News
Legislators Want Independent Study of Earle Housing Plan
By John Burton
COLTS NECK - A U.S. Navy proposal to open 300 housing units at Earle Naval Weapons Station to civilian use has met with considerable opposition from area residents as well as from local elected officials and federal legislators.
On Wednesday, state legislators who say they are skeptical of official Navy studies concerning the proposal have introduced new legislation, requiring an independent analysis before any state agency can issue permits to allow the plan to move forward.
During a press conference in Colts Neck, State Assembly members Declan O'Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande, and Senator Jennifer Beck (all R-12), announced that they have introduced legislation in their respective houses requiring that studies be done to analyze what the plan would mean for security at the naval installation, what impact it would have on the area's environment and what it would mean for the local public school districts which would educate the children from the housing units.
According to the legislators, these studies would be undertaken by state's Department of the Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, and with Rutgers University analyzing the school impact scenario, according to information provided by the legislators' office.
Those studies would have to be completed and provide a basis before the state's Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation, or any other agency could issue the necessary permits to allow the plan to move forward.
At the press conference held in front of the base grounds on Highway 34, the three legislators, whose district includes Colts Neck and Tinton Falls, the two communities which border the base, expressed their long stated opposition to the proposal as well as their sense that the U.S. Navy's positioning on the issue was predetermined to move the project forward, despite the objections, "Or they are totally incompetent," offered O'Scanlon in his assessment.
Situated on the Earle property is approximately 44.4 acres with the 300 housing units, initially constructed to accommodate military personnel and their families. That development, the Laurelwood housing complex, under a long term agreement, is scheduled to be turned over to a private developer in 2010, for an as of yet unspecified civilian use.
Colts Neck residents, who have established a formal not-for-profit organization opposed to the plan, Neighbors Opposed to Privatization at Earle, or NOPE, have been rallying to combat the proposal. That group has argued that allowing civilians access to the Naval property is a security risk in these post-9/11 days. They often point to the Fort Dix case, where now convicted suspected terrorists plotted to enter Dix as pizza delivery drivers to kill military personnel. They also point to the alleged environmental impact of constructing an unimpeded roadway from Highway 34 through the heavily wooded area to the housing complex. And what the effects an influx of families would mean for the schools - and by extension for taxpayers who would have to shoulder the cost of the education.
The Navy, which appears determined to move ahead with this plan as outlined in its contract with the developer, has released its environmental impact statement for the project. The legislators said the Navy's findings were not accurate. "We will pick up the slack," O'Scanlon said.
Afterwards Beck stressed the security concerns noting the state has experienced about 200 terrorist threats since 9/11. "We are still a hotbed of potential terrorist attacks," she said.
Their opposition, which has been shared by local and county officials, has some support in Washington with the state's two U.S. Senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both Democrats, expressing their reservations about the proposal, and with U.S. Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) a long standing ally for the NOPE group.
"It's opposed on every level of government, regardless of partisanship," Beck said.
The Assembly and Senate bills were introduced last Thursday and Beck suspects it will have considerable support. "I think it will be welcomed."
She and her Assembly colleagues couldn't estimate the cost of the studies, but hope to have them completed within 180 days of the bills' passage.
