Whether Pro or Con, Opinions Are Strong On Redevelopment of Honeywell Property

Whether they are for or against  plan to redevelop the property around its corporate headquarters in Morris Township, people are talking about the proposal. Patch took the opportunity to interview some of them as the date of the third special planning board meeting–March 7–approaches. The first three interviews are recounted here.

First, a brief review:  Honeywell International hopes to get approval for a  of its 147 acre property, located at the intersection of Columbia Turnpike and Park Avenue. The company hopes to get approval to tear down underutilized buildings, update and modernize other buildings and bring in developers to construct some combination of townhouses, additional office buildings,  a hotel, and possibly, a continuing care facility.

David Budd

David Budd of Morris Township said he has some sympathy for the members of the Morris Township Planning Board.

"Being on a planning board is a thankless and difficult job. I did it for 10 years in Harding Township," he said.

However, that did not stop him from taking issue with a number of the board's actions. Budd said his first issue was that the special planning board sessions have been held as "informal information meetings" where Honeywell representatives have not been sworn-in.

"It was not sworn testimony so they could say things that they weren't swearing to," he said.

Budd is also disturbed that members of the planning board have ties to Honeywell. "Three people on the planning board are former employees of AlliedSignal or Honeywell and they have not recused themselves," he said. "They should rethink that decision because it doesn't look good. I'm not impugning anyone's integrity, but it just doesn't look good. Especially when you have a controversial proposal."

"I'm not mad at Honeywell," Budd said. "I think they have conducted themselves in the way that they should. They have a duty to their shareholders to get the maximum value from their real estate. And I'm not mad at the planning board either, but I want them to think once, twice, three times before they approve this." Budd said he he had multiple areas of concern:

Environmental issues

"We have obtained a 20+ page report from the federal EPA which details the environmental issues of this site," Budd said. "There's a laundry list of chemicals that were disposed of here. It was probably done legally at the time." The problem, he said is that, "This is what's called a “high value recharge area” for an underlying aquifer, meaning that rain readily flows into the ground and into the Buried Valley Aquifer. I don't know if anybody cared about that back in the 1940s, but it carries that toxic stuff right down into the groundwater. Other communities source that for drinking water. They couldn't have picked a worse place for it."

Budd said, "If this gets approved, I hope that, as a condition, they demand that Honeywell certify that everything that can be cleaned up, is cleaned up. I don't trust the New Jersey DEP in this case. I'd want it certified by the federal EPA. The New Jersey DEP is political. In environmental circles it's referred to as the 'Department of Egregious Permitting.'"

Taxes and Property Values

Budd believes that, "the net tax revenue being pursued by the Township is flawed. They are underestimating the costs relating to a development of that density," he said. "They're underestimating the number of school children, the (impact on) police, fire, DPW, schools. You have to take into account the salary, benefits, pension, equipment of further services."

"Many townships that have been involved in the ratables chase have overestimated the benefits of development and they've come out in the same or worse shape than they were before."

"They (Honeywell) were telling us that a 313-unit development with 2 to 3 bedrooms per unit will only result in 39 schoolchildren in the schools. They also mentioned Rose Arbor (another condo development in Morris Township), which they said was comparable, that had only 17 students in the school system. I don't really think the two are comparable. If you want to pick your statistics, you can find examples that support what you're saying, but I could find examples that don't support them."

Budd also described what he called "a more subtle point," involving the tax benefits the township hopes to reap. "They're looking at $371,000 annual net tax benefit. You can take a calculator and you can pretty easily conclude that it wouldn't take much to offset that gain. A lot of the costs that are associated with development go up with the passage of time."

As examples, he mentioned police officers, police cars,  fire fighters, fire trucks, salaries, benefits and overtime. "All of those things are subject to inflation and they will go up. If (the redevelopment) has a negative impact on property values, even if the property values don't go down, they may not go up at a rate to offset these costs. Within 10 years, the so-called benefit could be extinguished. It's the difference between the incremental growth of expenses and the slow increase in the value of property."

Budd thinks that damage to property values is a real possibility. "If they allow this very dense development and if, as a result, there are traffic problems, loss of open space, and this area is seen as a less desirable place, it could result in dimunition of property values."

"I doubt very much that the planning board would ever intentionally do something that would result in a serious diminution of real estate values," he said. "Their challenge is, you have to even-handedly balance the desires of applicants against the neighbors who are affected–and uphold the zoning plan." The only people who stand between "a diminution of the value of the residents’ property and the desires of an applicant," Budd said, "is the planning board."

Traffic

As for the traffic analysis presented by Honeywell, Budd said, "They have an incomplete, if not naive, traffic analysis. They said that the current peak of vehicles during the worst part of the traffic day is 350 per hour. They say it will go to well over 1000 cars. Here's what's wrong with that: they're not taking into account the effects of all the other developments in the area; the Exxon development, the Jets facility in Florham Park. If it's not in Morris Township, Morris Township pretends it doesn't exist. But it does exist and it has an impact." Also, he said, the board needs to find out what's planned nearby in future years. "You need to take into account other planned developments. I'm not a traffic expert but I know enough to know that."

Budd recalls studying "queueing theory" in college, saying, "The idea is that any given road has a maximum capacity and when you get close to that maximum capacity, any deviation can pretty much bring the road to a halt. We need them to delve much more into, 'What is the capacity of these roadways?' and  'How close will we be to it?'"

"Traffic problems can ripple backward. It can go for miles." Calling the area a "complex traffic pattern," Budd said, "You have Park Ave., Columbia Turnpike, Route 24, Normandy Parkway and Kahn Road. If you have tremendous traffic at this site you can cause a problem that will back up along all of these roadways."

Speaking of his days as a planning board member, Budd said, "I’ve heard a lot of traffic experts give testimony. Maybe it's just my run of bad luck, but I’ve never seen a single instance where a traffic expert has gotten up and said, 'This is going to have some bad results.' So somebody's pulling the wool over somebody’s eyes and I think it's the traffic experts pulling the wool over the public’s eyes."

Final Thoughts

Budd said he hopes the planning board knows that any pressure they feel to approve the Honeywell project is "self-imposed." Even though Gov. Chris Christie personally helped convince the company to stay in Morris Township, Budd said he doesn't think the governor would want to be involved in local decisions. However, he wouldn't be surprised if the planning board felt some pressure.

Budd also said that, when he joined the Harding Township Panning Board, the valuable message he got from more experienced members was:

"People will be coming in here and asking for various changes: changing the zoning, reducing setbacks, changing property lines, etc. Most of the time these changes serve their personal needs, if it's a homeowner, or their corporate needs if it’s a corporation. And it's all about money. Your job, a lot of the time, is to say no. You say no if it's not in the interest of the residents or the township."

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Paul Boudreau

Paul Boudreau, president of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce attended the special planning board meeting on Feb. 7. "I think it was very comprehensive in terms of the information requested by the planning board," he said. "I was impressed with the people that Honeywell had on hand to answer the questions– and they did answer the questions. It's a hugely important piece of property."

Asked if his organization is still considering its position on the redevelopment, Boudreau said, "The chamber supports the proposal. We have something called the Morris County Economic Development Corporation. We work with the real estate industry and others to encourage companies to  stay and grow in Morris County. That property definitely needs to be redeveloped." When asked why, he said, "We've got a Fortune 100 company that has made the decision to stay here in New Jersey with 1200 jobs. Part of their business is making companies more energy efficient around the world. We need to help them to do the same for their corporate headquarters."

Boudreau said there would be "lots of benefits" for the local economy. "A hotel needs furnishings and computers that are sold by local companies. There'll be jobs for architects and planners and builders. There's not a lot of downside to this proposal."

When asked if he had any concerns about Honeywell potentially getting the rezoning they want, then selling off parcels of the property to various developers who do not have the same long history with the community, he responded, "Honeywell went through a long process, considering staying versus leaving. I'm very confident that they'll be staying. There are a couple of things to think about: this is still going to be their world headquarters; this is their neighborhood. They have an interest in what their neighborhood looks like. I think they're going to remain very involved."

Boudreau said, in his view, "The bigger question is 'What is the timetable?' I think the company is very willing to work with the community and the township. I don't think it will be open-ended with any kind of surprise uses coming up."

Boudreau, who said he lives in Basking Ridge, acknowledged that he "spent most of my life at Honeywell. I worked there from 1983 to 2006 and retired as VP of State and Corporate Relations. I've been out of there for five years now and I'm the president of the Morris County Chamber. If it was XYZ company, it would be totally the same decision."

Speaking of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce, he said, "Our organization is about keeping companies in New Jersey and growing companies in New Jersey. I think as time goes by and people get more educated about the redevelopment, it will get more support."

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Lee Goldberg:

Lee Goldberg of Morris Township has been in attendance at both of the planning board meetings devoted to the Honeywell project. He said he's hoping the next one will allow more time for residents' questions and comments.

At the first meeting in November, a long line of residents was still waiting to ask their questions when the board ended the meeting at midnight. Again at the Feb. 7 meeting, Goldberg said, "Some residents left there aggravated because they didn't have an opportunity to speak and because the meeting turned out differently than the way they had been led to believe at the beginning." 

The meeting began at 7:30 and, Goldberg said, attendees were told that the Honeywell presentation would be approximately 15–30 minutes, followed by public  comment. It turned out, he said, that, "Honeywell was basically allowed to repeat their financial and traffic reports again and were not cut off at all by the Planning Board. Residents were only allowed to ask questions between about 9:30 and 10:20...and were cut off after 5 minutes."

On the positive side, Goldberg said, "To the planning board's credit, though, they actually asked questions, which was refreshing to see. They were more vocal than I've heard them in the past, asking questions about traffic and the draining of toxins."

According to Goldberg, he was interested to hear what Honeywell's environmental expert, John Morris, had to say about the property's pre-EPA era toxins. "He spoke about the 2 ponds on the property, saying their environmental clean-up status is at a baseline-acceptable level and they're currently doing their due diligence in monitoring the site." According to Goldberg, he also took note of Morris' mention of an approximately 150-foot deep well behind Arrowhead Road that is considered the most contaminated part of the property. 

Goldberg, who has been living near the site for 17 years, said he asked the Honeywell team about never-before-seen barrels that he recently spotted on their property. "I was told that the barrels were related to a report for the public and that they had been keeping on top of it and sampling there all along," he said. 

"The question came up about the number of school-age children that they thought would be added to the local schools," Goldberg said, after which the Honeywell representatives were asked, "Why not single family homes?" He said they replied that, with condos, "You don't have to build a lot of new streets.'"

One of the things that surprised Goldberg, he said, was the statement by a financial expert that, if the project was built out fully as proposed, the total benefits to the township would only be in the $300,000-$400,000 range. He said it was a question he planned to bring up at the next meeting.

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Note: a previoous version of this article mistakenly said that the next special meeting of the Morris Township Planning Board was scheduled for March 8. In fact, the board will meet Monday evening, Mar. 7, to resume discussions on Honeywell International's plan for redevelopment of its corporate headquarters. See the Township calendar for March here.