Redevelopment Plan For Parker Road Returns To Docket In Long Valley

LONG VALLEY, NJ — The Washington Township Committee will once again discuss the future redevelopment plan for the Cleveland Industrial Center, located at 20 Parker Road.

Plans for the site's redevelopment were first made public last month when the committee reviewed the draft of the ordinance, which would allow the township's zoning code to be amended.

The change was required to increase the number of permitted uses for the property.

The Cleveland Industrial Center, a 17.5-acre site on Parker Road, falls under the township's OR/I (Office Research/Industrial Zone), which has 17 permitted uses according to the township code.

Under those permitted uses, the township would be unable to develop a commercial recreation area, which the ordinance seeks to remedy.

The ordinance calls for the addition of three new uses, which can be seen here:

• Commercial sports arena.
• Mixed-use buildings consisting of office or retail on the first floor and residential second floor use consistent with all NJDEP regulations for residential reuse of contaminated sites.

• A neighborhood shopping center, which may include commercial, service and office uses, including flexible workspace solutions (traditional offices, shared workspaces, office suites with amenities), provided it is anchored by a grocery store of 30,000 square feet or less.

The Cleaveland Industrial Center has a more than five-decade history of industrial operations.

During the 1940s, the US government manufactured explosives at the site. In 1947, the property was sold to a private company, and it has been used as an industrial park since the 1950s.

According to reports, a tenant that produced sodium and iodine salts discharged its process wastewater directly onto the ground behind the complex. Lanterman Machine and Tools, Inc., another tenant, is accused of discharging hazardous waste into septic systems.

When Fabritex Mills, a manufacturing plant, stopped operations at the site in 1986, it left behind approximately 1,000 containers of chemicals, including flammable solvents, caustics, dry chemicals and laboratory reagents, NJDEP said.

During the 1980s, 17 private potable wells in the area were found to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds at levels exceeding New Jersey Drinking Water Standards.

Washington Township has long been aware of the extensive environmental damage caused by the Cleaveland Industrial Site.

According to the 2009 Master Plan Reexamination Report, "the optimum redevelopment potential to address local priorities at this site will be nonresidential, employment-generating uses, and potentially mixed use, including residential use, depending on the condition of the site after clean-up and a local evaluation of the best reuse of the site."

While the redevelopment is not expected to result in significant changes or increases in population density, it is anticipated that the project will have traffic impacts both during and after construction.