UFRSD to consider Breza Road site for new school
Board approves soil testing not to exceed $4,000 on property
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

ALLENTOWN - The Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education will think about using the Breza Road property being considered for warehouse development as a possible site for its new middle school.

At an emergency meeting on Sept. 13, the board approved an agreement with Faridy Veisz Fraytak, of Trenton, to do a preliminary study on the Breza Road site at a cost not to exceed $4,000.

At a regular board meeting held the previous week, interim Superintendent of Schools Robert Smith had suggested that the board look at alternative school sites for its proposed middle school.

A 46-acre parcel on Ellisdale Road had been chosen as the site for the new school in a $38.9 million referendum in December 2004. At the Sept. 6 meeting, Smith said that the main difficulty in constructing the school at the Ellisdale Road site is getting an approved wastewater management plan.

The Ellisdale Road site is located in what the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP) designates a Planning Area 4, which is a rural area. Almost all of Upper Freehold Township is considered a Planning Area 4.

On Sept. 6, Smith said attempts had been made to reclassify the site as a Planning Area 2, which is an urban/suburban designation. However, according to Smith, although the change was approved by the Monmouth County Planning Board, it was denied by the county Board of Chosen Freeholders.

At the Sept. 13 meeting, board members noted that the school administration and the school's engineer, Paul Pogorzelski, have no evidence that the Township Committee ever sent a letter to the freeholders asking for a change in the Planning Area designation.

Smith said that if the Township Committee concluded that it wanted a change in the Planning Area designation, then sending such a letter would have been advisable.

At press time, Township Administrator Barbara Bascom could not confirm whether or not the Township Committee had ever sent such a letter to the freeholders.

Pogorzelski said it would take approximately 18 months to get a wastewater permit if the board decided to tie into the Beacon Hill wastewater treatment plant across the street from the proposed middle school site. The Beacon Hill plant is located on the site of the Four Seasons active-adult community, which it serves along with the Heritage Green housing development. Expansion of that facility would require a change in the township's ordinance, which prohibits such expansion.

Getting an extension of the village center designation of Allentown, which would also allow for the creation of a wastewater management system at the school site, is not possible, Smith said at the Sept. 6 meeting. He said Allentown Mayor Stuart Fierstein told the board that the Borough Council would not approve of the extension because the property is not contiguous to the borough.

The Breza Road tract is currently before the Planning Board for a proposed 1.8 million-square-foot warehouse complex to be built by the New York City-based Rockefeller Group.

Board member Stephen Murphy voted against directing the architect to complete an assessment of the Breza Road property and to determine if a middle school can be sited there. Murphy later explained that while this may be a suitable location for a school in the future, the board is in contract with Princeton Nurseries to purchase property on Ellisdale Road for the middle school.

Murphy said that Princeton Nurseries has acted in good faith by removing its tree stock from the tract. However, he said he does not believe the board is acting in good faith or showing it is committed to the contract with Princeton Nurseries by looking at the Breza Road site.

"In the event [that] the Ellisdale property is not suitable to build the middle school," Murphy said, "the board should seek out an alternate location with input from all the stakeholders including the Planning Board and the Township Committee, since they are currently updating the master plan."