Two Environmental Documents Approved at FMERA Board Meeting

Providing another tool to potential redevelopers on Fort Monmouth, the FMERA Board this month approved the adoption of the Natural Resource Inventory (NRI) prepared by FMERA’s contracted professional planner Phillips Preiss Grygiel (PPG), with input from FMERA staff and the Environmental Staff Advisory Committee (ESAC).  The NRI contains a checklist of open space to be preserved and other environmental features to be preserved and protected, including floodplains, wetlands and habitats of endangered or threatened species.  This Environmental Features Checklist was created to facilitate the review of all development applications for their impact on environmental features inventoried in the NRI or the Fort Monmouth Reuse and Redevelopment Plan (Reuse Plan).

PPG developed the NRI consistent with the Reuse Plan.  FMERA staff will look to the NRI for guidance when reviewing applications for development at the Fort.  If any of the applications involve an open space to be preserved or other environmental features to be preserved or protected as identified in the NRI, FMERA’s ESAC, which serves as the sole environmental commission for the Fort, will review the proposed project for impacts on the specific open space or other environmental feature.

With 504 acres of land on Fort Monmouth allocated to active recreation and passive open space, the FMERA Board this month also approved the Suggested Implementation of Open Space Inventory for Redevelopment on Fort Monmouth.  The document will provide guidance and suggestions to FMERA staff for performing ongoing monitoring of the open space inventory and providing periodic feedback to the Real Estate Committee. Under the guidelines prepared by PPG, the document outlines how active recreation and passive open space are categorized in the Reuse Plan and suggests strategies for creating and/or preserving additional active recreation and passive open space acreage.