Town Tours: What's next for former Pfizer tract in Morris Plains?

Editor's note: Today the Daily Record begins a week-long tour of the borough of Morris Plains. For seven days, we will have extra coverage of the borough, its people, its culture and its history.

MORRIS PLAINS – The stretch of Route 53 connecting Route 10 to downtown Morris Plains has been vacant for 2¹/₂ years since Pfizer ceased operation on the site, as workers remove contaminants on the property and the borough fights the developers on a lawsuit.

The 62.68-acre Morris Plains site used to house the pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2000. Warner-Lambert was known for its highly successful drug Lipitor, a major reason why Pfizer acquired the company.

Originally envisioned as the future headquarters of Pfizer's Health Care Products division, Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare division ended up buying the business that was operating at the Morris Plains location.

The ex-Pfizer property was purchased — for $1 according to Mayor Frank Druetzler — by M&M Realty Partners of Clifton in August 2012 with the plan to build a mix of housing and retail shops. But more than two years later, the property on the west side of Tabor Road is vacant.

In 2012, M&M told the Morris Plains Borough Council and Planning Board of its plan to build about 500 apartments, condominiums and townhouses, and 100,000 square feet of retail space.

SEE ALSO: >> Quick Facts: Morris Plains at a glance http://dailyre.co/1xYj2EO

The borough "never expected the property to be sold. The whole thing is a stunner," Druetzler said, adding at one point there were talks of building a high-end hotel on the site for the adjacent Honeywell property. "We definitely want a hotel in the borough for Honeywell, we think it would complement them. They bring in thousands of people from all over the world and have difficulty renting local hotel rooms."

The borough responded with a list of changes for M&M to consider, including fewer housing units, setting the building farther back on the property and better rear aesthetics for the complex.

"They introduced themselves before the sale, made a presentation to us, and we told them we thought their presentation was too intense. Way too intense for us, our infrastructure couldn't support it," Druetzler. "Next thing we knew, the lawsuit was filed. Now we're in litigation, it's ongoing, and I don't see an end to it."

In 2013, M&M filed a "Builder's Remedy" lawsuit against Morris Plains and the Planning Board, alleging the borough hasn't fulfilled its requirements under the Affordable Housing Act. Under the Mount Laurel Doctrine, based on landmark New Jersey Supreme Court rulings, municipalities have an obligation to construct their "fair share" of low- and moderate-income housing.

M&M asked the court to build 800 housing units, 295 of which would be low- to moderate-income housing.

Eight-hundred full units would increase Morris Plains' population of 5,739 by 20 to 30 percent.

"Residents don't want to see the intensity, it would change the character of Morris Plains," Druetzler said. "People like the small town feel and don't want to see it go away. The proposal would change it all, and people are negative toward that."

Superior Court ruled the borough did not have enough affordable housing in its plan and in March 2014, the borough was in the process of submitting a revised plan.

"The idea of affordable housing got lost in a lot of legal mumbo jumbo," Druetzler said.

As the lawsuit developed, the borough discovered the deed restriction on the land limiting the property to nonresidential uses, citing contamination.

"I never realized that much pollution was on the property. It doesn't make any sense as a residential area. You couldn't live there," Druetzler said. "And it said the water could never be used on the property. If you get rid of the soil, what about the water?"

The property was listed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as an "active site with confirmed contamination" and part of its remediation program in April 2012, the same month M&M purchased the property from Pfizer.

Driving down Tabor Road now, mounds of contaminated soil covered in tarps are visible.

"There's enough land in the country that has never been contaminated to put housing on," Druetzler said. "Why would anyone want to take that risk? This is just wrong."

According to Borough Engineer Leon Hall, the contaminants include pollutants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB).

PAH are formed during the incomplete burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. Some are used in medicines to make plastics, dyes or pesticides. PCB may be found in products like fluorescent lighting and electrical equipment, and can be released into the soil in poorly maintained hazardous waste sites. Both are carcinogens, meaning they can cause cancer.

"The areas of concern have been excavated and stockpiled in the northern section of the property and backfilled with clean soil," Hall said. "There's probably more but we're not being kept in the loop by M&M, which is frustrating."

Hall added that on the southern portion of the property are piles of concrete that will be going to a landfill in Middlesex, which the borough believes to be contaminated.

Until remediation is complete, any potential work on the site is halted.

DEP spokesperson Bob Considine confirmed Engineering and Institutional Controls have been used to remediate this site in the form of the deed notice and a Classification Exception for the ground water.

"In both instances, the use of engineering and institutional controls require that the full extent of contamination is defined so that future exposure is controlled and eliminated," Considine said.

He said biennial reporting by the "responsible parties" is required to ensure the area is maintained, and to alert future buyers of the location of the contamination, property use restrictions and maintenance and reporting obligations to insure long-term protectiveness.

Considine referred questions regarding the remediation timeframe — and how it would impact construction on the property — to M&M's hired Licensed Site Remediation Professional John Larkins, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Druetzler said he thinks the land may be viable for commercial use once the contamination is cleared, but never as housing.

Druetzler said progress cleaning the property has slowed at the moment. M&M has applied for a soil removal permit with the borough, but more documents are needed to move forward.

"I don't know what a judge will decide but I think we have a good case. I don't know when it will happen though, multiple decisions will likely be made," Druetzler said. "We will continue to fight the proposal, we have big concerns about the contaminations and think the process will take a lot longer."

M&M Realty did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Staff Writer Michael Izzo: 973-428-6636; mizzo@dailyrecord.com