This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

One Step Over in Honeywell Debate

Public's gets its final chance to weigh in on master plan amendment.

The public has had its say. Or at least, as much as it's going to get for now.

Public comment on changes to the Morris Township master plan — being considered so that Honeywell International could expand the use of its corporate campus — came to a close Thursday, after 5 hearings.

The Morris Township Planning Board will meet again in special session on Thursday, May 31, to further discuss the draft of the amendment with its professionals.

Find out what's happening in Morris Township-Morris Plainswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The amendment proposes changes in the zoning around the . The current zoning to allow office and research use begun by Allied Chemical and Dye, later Allied Chemical and then AlliedSignal; the current company is the result of a merger between AlliedSignal and Honeywell Inc. in 1999.

With the amendment, residential use would be allowed. Honeywell could develop townhouses and a continuing care facility on its headquarters property, as well as to remove unused laboratory buildings and renovate office space, under the plans it has described.

Find out what's happening in Morris Township-Morris Plainswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Honeywell proposed the changes, but the amendment was drafted by board professionals—board attorney Brian Burns, engineer James Slate and planner Paul Phillips.

Board chairman Rick Haan Thursday urged residents to only bring up new information since all who had signed up to speak were previously heard.

Several residents said they were concerned about traffic, and some said they don't think Honeywell is committed to remaining on the site. Its presence provides a tax benefit to the township, as a large, taxable property.

James Cavanaugh said Honeywell is not known as a good corporate citizen, adding it's not listed as a donor for the . Other residents said Honeywell never helped the nearby .

The Citizens for Better Planning in Morris Township group has been vocal about its opposition to the master plan amendment. The planner its  retained, Peter G. Steck of Maplewood, submitted a memorandum urging the board to resolve certain issues. He cited “the history of contamination on the site,” as precluding a townhouse development.

The group’s attorney, Daniel Sommers, asked the township’s environmental consultant, Marie Raser of EcoSciences, to clarify a diagram of contaminated sites on the property. Raser said some of the sites were leaching fields from  laboratories. She said Honeywell is monitoring them along with a licensed site remediation professional and most of the leaching fields were remediated.

Raser said one area contaminated with pesticide is not completely remediated. She said there is some question where the pesticide came from. It could have been from a lab or from application to the lawn area. She requested Honeywell take samples from the lawn area to check for pesticide there. That has not been completed. Because that is part of the area Honeywell wants designated for residential use, it will have to be cleaned up to residential standards.

Sommers asked if there were areas when drums of contaminated material were buried. Raser said those sites have been remediated.

Haan thanked the residents for their questions and said they were very considerate when speaking to the board.

A few residents directed attacks at individuals, primarily at Phillips as architect of the draft , and at board member H. Scott Rosenbush, who was mayor when Honeywell first appeared before the township for the zoning changes. Answering statements that he should have stepped down, Rosenbush said he worked for Allied only until his division was spun off in 1986 and was not vested in the pension yet, so he has not fiduciary stake in the company. Two other board members were employees and pensioners, and stepped down.

After the meeting, Rosenbush answered a charge he appointed seven of the sitting planning board members, by saying he doesn’t remember how many he appointed, but he didn’t appoint himself, Mayor Peter Mancuso, Haan or Vice Chairman Franz Vintschger.

The May 31 special meeting will convene at 7:30 p.m., rather than the board's typical starting time of 7 p.m.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?