U.F. may put affordable housing on former dump Allentown used to dispose of trash along Breza Road BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer Part of the Breza Road site in Upper Freehold that's under consideration for warehouse development formerly served as Allentown's dump. Richard Osborn, a lifelong area resident and former township mayor, said the 19.2 acres west of Breza Road that the New York City-based Rockefeller Group wants to donate to the township for affordable housing was part of the dump where locals discarded solid waste, recyclables, garbage and toxic trash. Last December, the Planning Board voted in favor of new Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) regulations, which would allow the creation of 100 affordable rental apartments in the Breza Road Commerce Park. The Rockefeller Group plans to construct 1.8 million square feet of warehouse/office space on Breza Road. The warehouse application - for which a decision is expected at the Planning Board's Nov. 30 meeting - has generated fierce opposition by area residents. Some residents have also suggested that the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education should consider the Breza Road site as an alternative location for the new middle school because the site on Ellisdale Road, where it is supposed to go, has wastewater management plant issues. Osborn has aerial photographs of the Breza Road site from the early 1960s and 1974. A 1961 aerial photo shows three sections of the dump, two along both sides of Breza Road near Allentown and another farther up Breza Road going toward Robbinsville. Osborn said the many small dots visible in the dump area in the 1961 photo are the remnants of car hulks. According to Osborn, the sewer plant in that area of town was constructed in 1965. In a photo from that same year, one section of the dump had ceased operation, as it was covered by the sewer plant, but the two other sections of it were still active. A 1974 aerial photograph illustrates that the dump area near the sewer plant was revegetated, but that the portion near Robbinsville was still active. Osborn pointed out that both farmhouses and outbuildings were visible in the photos. Although the buildings no longer exist, he said there could be old oil tanks at those sites. The dump site was not remediated to today's residential standards, but the cleanup was probably legal for what was required at the time, according to Osborn. The rules and regulations for cleanup of such sites are very different today, he said. In a letter to the editor, Osborn chastised current township officials for not doing their homework regarding the site. John Fabiano, president of the Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society, said the dump predates his arrival in Allentown. However, he said a conversation he had with a longtime resident confirmed the dump's existence. Fabiano said the longtime resident recalled garbage being collected in town and taken to an area near the present-day water plant, located by the town border with Washington Township. "This was behind Gordon Street along Indian Run, where a former canning plant was located," he said. Clifton Perry, of the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold, was the mayor of Allentown from 1970-79. He said the dump was near the current sewer plant, adding that municipal dumping stopped before he moved into town in 1967. Perry said the late John Smith, also known as Smitty, was the garbage man at the time the dump was in use.