Holmdel Planning Board Approves Redevelopment Of Former Vonage Site

HOLMDEL, NJ — The Holmdel Township Planning Board approved a motion recommending the township move forward with redevelopment of the former Vonage site on 23 Main Street during a public hearing Tuesday night.

Township Special Counsel Andrew Bayer attended the meeting to provide insight on redevelopment to the Board, alongside Christine Bell, a planner with Leon S. Avakian Inc. (the firm Holmdel hired to perform the redevelopment investigation), who presented the firm’s report.

In order to determine if the site is a non-condemnation area in need of redevelopment, Bell explained that the investigation looked at various criteria to see which, if any, the site met.

According to Bell, the former Vonage site met the following:

• Criteria A: The buildings are generally substandard, unsafe, unsanitary, dilapidated, obsolescent, or possess any of such characteristics, or the buildings are so lacking in light, air, or space that they produce unwholesome living or working conditions.
• Criteria B: The discontinued use of buildings previously used for commercial, manufacturing, or industrial purposes; the abandonment of such buildings; or the same being allowed to fall into so great a state of disrepair as to be untenantable.

In addition to meeting Criteria A and Criteria B, Bell said tax appeals have been filed for the site eight times in the last 12 years.

In 2022, Bell said the assessed value of the site was $35,875,000, which then dropped to $24,500,000 after appeals. Similarly, in 2023 the assessed value was $36,652,800, which then dropped to $22,750,000 after appeals.

“We felt that the tax appeals showed — and the fact that they haven’t had a full lease of this site in quite some time — that it [the site] met the criteria to be designated an area in need of redevelopment,” Bell said.

Redevelopment Concerns
Though Avakian’s investigation found the site to be in need of redevelopment, Planning Board members and residents alike had concerns — some of which were reiterated from a previous meeting where plans for a potential retirement community were presented.

One of the main concerns discussed? Sewage.

During the meeting, Committeeman Wes Fagan raised concerns about the area’s on-site sewage treatment plant, questioning whether the plant meets current standards for sewage treatment facilities and pointing out that it discharges directly into Willow Brook, a Category 1 stream.

According to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, Category 1 waters are “protected from any measurable changes in water quality because of their exceptional ecological significance, exceptional recreational significance, exceptional water supply significance, or exceptional fisheries resources.”

Bob Yuro, a T&M Associates engineer who attended Tuesday night’s meeting, assured Fagan that although the sewage treatment plant was designed and constructed when the site’s original buildings were put up, the plant is currently regulated by the NJDEP and continually monitored.

“It [the sewage treatment plant] is currently being maintained to the current standards,” Yuro said. “The permit is current, and the package plant in its current condition is operational and acceptable to the state.”

Residents also voiced concerns about the demand a potential retirement community could put on EMS if redevelopment moves forward.

According to Holmdel First Aid Squad President Anthony Pusillo, Holmdel First Aid did 175 service calls to the existing nursing homes in town throughout 2023 (not including the new home at 100 Commons Way).

As of June 2024, Pusillo said Holmdel First Aid is projected to double that number for the year.

“If we add another 300-plus beds in town, we’re going to be taxing our volunteers even more by adding another 200-plus calls for just that facility,” Pusillo said. “So, again, just a comment as we’re all thinking about this. I agree with redevelopment. I just don’t agree with that redevelopment.”

Pusillo isn’t the only one who has concerns about a retirement community being developed at the former Vonage site.

Following CHA’s retirement community presentation earlier in the month, Citizens for Informed Land Use started a petition calling for Holmdel Township Committee members to “stop high density development at Vonage.”

In the petition description, CILU urges the Holmdel Township Committee, Zoning and Planning boards to refuse rezoning on 23 Main Street for high density housing, stating that Holmdel must “send a message” to developers that “heavily investing in properties not currently zoned for their desired purpose is unwise.”

So far, the petition has collected 359 signatures out of CILU’s goal for 400.

Despite pushback from residents and committee members alike, this is the first of many meetings in the redevelopment process.

Now that the Planning Board has approved the motion to move forward with redevelopment, the matter will move to the Township Committee, who will determine whether or not a redevelopment plan is needed to examine potential uses for the site.

To view Tuesday night’s Planning Board meeting, you can watch a recording on Holmdel Township’s Facebook page.

For more about CHA’s plans for a potential retirement community at the former Vonage site, you can read Patch’s previous coverage.