Politics & Government

Brown's Woods Leased for $1

Barnegat Bay Partnership will be new tenant starting January

Riverfront woods that also border Whittier and Washington streets in Toms River will get a new tenant: The Barnegat Bay Partnership.

The passed an ordinance that would create a lease agreement for The Barnegat Bay Partnership to use the property for $1 a year. The home in the woods there would be used by the Barnegat Bay Partnership, and beyond making that facility ADA compliant, the house and the woods would remain intact as is, officials said.

The lease agreement would actually be between the township and Ocean County College, who oversees the non-profit that works to save Barnegat Bay. Township Council unanimously approved the ordinance at its meeting this week.

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Called Brown’s Woods, the tract came under controversy last December. For years the house was home to the narcotics strike force of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, but a recent attempt to continue that use in exchange for preserving property west of the Garden State Parkway was rejected in the face of public opposition.

The Barnegat Bay Partnership submitted a proposal to use the house as an office for its programs. The site would be used as an “Ecocenter” to protect and restore the Barnegat Bay watershed and provide environmental education and related programming, according to the lease agreement.

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The five-year lease would be in place Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2016, although there’s an option to renew the lease for two more five year periods.

Dr. Stanley Hale, a member of the partnership, discussed the idea at the Oct. 25 town council meeting, saying their use of the site would always be transparent. “We’re not going to do anything to the property that you all don’t know about in advance,” Hale said.

Hale said collaborates with many organizations, including outreach with students at , which is near Brown’s Woods.

“We support research, communication projects for the bay and just to promote that consensus to protect and improve the Barnegat bay, which all of you know supports us and supports the economy in so many different ways,” Hale said.

Resident Maryann Bageac, who is among local volunteers organizing an annual clean-up of litter from the Brown’s Woods, praised the move.

“I think it’s terrific. It’s right with the legacy of the property, but will probably be more aligned with preservation and education,” she said.

The 40-acre site acquired by the township in the 1970s, with the house leased to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for several years into an environmental education and interpretive building. The house is located on a bluff overlooking the Toms River where the Long Swamp Stream runs into the river. The stream has been identified by earlier studies as one of the most polluted in the county and a contributor to pollution in .

Don Bennett contributed to this report.


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