Choi proposes independent redevelopment agency
Says separation from twp. gov't would make it politically independent
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer

EDISON- Mayor Jun Choi expressed an interest in forming an independent redevelopment agency that would seek to revitalize certain sectors of town into economically productive areas.

During an April 18 phone interview, Choi expressed the opinion that he felt an entity independent from the township government in and of itself would be the best way to promote redevelopment in a town that he said is already 98 percent built out.

The redevelopment agency, he said, would consist of a seven-person board, with one member being from the Township Council and the rest being members of the community. They would be nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the council. Heading this enterprise would be a fulltime executive director or president who would have a teamof professionals on hand to assist in matters such as planning, engineering and economic analysis.

He said an independent entity's advantage over allowing the township government to handle things was that its members would not have the distractions of having to conduct other township business and would be able to focus entirely on matters of redevelopment. Further, he said its distance would work to, at least partially, remove politics from the process.

"[Independence] insulates it, to some degree, from politics by one step. There is independence, some independence, fromthat. ... Besides the one council liaison, everyone else is a group of professionals," said Choi.

The organization would, according to Choi, be responsible for developing and implementing plans for the redevelopment in Edison.

"On a day-to-day basis … the economic development leader is actively and constantly moving on putting together plans, reaching out to the community and implementing these plans," said Choi.

According to CouncilmanAnthonyMassaro, one of the specific things an independent redevelopment agency would be able to do is negotiate with developers on what does and does not go on certain properties, using the Hartz Mountain project, which was approved by the council last October, as an example. He said the council at the time was strongly opposed to any housing element on the property, which sits on the former Ford site, and spent time working with the developer to make sure one was not included in the plans. The negotiations undertaken by the council, he said, would be the responsibility of this new redevelopment agency instead, with the council ultimately approving or denying the final results.

He said he hadn'tmade up hismind one way or the other on whether he would support the measure, stating that he still had some questions about it that he would want to have answered. Still, he said, he was worried about the potential ethics violations the board could create, expressing concern about the potential for developers to sit on and fund the redevelopment agency.

"If you believe in the cynic's take on the golden rule, he who has the goldmakes the rules, I'm not sure I want developers funding the organization [controlling] what gets developed," said Massaro.

Choi, however, said the redevelopment agency will be subject to strict ethics guidelines that go even beyond the township's current pay-to-play ordinance.He acknowledged that a big concern for people is the potential for political ties between developers and the redevelopment agency, and to this end he said that developers in the redevelopment areas cannot make any political contributions whatsoever.

"Zero. They are not allowed tomake any political contributions, period, and that's the way we want it so there's no perceived conflicts at all," said Choi.

Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano has already come out against the measure, objecting to the fact that it would take responsibilities away from the council. She said that on the surface, the council might retain influence because ultimately they would be the ones to decide whether an area is in need of redevelopment, but said that it would be the redevelopment agency doing all the negotiations. Furthermore, she expressed skepticism concerning the notion that the redevelopment agency would not be political. She said the fact that its members would be nominated by the mayor and approved by the council, by definition, makes them political appointees.

"I still have misgivings about it. Does it work better for other towns? Absolutely. But I know there have been towns that have had problems with it, and you want to avoid asmany [problems] as possible," said Ricigliano. "I don't like the idea. They are politically appointed. They are. I don't care how you slice it or dice it, they are political, all appointments."

Choi, meanwhile, said an independent redevelopment agency was appropriate for a town the size of Edison and felt that it was necessary to revitalize the local economy.

"I think having a redevelopment agency for the size of a community like Edison, the fifth largest in the state, is essential if the citizens are interested in revitalizing a lot of the blighted and underutilized properties in our community," said Choi.

He said the township has already received state approval for formation of the redevelopment agency and now only awaits the council's vote, which he hopes will come byMay. This will be the second time he has tried to form an independent redevelopment agency, having unsuccessfully attempted it once before, in 2006.