By Sunayana Prabhu
HOLMDEL – The township committee has been navigating the complex interplay between development and conservation as it moves forward with two significant projects: the preservation of Potter’s Farm and the redevelopment of the former Vonage headquarters.
In a unanimous vote during its Aug. 13 meeting, the committee authorized “good faith” negotiations with United Methodist, the faith-based nonprofit that owns the Potter’s Farm property. The organization planned to build a dementia center there.
Now, the township has initiated the acquisition of the property, located on Red Hill Road by Exit 114 of the Garden State Parkway and popularly known as the bucolic gateway to both Middletown and Holmdel townships. The aim is to preserve the 18-acre site, farmed by the Potter family since 1920, as open space and recreational land. This action reflects a priority for the township, which faces ongoing development pressures.
“We’re taking steps to preserve appropriate space and recreation,” said Mayor Rocco Impreveduto at the meeting. However, specific plans for the property remain unclear at this stage.
Details of the negotiations are confidential and will be public upon successful completion.
The preser vation of Potter’s Farm comes as the township grapples with the redevelopment of the former Vonage headquarters in southern Holmdel at 23 Main St., along County Route 520/Newman Springs Road.
At the meeting, the governing body concurred with the planning board and declared the Vonage site a redevelopment area for noncondemnation purposes, introducing an ordinance to authorize a special redevelopment planner, a position Impreveduto deemed necessary to address the “gravity and magnitude” of the project.
The decision to appoint Kyle McManus as special planner comes after the investigation report and corresponding testimony of Christine Bell, a licensed professional planner with the Neptune-based consulting engineering firm Leon S. Avakian Inc., at the July 30 planning board meeting.
The 360,000-square-foot corporate building, located on nearly 88 acres, has sat largely vacant since the COVID-19 pandemic when Vonage, a cloud communications company, moved into the Bell Works complex on Crawford Corner Road. Vonage had a lease for approximately “1/6th of the building that expired in January of 2024. It’s been vacant since that time,” Bell noted in her testimony, presenting conditions and characteristics at the current site that qualified it as an area in need of redevelopment by the state law.
Redevelopment of the Vonage site sparked intense debate among residents during the township committee meeting. The developer, CHA Partners, a Bloomfield-based real estate development company under contract with the Vonage property for the past two and a half years, pitched concept plans for a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) during the township committee’s July 15 meeting. The plan includes 210 senior living units, 60 assisted living memory care units, and 30 shortterm rehabilitation skilled nursing units on the site. To accommodate the units, the existing building will be renovated with additional plans to build 50 new townhomes and two new three-story buildings.
“It’s probably the best option because all the other options… would be way worse,” said Regina Groysberg, owner of the property at 15 Main St. which abuts the Vonage site. But several other residents remain staunchly opposed to the development plans.
Exacerbating public pushback is the existing sewage treatment system on site that was built in the 1970s for the office complex and will now be used for the proposed development. The treatment plant sits in close proximity to the state-designated Willow Brook, a category-1 freshwater stream that feeds into the Swimming River Reservoir. The reservoir is a source of drinking water for area residents.
Township engineer Bob Yuro confirmed during the July 30 planning board meeting that the treatment plant “does discharge directly into the C-1 category stream,” but he also emphasized that the plant is “permitted by the DEP. It is currently being maintained to the current standards. The permit is current and the (sewage treatment) package plant in its current condition is operational and acceptable to the state.”
Argyrios Milonas, a resident and board member of the Holmdel-based grassroots environmental group Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU), read an online petition on behalf of the group.
The petition to “Protect Holmdel’s Future: Stop High-Density Development at Vonage” has garnered over 500 signatures, with concerns over the potential contamination of drinking water, impacts of a potential PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) program on schools, traffic congestion and “added strain on emergency services and healthcare facilities.”
Impreveduto argued that the petition is based on “opinions presented as facts.”
“What I want to make sure is that we align on facts,” Impreveduto said.
“Let the process play out,” he advised residents.
In terms of traffic, Impreveduto said the former companies using that facility, including Vonage and its predecessor Prudential, had 1,700 and 2,000 people, respectively, using the property; CHA’s proposal for a continuing care community will amount to “500-ish people, so a quarter of that population, but dispersed over the course of the day.”
Holmdel resident Patrick Trischetta said he favored the CHA proposal over any other uses on a property he said was a “white elephant” burdening the township.
The mayor pointed out that the area is currently zoned for either industrial or housing use but that the proposed redevelopment would be an improvement over the current vacant building. If the township adheres to current zoning and the Vonage property remains vacant, that could also have negative consequences, such as further declining tax revenue and “dramatically impacting revenues for the schools.”
With regards to the impact on water quality, Impreveduto said “all of south Holmdel is environment-sensitive. We know that, and we’re keenly aware of it.” The developer has proposed a 20% reduction in impervious coverage and Impreveduto agreed the sewage plant is a major consideration for the township. “If that can’t sustain what’s going to happen there, then we got a problem. We’re keenly aware of that, as well,” he said.
The developer has agreed to donate five acres to the township for fire and EMS services in the southern part of the township to alleviate those concerns, Impreveduto said.
And as Holmdel moves forward with the two projects, residents and officials continue to grapple with the trade-offs involved.
“We’re all trying to do the best for Holmdel,” said Milonas. “We have maybe varying visions, but we must ensure that the community’s best interests are served.”
The article originally appeared in the August 15 – 21, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
