TOMS RIVER, NJ – A Redevelopment plan commissioned by Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill and the Toms River Township Council still identifies Ciba Geigy as a spot for redevelopment opportunities in Toms River.
Earlier this year, Hill and township officials denied the plan that the remaining 250 acres of buildable land at the site would be turned into commercial, industrial, or worse, residential housing developments. There has been a lot of political bantering around the federal Superfund site, but so far, nothing has been put down in writing to assure the residents of Toms River won’t be carrying more baggage into the future.
Hill, who once championed the plan, now says he opposes it, but files on record with the township show that the town’s redevelopment plan, last amended in September of 2019 still calls for Ciba Giegy to be part of the Hill plan to build out Toms River.
“Land Use Goal 7: Promote redevelopment of the Ciba-Geigy property, portions of Downtown Toms River between Huddy Park and the Parkway, and Route 37 between Fischer Boulevard and the bridge. Explore additional revitalization of Downtown Toms River through one or more rehabilitation area designations, including the waterfront east of Huddy Park and the downtown core between the river, Main Street and Hooper Avenue north to Madison Avenue along Hooper and Lien Street along Main Street,” the plan reads.
Councilman Dan Rodrick, however is calling for all of the Ciba Geigy property to be preserved as a wildlife management area as the town grapples with a deal on the table from the State of New Jersey to set aside 250 acres for development.
Ciba Geigy has long been one of the nation’s most notorious toxic Superfund sites. The pollution caused by the dye-making plant in the twentieth century led to widespread water contamination throughout the township in the 1980s and 1990s. Private wells were forced to be capped, and a child cancer cluster was identified.
Now, the state wants to reward the new owners of the property BASF with a sweet land deal, being pushed behind the scenes by shadowy local political figures who see a huge payday at the end of the pipeline for themselves and their affiliated builders.
According to a revised Toms River Master Plan, which Hill was responsible for drafting, Ciba Geigy Development is still considered an integral part of the overall project to ‘revitalize’ Toms River.
Over the past 15 years, Hill and town planners have quietly shifted Ciba Geigy from an industrial zone to a commercial zone.
“Create Redevelopment Plans with appropriate land use standards and bulk standards for mixed-use, compact development for the Ciba-Geigy site and the Route 37 Area in Need of Redevelopment (Coates Pointe),” the plan reads. “In the ten years since the 2006 Master Plan, there has been some shift of parcels from industrial to commercial, as shown in Table 6. The most significant former industrial property in the Township is the 1,200-acre former Ciba Giegy site, which is now listed as “4A” (commercial) rather than “4C” (industrial).”
In 2015, the Township engaged Together North Jersey to provide technical assistance in the form of a team of consultants to work with Toms River and Manchester to develop a vision plan for the Route 37 corridor between the Barnegat Bay and Lakehurst circle (interchange with Route 70) the Route 37 Corridor looked at the two major property holdings along the corridor, the 1200 acre former Ciba Giegy site in Toms River and the 7,000 acre former Heritage Minerals site in Manchester.
Ciba-Geigy is a former chemical manufacturing plant located in the southwestern corner of Toms River. The property is comprised of approximately 1,200 acres. A portion of the site is contaminated and cleanup is ongoing. Approximately 800 acres of the site is undeveloped and possibly uncontaminated land. The current zone designation for this site is Industrial.
“The Township is investigating possible redevelopment opportunities for the site and it was included as an “Industrial Center” in the Township’s Petition for Plan Endorsement that the State Planning Commission conditionally approved on January 18, 2017,” the plan update continued.
Hill and his team lost a GOP primary election in June. In November, Rodrick, who is steadfastly against any development at the Superfund site will run against Democrat John Furey who served previously on the township committee.
The official redevelopment plan has not been changed or modified during the four years of Hill’s term in office. Rodrick has said he would oppose that plan if elected in November.