Eatontown Mayor Brings Residents Up to Speed on Fort Monmouth Progress

On Tuesday at a town meeting to update residents on the Fort Monmouth closure, Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo presented some excerpts from an April meeting of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA). At that meeting, the Matrix Design Group gave an outline of their work to build a living document that would be a master plan and database for the redevelopment of the fort.

The mayor also recapped recently, like hiring a design group to draw up the business plan required by the federal government, and hiring a planner who will work directly with town planners to build continuity between the redeveloped fort and the master plans of the three towns it inhabits.

The business plan, which the Matrix Group will compile, will be used to:

•  Negotiate a deal with the Army for transfer of the property.
• Plan for the resuse and redevelopment of the approximately 900,000 square-feet of real estate.
• Get final federal approval for transfer.

The business plan will direct revenue from the property into an escrow account tha will be used for:

• Demolition of inadequate facilities.
• Renovation of commercial space.
• Ready residential units for lease.
• Provide infrastructure improvements to inadequate transportation and utilities.

The redevelopment is also required to provide for the management and maintence of the property and funds for the increase in costs of municipal services. Matrix estimates that 51% of the funds for the redevelopment project will come from lease revenue.

Tarantolo also touched on the two properties he thinks will be the first to be redeveloped or reused, the Suneagles Golf Course and Howard Commons  for residential housing.

Environmental Concerns

Part of Matrix’s work is also cataloging the contamination at the fort. The mayor reiterated claims made by Matrix and representatives from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection from previous meetings that whatever contamination is discovered at the fort, now and in the future, will be cleaned up and paid for by the federal government. According to Tarantolo, there are more than 300 acres that can never be developed at the fort because they contain landfills, contamination and wetlands.

In future stories, Patch will explore pollution in Eatontown that residents and officials suspect originated from the fort.

New Municipal Complex

One of the mayor’s great hopes for Fort Monmouth is for Eatontown to acquire Mallette Hall, the general's former headquarters and home to CECOM, for use as a new municipal complex. The structure comes complete with an auditorium and outdoor amphitheater for town functions and geothermal capabilities, waiting to be hooked up. This would be part of the mayor’s plan for a new town center, which the borough now lacks. He sees the town center as a mix of residential, commercial and open space.

Buildings adjacent to the municipal complex would be used as “incubator office space” for businesses looking to locate at the fort. "We’ve already gotten some bites,” Tarantolo said. “We have a major manufacturer interested and we’ve already had some meetings.”

Tarantolo is hoping to get the building and property as a gift and because he feels a sense of ownership over it already, he is worried about how it will be protected once the fort shuts down. See Patch's story on the 100 days before closure. 

View complete presentation from Tuesday night's Fort Monmouth update in the photo gallery.