Debate continues on future of Lucent tract
Committee sends back report with request for less housing
BY ERIN O. STATTEL Correspondent

HOLMDEL - Plans for the Lucent property are once again back on the drawing board after some deliberation at last Thursday's Township Committee meeting.

The 472-acre tract that is the former site of Lucent Technologies is back on the market after a deal with Preferred Real Estate Investments was dissolved, according to Mayor Serena DiMaso.

The committee members said they will send back the Financial Advisory Committee's report that emphasized one of the township planner's suggestions for the Lucent property.

According to DiMaso, a Republican, the report advised a specific amount of housing on the property would increase tax revenues in the town.

Several members of the Township Committee said the report was too open to housing development and could possibly put the town at risk for housing tracts on the property, should a developer pursue it.

"We just want to make sure our own recommendations are airtight," DiMaso said.

Discussion around this report became heated after Deputy Mayor Alan Bateman, also a Republican, expressed his concern over the report's information being released to the press and the public before the committee had a chance to decide what to do with it.

"Someone released information about the report prematurely, and I want to know who that is," Bateman said. He went on to say that Committeewoman Janet Berk, a Democrat, benefited from using the material in her campaign literature last November.

"She put Holmdel at risk for her own gain, because a builder would use that report to plead their case," he said.

"Nothing new was revealed to the public," Berk insisted.

Berk also added that the information was given to her from someone close to the Financial Advisory Committee and that the report was based on information previously released by the town planner, the town's tax attorney and a property appraiser used for town properties.

"I would never do anything that would jeopardize the town," Berk said. "That is unethical. The information was already out there. Town professionals gave their opinion and then the committee reported based on this information."

Mayor Serena DiMaso maintained that the publication of this information before the council has a chance to decide what to do with it is not always beneficial to the town.

"We were given the report at the end of October and were reading about it in the paper in November," DiMaso said. "We just didn't have enough time to really explore our options and make sure the town was not at any risk by having this information out in the open."

The report will be sent back to the FinancialAdvisory Committee and they will be asked to come up with alternatives for the Lucent property. Democratic Town Committeeman Larry Fink had also asked to have additional items added to the report.

At Thursday's meeting, Berk also suggested the township pursue selling the development rights for the DePalma farm.

"The property, which is township owned, may be eligible for open space protection since the state's open space is dwindling," Berk said. "The farm is currently used for agriculture and, I think, should be considered by the committee to be a good candidate for open space."

The next Township Committee meeting is scheduled for Feb. 7.