Future of NL site will dictate quality of life
Guest Column
ROBERT SPIEGEL AND GREG REMAUD
The Sayreville Economic Redevelopment Agency's selection of O'Neill Properties as the designated redeveloper for the National Lead (NL) site will not benefit residents of Sayreville and Middlesex County unless O'Neill is truly committed to a balanced redevelopment. Time and again in this region, we have seen developers paving over every last inch of an important site, to no one's benefit but their own bottom line.

We cannot afford for this to occur at NL, however. NL is the single most important redevelopment in central New Jersey. With wetlands stretching for acres along both sides of the Garden State Parkway's twin span bridges at milepost 126, NL serves as the prominent gateway between north and south Jersey. This ecologically important site also sits on a peninsula where the Raritan River - the longest river solely in New Jersey - meets the Raritan Bay and Hudson- Raritan Estuary.

Fortunately, at 400 acres, NL leaves plenty of room for a balanced redevelopment that meets the economic needs of the borough of Sayreville and O'Neill, while also restoring this scenic waterfront site. In keeping with that spirit of cooperation, our nonprofit organizations, Edison Wetlands Association and NY/NJ Baykeeper, have proposed a balanced and reasonable greenfields plan that allows for twice as much redevelopment as the property's original industrial "footprint." This substantial economic redevelopment, in concert with the preservation and/or restoration of half the existing property, allows for a regional project that benefits everyone.

We believe that NL, which has areas that are seriously contaminated from many decades of heavy industrial use, can be cleaned up and redeveloped in a sensible and profitable way without paving over every natural feature and without leaving radiological contamination onsite under the future homes of families. Likewise, by restoring habitat onsite, we are creating an attractive riverfront wildlife preserve that can attract birders and wildlife viewers to the area.

Unlike vague promises of future tax ratables, our plan is economically and ecologically realistic. More than 1.6 million New Jerseyans watched wildlife in a single recent year, spending $1.24 billion in the process. Once NL is restored for the public, birders would flock to its long off-limits riverfront habitat, where threatened or endangered species such as the bald eagle, northern harrier, osprey and black skimmer are regularly spotted, and harbor seals share the water with an abundance of undersea life.

The alternatives are sobering. Without a balanced redevelopment, the promised ratables will come with a price: schools bursting at the seams, traffic jams, and, ultimately, higher taxes for the residents of Sayreville.

As for the wildlife needs, they are not merely a luxury. Should their homes be paved over, hundreds of deer and other wildlife will be displaced into the residential streets and backyards of Sayreville, with the increased accidents and lawn destruction that will accompany the displacement.

Both our organizations are committed to pursuing a balanced redevelopment of NL, believing that a big part of the quality of life for all central New Jersey residents will be determined by the future of this site. Working together, the NL redevelopment can benefit all New Jerseyans, not just the redeveloper and the politically connected officials with a stake in paving over every last inch of the waterfront.

Robert Spiegel is executive director of Edison Wetlands

Association Inc.

Greg Remaud is conservation director of

NY/NJ Baykeeper