Twp. floats plans for former Gen. Dynamic site Mayor, councilman say townhomes preferred over industrial, warehouse BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer Woodbridge Township officials presented a proposed plan for the former General Dynamics Corp. site, which had been the leading supplier of defense systems to the U.S. military, at 150 Avenel St. Over the years the site has had soil and groundwater contamination issues. "We have not decided on anything yet, but the site needs to be cleaned up and needs to be revitalized," said Mayor John E. McCormac at a town meeting on the General Dynamics Corp. site on May 17 at the Avenel Street School No. 4 and 5. Electro Dynamics Corp. of General Dynamics decided to close its Avenel plant of 357,811 square feet on 27.54 acres and relocate operations elsewhere in 2003. Township officials have sent out various vapor tests on the contaminated soil and groundwater. "We are still waiting for the results," said McCormac. "There will be additional meetings when we get the results back." McCormac along with Ward 3 Councilman Greg Bedard, who lives in the college section of Avenel, told the crowd of over 150 residents that another industrial, warehouse or retail use for the site would not be a good feasible solution. He said an art-themed work and live townhouse development with boutiques, an ice cream store, and cafes would be a better use for the site. "With another industrial, warehouse, or retail use for the site, the cleanup would not be significant," said McCormac. "With the development, we know that the cleanup would be at the highest level, and of all the suggestions, the town homes would cause less intrusiveness on traffic." Township officials said in the coming weeks the township would have the Township Council introduce a resolution declaring the 27-acre property in Avenel a redevelopment area, which would allow the township to work with the owners to come up with a suitable solution for the site. "The owners [brothers Joe and Tobey Cohen] have been very cooperative with us," said McCormac. "The owners have the right to do something with the site - we can't avoid that - but we can work with them and say that the townhouses that would abut the college section homes not be over two stories high. We will have control over the redevelopment of the area. We don't want a superior court judge sitting in New Brunswick, who does not know the area, to decide what can and cannot go into that site." Many residents expressed concern of additional traffic. McCormac said any development that goes on the site would inevitably generate traffic. "However, we believe the townhomes would be the least intrusive," he said. "If another industrial site goes up, there would be more tractor trailer traffic." Township officials said the proposed townhome development would inevitably produce schoolchildren, who would probably go to Avenel Street School 4 & 5, but would be at the minimum. "In the 200 units in the South Amboy development on the waterfront has produced only eight school kids," he said. "This is the way it tends to go: a husband and wife who are ready for the second child are ready to buy a home rather than stay in the townhouse. There won't be a significant impact on school children." Christopher Struben, who is running for a council seat in November, said he questioned the mayor's notion that the townhome development would not produce many children. "That is just hard to believe," said Struben. "And the more kids we have in the schools, the more our taxes will go up." McCormac said the township is still looking at other ideas, but have already ruled out a transit village for the area. "We don't want to make Avenel another Woodbridge or Metropark," he said. "We don't want to make a NJ Transit stop in Avenel." Many residents like Carol Hruschka, who lives on Lehigh Avenue, expressed concerns about the contamination. She presented township officials with 14 names of residents in the college section of the township between the ages of 15 and 60, who have died or have been diagnosed with cancer. "This is horrendous," said Hruschka. "The township needs to make sure they clean up that site 100 percent." McCormac said he and Bedard have had four house gatherings and when they heard about how many people had been diagnosed with cancer and how many people had died, they said they were shocked. "That is the more reason to clean up the site to the highest possibility," said McCormac. "We have no evidence that the contamination from the site is linked to cancer, but it's very coincidental and a big concern." McCormac said the owners of the site have given a check for $100,000 to the township for them to hire an environmental engineer to do their own study of the area. "The owners did not have to do this," said McCormac. "But now we can have our own environmental engineer to do studies on the contaminated site so we can compare our studies to the studies done by the owners and also the state DEP [Department of Environmental Protection]. We would provide the absolute maximum amount of cleanup for the area" Many residents like Arleen Madsen, who lives on Cornell Street, suggested the 27-acre property in Avenel become a park; however, township officials said it would be too expensive for the township to build a park or leave it as open space. "The cost of cleanup would add up to $600 million," said McCormac. "And the cost of building a park would cost the township $13.5 million, it would just not be feasible." However, other residents said to build a new school would cost much more than $13 million. Residents also expressed concerns about the endangered species that are on the site - red woodpeckers, turtles, turkeys and foxes. Township officials said the endangered species would remain safe and be taken care of. McCormac said the meeting was also a visioning meeting for Avenel, since Avenel does not have a downtown. The township is currently holding community "visioning" meetings, which are part of a $60,000 initiative to explore the township's business districts and the surrounding residential areas for changes to the township's master plan. "We want to make a place where people want to come to Avenel," said McCormac. "Many people think of Avenel as the sex offender place and the motels. Avenel does not have a positive image and we want to make sure this is done right to make a positive identification for Avenel."