Township Edges Closer To State Approval For Town Center Plan

Mayor leaned back in his chair in his office at Town Hall and smiled.

He had just received a text message from Township Planner James M. Oris, updating him on his meeting with State Planning Commission representatives last Friday.

The news was good. The long battle to obtain state approval for the plan - which includes the dilapidated Beachwood Shopping Center - is almost over.

"We are looking toward a speedy resolution and plan endorsement hopefully by late spring or early summer," Oris told Amato on speaker phone. "This sets the stage for the redevelopment of the Beachwood Shopping Center."

The shopping center - once home to a Woolworth's, supermarket, bowling alley, Jersey Mike's and a slew of other stores - has sat unused and slowly deteriorating for almost a decade. Sections of roofs are starting to cave in and yellow tape lines the parking lot to keep trespassers out.

Amato grimaces when asked what he thinks of the current state of the boarded-up, nearly vacant site, which is actually in Berkeley Township on Route 9 South.

"It's very frustrating," he said. "You have this gateway to our community. Welcome to Berkeley Township. It's the first thing people see. It's definitely an eyesore. It's horrendous."

The township still has to receive state approval for its redevelopment zone maps. The maps include various planning and environmental components, including critically sensitive environmental areas, Oris told Amato.

The decaying buildings and roughly 150 acres of property have been owned by the Johnson family for decades. Brothers and Eugene Johnson have died. The Johnson family does have a very interested buyer - well-known developer D.J. Donofrio, former Township Planner and now-consultant David Roberts has said.

But the site comes with other problems. The Johnson family's former asphalt plant behind the shopping center is contaminated by piles of coal tar illegally dumped years ago. The tar has to be removed and the soil remediated.

Donofrio and the Johnson family have worked out a settlement for clean-up costs of the asphalt plant property. The contamination does not extend to the shopping mall section, Amato said.

But unless the state Planning Commission approves the Town Center plan, Donofrio is limited to developing only 30 percent of impervious coverage on the site. If the plan is approved, that percentage would jump to 70 percent, greatly increasing the number of ratables.

"It's a very long and tedious process," Amato said. "We have to do what we can to get this moving as quickly as possible."

The Beachwood Shopping Center - dubbed Town Center 1 - is just one component or "node" in the township's massive redevelopment plan. The Berkeley Plaza shopping center, which has Shop Rite as the anchor store, and the land around Frederick Drive and the Shar-A-Dee apartments is designated as Town Center 2.

The third portion of the redevelopment plan is the extension of a light industrial area along Hickory Lane. The fourth section involves more intensive mixed use development of 73 parcels along Route 9 near Harbor Inn Road.