Politics & Government

HUD Signs Off on FMERA Plan for Fort Monmouth Redevelopent

Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo announced that the final approval from the federal government will allow FMERA to move forward with the fort's redevelopment.

After years of being stuck in a holding pattern awaiting federal government approval, the Fort Monmouth Economic Redevelopment Authority (FMERA) has been given the green light to move forward in its planning, according to Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo at the June 22 Eatontown Borough Council meeting.

Tarantolo, who is also a member of FMERA, said he received word on June 20 that the plan to redevelop Fort Monmouth that had been submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2008, had received all required signatures last week.

The next step, said the mayor, is for FMERA's  professional planning consultant to begin the preparation of design guidelines, zoning maps and land use regulations for the army base scheduled to close on Sept. 15. Tarantolo said that the planers, Phillips Preiss Grygiel LLC of Hoboken, NJ, have been give a four-month window to complete the work.

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Tarantolo said that in order to protect Eatontown's interests and maintain the integrity of the borough's master plan, he received approval for the Eatontown Zoning Officer and an outside engineering group to work "interactively" with FMERA planners. The mayor added that the costs for these services would be covered by the federal government.

T&M Associates, a Middletown-based engineering firm, will help oversee the redevelopment of Eatontown's approximately 450-acre section of the fort. Tarantolo said that T&M had been involved in early "ad hoc" stages of planning for the fort's closing.

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