Former General Dynamics site now redevelopment area Planning Board approves designation BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer The Woodbridge Township Planning Board unanimously voted in favor of granting the former General Dynamics site, 150 Avenel St., the designation of redevelopment area last week. Paul Phillips of Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, a planning and real estate consulting firm in New York, presented the firm's 29-page investigation on why the area should be designated "an area in need of redevelopment," at the board meeting on Dec. 12. The site, which is 357,811 square feet on 27.54 acres, lies in an M-1 light industrial zoning district and partially in the R-6 high-density single-family residential zone. Phillips explained to the board that the laws governing redevelopment by municipalities in New Jersey - Local Redevelopment and Housing Law - has eight conditions, and if the site requested for redevelopment falls under one or more of the conditions, then it should be determined that the site is in need of redevelopment. "I believe that the General Dynamics site falls under three of the conditions," he said. Phillips cited that the General Dynamics site falls under condition A: the generality of buildings are substandard, unsafe, unsanitary, dilapidated or obsolescent, or possess any of such characteristics or are so lacking in light, air or space as to be conducive to unwholesome working or living conditions. "The building has been vacant and abandoned for seven years," said Phillips. "It has been historically a large manufacturing use." The original improvements on the property were constructed in 1916 by Security Steep Equipment Corp., which manufactured metal office furniture, bringing raw materials in by railway before shaping, cutting and welding the materials on-site. In 1963 the property was sold to the Electro Dynamic Division of General Dynamics, which used the complex for the manufacture and assembly of various mechanical components for military and industrial equipment, including submarine motors, generators and turbine fans. At the peak of General Dynamic's operation of the facility in the 1980s, there were approximately 1,100 employees. Facility operations by General Dynamics ceased in October 2000. Phillips added that the site fell under condition D: areas with buildings or improvements which, by reason of dilapidation, obsolescence, overcrowding, faulty arrangement or design, lack of ventilation, light and sanitary facilities, excessive land coverage, deleterious land use or obsolete layout or any combination of these or other factors are detrimental to the safety, health, morals or welfare of the community. "The building is over 80 years old," said Phillips. "The building is poorly designed, and the way it is designed makes it obsolete for modern-day industrial or warehousing type operations … it lacks modern air conditioning units, it utilized fan units; it is characterized by low ceiling heights, inefficient second-story space and closely-spaced interior columns, which make distribution or warehousing of goods or any manufacturing operations involving goods movement or storage difficult." Phillips said that the site also falls under condition E: a growing lack or total lack of property utilization of areas caused by the condition of the title, diverse ownership of the real property therein or other conditions, resulting in a stagnant or not fully productive condition of land potentially useful and valuable for contributing to and serving the public health, safety and welfare. "It has been found that the site has been plagued by environmental contamination due to its intensive use as a manufacturing facility for over 80 years," he said. "The environmental cleanup of the site is ongoing, yet the elevated level of contamination is not only a public health, safety and welfare concern, but it places the facility at an even greater competitive disadvantage in the marketplace." Township officials have held three public meetings on visions for the area, including a possible townhome development for the site, and the health concerns in the area.