Breza Road property to undergo cleanup
Property with two possible uses is contaminated
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD — A 45-acre parcel on Breza Road, scheduled to be preserved as open space but also under consideration as the site for a unique farm development to fulfill the township's Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligation, has contamination issues.

At the Nov. 20 Township Committee meeting, the governing body voted unanimously to hire the firm Environmental Resolutions as environmental engineers to look into the matter. Mayor Steve Alexander said the committee has been advised that there is contamination on the portion of the site known as phase two of the Breza Road preservation project, and it wants to do its due diligence prior to closing on the tract. He said the township wants to review the reports it has received and conduct its own studies to feel comfortable with any decision made for the parcel.

Last year, a 101-acre Breza Road property was permanently preserved. The new middle school is adjacent to the site. In October, the township and Planning Board put forth the idea of creating My Farm, a housing development on an active farm with crop growing areas, a greenhouse, livestock areas, and a farm stand, on a portion of the site to fulfill its new COAH obligation as the property is one of the only parcels in town zoned for public water and sewer. According to COAH planner Richard Coppola, the My Farm concept would satisfy the township's entire COAH obligation with 138 units for people with disabilities. My Farm residents would be offered employment and training in crop growth and management, greenhouse operations, livestock care and farmgrown produce retail.

Kathy Haake, a project manager for the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit land conservation organization that negotiated

the land acquisition for

preservation with landowner Neil Van Cleef, said when the sale of the 101 acres closed earlier this year that the second phase of the project was undergoing cleanup. According to Haake, there are two areas of debris on the property that has undergone thorough testing of soils, sediments, surface water and groundwater.

"The landowner and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), as the regulatory agency, are evaluating the results now to determine what will be necessary to make the land available for passive recreation and our open space acquisition," she said.

Haake added that if the property is to be considered for COAH housing, it would need to be re-evaluated as different requirements apply to residential housing. When asked if the property had once been the site of a town dump, as reported by a resident in 2006, Haake said that there has been no confirmation that the site was a town dump.

"As the township would be a future owner of the property, it certainly makes sense for them to do their own review of the environmental assessment," she said. "We expect the cleanup will be completed quickly and closing will take place early next year."