Route 70 'desert' still under stop work orders
DEP awaits report while Morris hits roadblock with planners
BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer

Aside from some berming, a portable toilet and some mounds of dirt, what was on the Parkway-70 Plaza site in 2004 is largely what is there today. Developers had hoped to have the lifestyle mall opened by summer 2006.

BRICK - Two years ago, Piscataway development firm Edgewood Properties finished clear-cutting 29 acres off Route 70 to build the 280,000-square-foot Parkway-70 Plaza lifestyle mall.

Hailed by Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli as the last major piece in Brick's retail puzzle, the mall is slated to be anchored by a 149,200-square-foot Costco (20,000 square feet larger than the vacant Foodtown on Route 70) on the southern portion of the site, along with four adjoining buildings that get smaller in size moving north.

West across the proposed parking lot, closer to Route 70, four smaller buildings are planned.

The Planning Board approved the project in April 2004, an amended plan based on a former proposal by developer ARC Equities in 2001. The site had already partially been cleared by ARC, but because big plans had been made for the site, with over $1 million in tax revenue promised, and years had passed since work had continued on the project, board member Richard Gross sought assurances from Jack Morris, Edgewood Properties' principal owner, that his firm had the financial capacity to see the project through.

FILE PHOTOS

Morris assured Gross and resident Bill Nilan, who had said at the time, "I don't think it's good business on anyone's part to start a shopping center of this size without a commitment."

While the commitment still stands, nothing else on the site does; instead of the Brobdingnagian strip mall promised by Morris, a portable toilet, a trailer, dirt mounds sprouting weeds, and some equipment meant to monitor the toxicity of dust are on what at least one resident called the Route 70 "desert" today.

Morris has run into more than one brick wall with this project, and his luck seems to only be getting worse:

Morris' business partner in this venture, Middlesex County Democratic boss John Lynch, two weeks ago pleaded guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud, and admitted accepting a $25,000 bribe while he was a state senator; and the state continues to investigate how dust contaminated with potentially cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) came to be used as fill on the site.

Right around the time Lynch partnered with Morris in the project, Lynch's political action committee, New Directions Through Responsible Leadership, donated over $20,000 to local Democrats' campaign coffers in 2003.

The consulting engineer on the project, Maser Consulting, hired Scarpelli as a "goodwill ambassador" for the firm in 2004. Scarpelli resigned in August 2005 after he decided to run for a fourth term.

Add to that, Morris faced even more problems: Laborers protesting in the shadow of a giant inflatable union rat as a result of Edgewood's hiring of nonunion labor and a rejection from the state Department of Transportation for the site's traffic circulation plan.

Morris continues to try to move on with his plans.

He stood before the Planning Board with his engineering director, Ron Aulenbach, during a Sept. 6 workshop meeting where he was scheduled to update the board on the traffic circulation issue.

The board had previously agreed that JSM could receive a building permit to begin construction on Costco despite not yet having state DOT approvals for its traffic plans.

"They got approval for a building permit and testified there might be minor modifications [to traffic designs]," Priolo said in June. "Since that time, issues with the DOT have become major."

Priolo refused to sign off on the plans, prohibiting JSM from starting construction on the site.

Aulenbach, minus Morris, addressed the board in June, saying his firm was still awaiting a response from DOT.

He requested an amendment to the Planning Board resolution that would allow JSM to begin construction on another part of the site instead of the Costco building.

Board members told Aulenbach that JSM must come back before the board for a public hearing, which would include notifying nearby residents.

"We would have to have a public hearing," said board member Jane LaDuke. "This is being watched so carefully by the public, and it should be."

Morris and Aulenbach returned to the board Sept. 6 with a public hearing scheduled the next week to amend the board's resolution.

Their Sept. 6 visit was to report to the board that a Shorrock Street extension road would alleviate the traffic circulation issue, although Lakewood Township, where Shorrock Street is located, had not yet signed over the land to JSM.

In what reportedly became at one point a heated conversation, the board told Morris he would have to amend his site plans, not only the resolution.

Aulenbach told the board that it was his understanding that the board required public notice only because it was a high-profile case and the board wanted the resolution amendments to be made in a public forum.

"What you're asking for is far beyond an amendment to the resolution," said board attorney Charles Tivenan. "You're talking amended site plan. You're not going to entertain the impact of what you're going to do on an amended resolution. You need to file maps."

Board Vice Chairman Kevin Aiello acted as chairman that evening. Chairman Daniel Kelly was absent.

"You have the property, you want to move on it," Aiello said. "We're not [requiring you to] do anything that any other applicant would [not] have to do."

Morris would not comment on the application after the meeting.

Although Edgewood had decided on using the Shorrock Street extension road, the DOT has not yet responded to the firm's application, Aulenbach said.

On other fronts, the state DEP is still awaiting a final report from Edgewood and Ford Motor Co., the company that provided Morris with the fill. The last truckload of tainted fill was hauled off the property months ago, but the site has not been deemed cleaned by the DEP.

"Apparently, they indicated they removed concrete and cleaned up to our residential standards, but we can't confirm that until we look at the report," state DEP spokeswoman Karen Hershey said Monday.

The agency expects the report this week, she said.

Once the DEP is done with the site, Edgewood Properties then has to contend with the Ocean County Soil Conservation District.

The OCSCD has fined Edgewood $1,250 after the firm failed to comply with state regulations regarding maintenance of soil on the site, said Bill Slack, an inspector with the state agency.

"We're not sure if that will be the final amount," he said.

Flooding has become a problem on the site, with some water discoloration of the soil that drains off site, Slack said.

Edgewood has more internal problems, such as sediment filling the site's drainage system.

"They'll have to clean that out," he said. "We're not done with them."