TOMS RIVER, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will hear public comments regarding Governor Phil Murphy’s proposed plan to develop portions of the Ciba-Geigy superfund site.
The plan calls for the state to take over 1,000 acres of the property but to leave a 200-plus-acre parcel for future development.
Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill, who helped draw the master plan that allows for development at the Ciba Geigy site, now says he opposes the state plan, which would follow the master plan he approved while serving on the township’s land use committee.
In 2019, after Rodrick shed light on backroom conversations within town hall to develop the property, then-Councilman Mo Hill disputed Rodrick’s claim. Then-Mayor Thomas Kelaher called it “an outright lie.“
“6,400 Homes on Ciba-Geigy: Coronato & Gilmore Plan City Within a City,” a headline on a blog site linked to Rodrick read at the time.
Rodrick provided evidence in the form of an email by the former township business administrator that town officials had ‘connected’ developer Jack Morris to BASF to develop the property. Jack Morris is a client of GOP Chairman George Gilmore. A few weeks before Murphy announced his plan to redevelop the site, he met with Gilmore in private at a restaurant in Red Bank.
“We connected Jack to BASF,” former Toms River Business Administrator Don Guardian said in that email.
Gilmore denies the meeting had anything to do with development at Ciba Geigy. Instead, he said he lobbied the governor for more school funding in Toms River. In the end, Murphy slashed school funding in the district.
“It is absolutely the truth that Don Guardian said that they are connecting Jack Morris to BASF and that Jack Morris wants to do mixed-use,” Rodrick was quoted as saying to the Asbury Park Press. “There is an email chain that shows they want to develop 800 acres after the tax appeal is over.”
“This outrageous statement is more than mere political exaggeration: it is an outright lie that has resurrected painful memories of the cancer-cluster scare of the mid-1990s,” Kelaher said. “Rodrick’s shameless deception shows nothing more than he has neither the character, competence nor conscience to serve in any elected capacity, let alone as mayor of Toms River.”‘
Kelaher passed away in 2021. He was succeeded by Mo Hill, who continued to deny Rodrick’s claims until the state announced the plan publicly in December.
According to the New Jersey DEP, the proposed settlement is the most significant single-site preservation agreement achieved through the Department of Environmental Protection’s Natural Resource Damages program. Under the proposal, approximately 1,000 acres would be permanently preserved for the benefit of the public, with hundreds of acres to be restored through various ecological improvement projects.
Toms River Councilman Daniel Rodrick first brought attention to the prospect of a ‘city’ being built on the Superfund site, but he was discredited by both Hill and his associates and the media at the time. Hill claimed there were no plans to build on land owned by BASF, which purchased Ciba Geigy and its assets.
The meeting will begin at 6 pm inside the Toms River High School North auditorium.
