Future of Brown Tract 'Unclear'

There are no plans to someday put a 27,000 square foot envirocenter on the owned by Toms River Township, according to Dr. Stanton Hales, program director of the Barnegat Bay Partnership.

He said a proposal seeking $500,000 to renovate the existing house on the site and create a center for environmental education that was circulated by Ocean County College officials to members of Congress recently is “unclear’’ on plans for a new building sometime in the future.

The 40-acre site acquired by the township in the 1970s could not be used for a building that size, he said.

“There are no plans for a 27,000-square-foot facility on that site,’’ although one may be built elsewhere if funds can be found to build it, Hales said.

OCC officials led by President Dr. Jon Larson met with three members of the House in Washington to lobby for four projects, among them $500,000 to renovate 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 .

Hales said the use of the house needs approval from Toms River officials and most likely the state Department of Environmental Protection’s program.

Plans to continue the prosecutor’s use of the house were dropped recently by township officials following a public hearing on a plan to dedicate land west of the Garden State Parkway to open space in exchange for the continued office use in the riverfront park.

OCC officials say the envirocenter will “play an instrumental role in revitalizing the commitment of the region’s stakeholders to the protection of Barnegat Bay by fostering environmentally literate decision-makers and community members, through educational programs.’’