Council approves creation of redevelopment agency
Mayor will nominate members sometime within next month
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer
The Edison Township Council narrowly approved the creation of an independent redevelopment agency by a vote of 4-3 during its June 25 meeting.

The decision ends a long, drawn-out process that involved the ordinance that would create the agency being introduced, tabled, reintroduced, retabled and then finally passed, with intense debate in marathon meetings each step of the way. Supporting the measure were council members AnnMarie Griffin-Ussak, Wayne Mascola, Melissa Perilstein and Sudhanshu Prasad, new council members who ran on a slate supported by Edison Mayor Jun Choi, the person who proposed and supported the redevelopment agency. In opposition were council members Robert Diehl, Anthony Massaro and Antonia Ricigliano, as well as a large number of town meeting regulars.

Supporters say that it will professionalize the redevelopment process and free up time for council members, who are ordinarily in charge of redevelopment projects, to do other things. Opponents have called it an unnecessarily expensive, redundant layer of bureaucracy that would wield vast powers and could potentially run amok or, worse yet, become a political weapon.

The new redevelopment agency will be a seven-person, independent body that will focus exclusively on executing redevelopment plans concocted by the township. In order to do so, it will have various powers and abilities, such as seizing property through eminent domain, extending credit and posting bonds. Many of the powers will be explicitly limited by the redevelopment plan itself, though in light of concerns from residents and council members who opposed the measure, eminent domain abilities are explicitly laid out in the ordinance as the purview of the township.

Experts interviewed by the Sentinel, however, were a little more ambivalent about the extent to which the township could limit the agency's bonding powers, the other main concern among those opposed to the agency's creation. A redevelopment attorney employed by the township, Joe Baumann, had said that it would not be able to bond independently without a dedicated funding source secured beforehand and that the council would need to approve any borrowing that would burden the taxpayers.

The redevelopment agency can also hire its own staff of experts, such as engineers, attorneys and planners.

According to the application dated Dec. 12, 2007, sent from the township to the Local Finance Board, part of the Department of Community Affairs, the initial budget for the agency in the first year of its creation will be $150,000, which covers the salaries of an executive director and an executive secretary. This is listed on page one.

The application also lists an additional $15,000 cost in order to hire a bond counsel, from the firm McManimon and Scotland LLC, and a financial adviser from the firm Goldman Beale Associates. This is listed on page seven.

The proposed personnel chart, on page two, also called for project managers, an engineer/ planner and a redevelopment counsel. The funding for all this will initially come from the township budget, though what sort of pay structure the organization will be transitioned to is not mentioned.

The engineer and counsel have different funding mechanisms, according to the application. Their salaries are to be fueled on a byproject basis from a "revolving escrow posted by each developer."

Supporters of the measure hailed the decision as a wise one for the township and noted that the changes to the ordinance's language after the last time it was tabled, which explicitly states that eminent domain powers ultimately rest with the council, should address the problems and concerns opponents had with the measure.

"One of the things very near and dear to my heart is eminent domain … I would not vote for anything that will benefit a developer over a property owner," said Prasad.

While opponents were happy about the change in the language, they felt it didn't go far enough when it came to protecting the residents, and so they voted against it.

"As open minded as I've tried to be with this, I still do not see the need for this. I think this could create more problems than it solves," said Diehl.

Now that the ordinance to create the agency has been approved, the next step is finding people to fill it. Candidates will be nominated by the mayor and vetted and voted upon by the council, upon which the mayor's supporters hold a slim 4-3 majority. The recommendations for the new members will be submitted sometime next month. Once members have been appointed, they will select an executive director. Choi, who first proposed the redevelopment agency in 2006 but was unsuccessful, was happy that the ordinance passed.

"I thank the council for supporting a vision that will revitalize our community, and move Edison into the 21st century," said Choi.