Council wants boro's biz district revitalized Pollando: Sayreville can't wait for Nat'l Lead to bring tax relief BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer SAYREVILLE - Like many business districts across the nation, the borough's downtown area along Main Street has struggled since the rise of the shopping mall. "The whole history of land use following World War II was the migration of commercial activity from the center of cities and towns to the shopping malls in the suburbs," said Randy Corman, executive director of the Sayreville Economic Redevelopment Agency (SERA). Neighboring towns such as Woodbridge and South Amboy have been making efforts to redevelop their downtown areas, and Democrats on the Borough Council want Sayreville to do the same. "Unfortunately, there has not been leadership in our community on this issue," council President Thomas Pollando said at Monday's meeting. He announced the council's intention to look at ways of revitalizing the business district with help from the Planning Board and SERA. Republican Mayor Kennedy O'Brien, who was not present at Monday's meeting, later told the Suburban that he directed SERA to look into redeveloping downtown and three other areas of town when he was a member of that agency. He noted that Democrats on the council did not reappoint O'Brien to the agency, despite the mayor's three attempts to be reappointed last year. "When I was a member of SERA a year or two ago," O'Brien said, "I asked SERA to form subcommittees to begin looking at the process of revitalization downtown [and on] Route 35, Route 9 and Raritan Street. They had been exploring those projects, but where that has gone since I was not reappointed to SERA, I don't know." Pollando said at the meeting that residents have asked if the governing body will do something to improve Sayreville's business district. "I believe [that] if we can make Sayreville's downtown business district a destination where businesses want to locate, we can generate necessary tax revenue, improve [the] business climate of the community, create jobs and ultimately make Sayreville a better place to live," Pollando said. The business district extends roughly from the intersection of Washington Road and Main Street north toward where Main Street meets MacArthur Avenue. Pollando said this area has been neglected for years. Tax ratables are needed now, Pollando said, as officials continue to work toward the redevelopment of the former National Lead site, whose borough-designated redeveloper, LNR Northeastern Investments Inc., withdrew from the project last year. "We can't wait for National Lead," Pollando said, adding that the council will look at ways of funding redevelopment. "The people up there [on the council] understand and are looking to do more than what we have, without raising taxes." Corman told the Suburban that downtown areas in towns like South River, South Amboy and Milltown are currently more active than Sayreville's business district. "They are more active in terms of traffic, the number of businesses, and their [downtown areas] are truly centers of town," Corman said. "Sayreville has a lot more area, so [the business district] does not really serve as a geographic center." Routes 9 and 35 have a greater business presence than county roads such as Main Street because they are major highways, Corman said, adding that the council's interest in revitalizing the business district should help move things along. "If the council makes it a priority, things should move faster," Corman said. Corman said the borough will need to employ professionals to conduct planning studies and see what is possible. "There are a couple of ways to do it," Corman said. "Some towns have the redevelopment agency do that, but SERA does not have the money to hire a planner to do that. The council could work on it directly. Other municipalities set up special improvement districts, like Woodbridge." SERA looked at the four areas in 2003, Corman said, but ultimately did not have the funding to pursue the projects. "We started with Morgan on Route 35," Corman said. "That is what led to Club Bene [later called Krome] being designated as a redevelopment area. Beyond that, we haven't had funds to engage planners. We applied for grants, but we haven't gotten any." O'Brien said he wanted to see property owners included in the redevelopment process. "What I didn't want to do, which I am adamantly opposed to, is condemning property from existing property owners," O'Brien said. "I wanted to make it a town effort to benefit all." The first step would be to get a general consensus of interest, O'Brien said, adding that planners would then come up with concept plans in accordance with the zone. O'Brien said he had hoped that the National Lead redevelopment project would be a mechanism that led to other areas of the borough being redeveloped. He said he did not want to burden taxpayers with the cost of planning the redevelopment of downtown or any other area. "We [SERA] were looking for necessary funding to come in for preliminary planning concepts from the National Lead site and other redevelopment sites," O'Brien said