Bound Brook holds Green Acres scoping hearing after indoor recreation center altered Codrington Park

Senior planner John Sabo, representing Burgess Associates, told the Bound Brook Borough Council on Dec. 10 that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has classified work done years ago at Codrington Park as a diversion of Green Acres-protected land and the borough is seeking to formally address that finding. "The purpose of the hearing tonight is to scope public comments on the proposed diversion," Sabo said, describing the application process to the DEP’s Public Land Compliance Section.

Sabo said DEP inspectors determined the borough removed an outdoor bathhouse and constructed an indoor recreation facility (the Benmagio Recreation Center) containing basketball courts, storage and offices. "We estimate that occurred between 2012 and 2013," he said. The DEP determined the change diverts land that Green Acres expects to remain available for outdoor recreation, so the borough is required to compensate with land of equivalent area or value.

To make the property whole under Green Acres rules, the borough is proposing to add a 3.08-acre parcel at 282 West Main Street (Block 1, Lot 8) to its RASI (recreation and open space inventory). Sabo said the parcel was once the site of a single-family home that has since been demolished and that adding the tract would help create a continuous greenbelt along the Raritan River and limit floodplain development. "One of the techniques of protecting flood-prone properties is to purchase them as open space," he said.

Sabo walked through the technical steps that the DEP requires: surveys, a Green Acres–certified appraisal to establish equivalence in area or value, and completion of the application package. He noted the common practice of compensating diverted land at a higher acreage ratio (often roughly 3:1) to meet Green Acres valuation standards and said the borough expects to follow DEP appraisal guidance. "Part of the process is surveys and...an appraisal because they have to match up," Sabo said.

Council members asked whether the replacement parcel could support park uses such as a playground or a relocated community garden. Sabo said the borough may designate uses later but must first secure the parcel’s inclusion in the RASI and meet Green Acres’ valuation and appraisal standards. He also told the council that the public has 31 days to submit comments to the DEP and that the scoping hearing transcript would be included in the application package.

The council did not act to approve or deny the diversion at the meeting; rather, the hearing recorded information and public input for the DEP application. Next steps are compilation of public comments, completion of surveys and appraisal, and submission of the application to Green Acres for state review and a commission decision.

The borough’s presentation and the public scoping hearing record will be part of the DEP review; the state will ultimately approve or deny the diversion application after its standard commission review process.