that limiting housing to those over age 55 who have no schoolchildren will help the township achieve tax relief without adding students to the local school district.

Nonetheless, Greene, Ward 4 Councilman G. Kevin Calogera and Ward 6 Councilwoman Lucille Panos have countered that the tract should only be used for development according to a COI zone. That was what officials had in mind when the township purchased the land in 1997 from a bankrupt developer who had wanted to build more than 10,000 single-family homes there, according to Crossroads opponents.

The land was purchased under the administration of Phillips’ predecessor, former Republican Mayor Barbara Cannon, who has spoken out against the residential aspect of Crossroads.

During last week’s hearing, many residents living near the Crossroads tract protested any development of the tract at all, regardless of the projected tax relief. Those residents expressed fears that traffic coming from any development — residential or commercial — will ruin their quality of life.

Greene has gone on record stating that if the tract cannot be developed for COI uses, it should remain open space.

The council may vote on the adoption of the Crossroads ordinance, as well as a related measure establishing a redevelopment agency to oversee the project, at the next public meeting on Sept. 13.