Public hearing delayed on redevelopment study

Public hearing delayed
on redevelopment study
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

HOWELL — A public hearing on a Route 33 redevelopment study was canceled this week and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Mayor Timothy J. Konopka said the June 30 public hearing on the Route 33 redevelopment proposal had to be canceled because some lot owners were not properly notified about the hearing.

According to municipal officials, the properties the township has earmarked for commercial development run along Howell’s Route 33 corridor from the Freehold Township border to the Wall Township border at the Route 33 and Route 34 intersection.

The redevelopment authority — the Township Council — has the power of eminent domain (condemnation) in moving the highway’s commercial development forward.

The redevelopment proposal authored by township planner Michael Vena’s firm, Remington, Vernick and Vena, states that it "recommends the Planning Board find and recommend to the governing body that all of the lands within the study area, including those which do not conform with the statutory criteria, which may be in acceptable condition and which host uses are permitted in the study area, are necessary for the effective development of the area, with or without change in condition."

There are eight separate criteria outlined in the study proposal and according to the study, "crucial to applying the aforementioned is the understanding that any one of the eight criteria are sufficient for a municipality to make a determination that an area is in need of redevelopment," and therefore eligible for condemnation by the redevelopment authority.

Some of the criteria that would make a parcel eligible for redevelopment include an area where "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 conductive to unwholesome living or working conditions."

The study goes on to state the in­tention of the criteria is "... to ad­dress outdated buildings or deterio­rated conditions across a range of properties."

In order to effect the powers of a redevelopment authority, the council will have to adopt an ordi­nance. This measure will follow public hearings on the proposal, according to township officials.