BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
EMERSON, NJ.—There evidently are environmental trouble spots on Block 419 where the borough’s redeveloper partner intends to start building shops and luxury and affordable housing this year as part of its Emerson Station project.
According to lawyer Joseph A. Paparo of Porzio Bromberg and Newman, representing Accurate Builders and Developers of New Jersey, its licensed site remediation professional (LSRP) turned up “areas of concern” on Kinderkamack Road between Lincoln Boulevard and Linwood Avenue.
Reporting to the mayor, Borough Council, and the public on March 19, Paparo declined to give specifics, saying that the areas were being taken care of professionally and that the state Department of Environmental Protection would have the final say on the work plan.
Prompted by Mayor Danielle DiPaola—who said, “The borough doesn’t have jurisdiction. If we had any concerns we could only go to the DEP and they would return to us their recommendations for the soil”—Paparo said, “You’re 100 percent accurate.
He also said his client would close on three properties in 419 in the next few days and anticipated that it would own all the properties it needed for Emerson Station within three weeks.
The project timetable has demolition beginning in late June or early July, he said.
When DiPaola asked him point blank if the land was clean enough to build on, he said that his client had performed its “complete due diligence.”
“Once the buildings are demolished it [the project] can be built to residential standards. […] The good news is that with this redevelopment project happening those [areas of concern] will be addressed. Without it they wouldn’t,” he said.
He said he could not share the details of any environmental findings.
“With confidentiality agreement we can’t disclose those reports. We can’t turn those over—nor would we,” he said.
He added, “If I’m an attorney for a seller, they don’t want to know the results because if they do then they have an obligation to clean it up, even if the buyer walks.”
Borough Attorney John McCann put in, “If there’s any danger to the public, DEP is under an obligation to report it to us. The question is whether the DEP approves it, and that’s the bottom line.”
Following a presentation from Emerson Redevelopers Urban Renewal, an affiliate of JMF Properties, the Land Use Board voted Dec. 10, 2018 to grant preliminary and final approval for a four-story mixed use project on Block 419, complete with 147 apartments from studios to three-bedrooms, 14,700 square feet of retail space, and a garage offering four floors and rooftop parking.
Are toxins in the soil and groundwater?
As resident Lorraine McQueeney has noted at the public microphone and in letters to the editor, Block 419 is acreage on which two gas stations and a dry cleaner operated for decades.
“How did an attorney advise the owner of a dry cleaning site to sell without extensive environmental testing done first?” she asked.
She has pointed out that “An ‘as is/where is’ sale may not relieve the seller of future toxic tort liability.
The DEP is remediating dry cleaning sites elsewhere, and the former Alexander Cleaners in Hillsdale might be the nearest example. Such sites can produce contaminants including tetrachloroethylene and perchloroethylene, which can discharge into soil and groundwater.
According to the DEP, as of May 7, 2012, with limited exceptions, all remediations in the state, without regard to when remediation was initiated, are to proceed under the supervision of an LSRP, without state DEP approval, following nine requirements.
A DEP source Pascack Press spoke with on March 20 said any property owner’s findings on areas of concern should be shared with the borough—that an LSRP should have someone standing by to speak with town officials and the press.
“The responsibility really lies with the property owner, but they may not have the expertise to talk,” he said, speaking generally.
Once all the work is complete the LSRP issues a response action outcome—a certification that the property has been remediated to the DEP’s standards in accordance with DEP regulations.
“I’m not sure where they are in this process,” the source said.
Pascack Press checked DEP records for affected Block 419 lots and turned up a lone record, marked closed, for an automotive business.
In a phone interview March 20, Paparo told Pascack Press that the Block 419 lot or lots he’d described as having areas of concern constituted technical matters he does not deal with. He said he could not recall the name of his client’s environmental contractor, given that he deals with many contractors.
“I’d have to dig that out,” he said. He did not follow up by press time.
Accurate Builders and Developers, based in Lakewood and owned by Yaakov Klugmann, owns 51 percent of the redevelopment project. The other 49 percent is owned by Giuseppi Forgione’s JMF Properties of Whippany.
A call seeking comment left on Klugmann’s voicemail was not returned by press time.
Condemnation is an option
DiPaola, McCann, Interim Borough Administrator Richard J. Sheola, Council President Gerald Falotico, the borough’s redevelopment attorney, Paparao, and Klugmann met mid-March, reportedly their first sit-down since the borough’s government reorganized.
DiPaola, who campaigned against overdevelopment, told residents March 19, “We cannot stop the project and we’re not looking to engage in any litigation to stop the project.”
She said the redeveloper was accommodating resident concerns raised at last year’s Land Use Board hearing, and elsewhere, on loose site plans.
Paparo thanked the governing body for establishing a redevelopment subcommittee as required under contract and said his client might need the borough’s help in ousting tenants it couldn’t come to terms with—also provided by contract. (The third revision, signed 2018, of the 2016 redeveloper agreement.)
The governing body also wanted assurances from Paparo that his client was doing everything possible to relocate displaced tenants within Emerson, should they choose.
“I want to make sure they are taken care of. They are our friends and neighbors and part of the fabric of Emerson. I want to know you are dealing with them in good faith. We ask for them to be given the right of first refusal to come back if they wish,” DiPaola said.
She added, “We are concerned about them and their livelihoods while this project is going on.”
Cork & Keg, for example, can’t transfer its liquor license out of town, she said.
Paparo said some relocation talks were going well and others were not. He reminded the governing body it was on the hook to carry out condemnation proceedings should any talks fail.
McCann backed him up, further noting that time was of the essence on two fronts: both getting the redeveloper started on a new public safety building as part of the deal and moving forward on the affordable housing planned for the project.
“There is a poison pill here the borough needs to be aware of. The developer has agreed [on the emergency services part of the project] but if we don’t begin things by the end of the year he’s under no obligation to complete it,” McCann said.
DiPaola suggested that she was pleased that on the point of how demolition should proceed Klugmann was deferential.
“How do you want me to do this?” DiPaola said he asked.
DiPaola told Pascack Press March 20 she favors demolition proceeding in phases so as to let businesses in the area operate longer.
Commuter lot in focus
The governing body also agreed to start work soon to develop its parcel at 58 Locust Ave. as a 57-space commuter parking lot with privacy screen for neighbors.
“It’s an eyesore and I don’t think the borough is being a good neighbor right now and I want to see that cleaned up,” DiPaola said.
If the site is paved, that work would be piggybacked with road paving, the officials agreed.