Babs Leese/Somerset Reporter
HILLSBOROUGH — A former prisoner-of-war camp may be filled with nature trails, a recreation center, a skate park and ball fields if Hillsborough residents get their way.
About 50 residents showed up to a design charette on Wednesday night to share what they wanted, and didn’t want, to see in the former Belle Mead Depot, an old government property from World War II.
Gathering around maps supplied by the architects and engineers who are working with the township on plans, residents placed cardboard pieces on the maps to represent what they wanted for the depot.
Babs Leese/Somerset Reporter
The cardboard pieces had scaled-to-size pictures of go-kart tracks, ball fields, an aquatic center, an amphitheater and a dog park, among other choices.
“It’s like playing monopoly,” said Hillsborough resident Dennis Sitarik, who lives on Oxford Place near the depot site.
The idea was to get a picture of what would fit and how possible options could be arranged, said Patrick Hoagland, an architect with Kentucky-based Brandstetter Carroll Inc., a company that has been working with the township since August on designing the depot.
“It’s to help us get an idea of what should be included and what priorities should be,” Hoagland said, adding, “It’s a matter of fitting everything in and doing it in a way that’s pleasing to everyone.”
The design charette, though, showed that it might be hard to please everyone in Hillsborough, especially those living in the immediate area of the depot.
Although residents collectively ranked nature trails, a comprehensive indoor recreation center and a skate park highest, each person seemed to have a different vision for the 369-acre plot.
“Everybody’s got a wish here,” said Hillsborough resident George Cox, who lives near Sitarik on Oxford Place.
Cox, who has lived near the depot for 10 years, said he would like to see a good mix of new ball fields and open space preservation. But he added that he doesn’t want more lights glowing long into the night at those ball fields.
His house on Oxford Place is close enough to see the lights from fields at another park.
“I’m all for more ball fields, but don’t go late into the evening,” he said.
He and Sitarik were hesitant about building a new recreation center and adding to the taxpayer’s burden. Sitarik said he worried about the corresponding money for building and maintaining swimming pools and centers.
Keith Mindish, who described himself as the representative of the Cub Scouts at the charette, said he would like to see a banquet-type facility instead of a recreation center.
His 6-year-old son is a Cub Scout, and Mindish would like to have a place for scout activities and sports ceremonies.
Vicki Schwartz, who lives in the Woodfield Estates area of Hillsborough, said she would rather see the wetland and natural areas left alone in the depot property.
The property is home to a plethora of wildlife like spotted turtles, frogs, snakes and deer, said Charles Cunion, a representative from the RBA Group, another engineering and architectural firm that is working with Brandstetter and the township.
Schwartz said the important thing should be that the township should not build facilities that are already built elsewhere in Hillsborough.
“They should take advantage of what’s here, and that’s natural land,” said Schwartz, who volunteers as a naturalist for non-profit organizations.
Her table submitted a list of things they did not want along with what they did want. The don’t-want list had things like a velodrome, or an arena for track cycling, and an indoor recreation center.
Other residents vied for performing arts and cultural centers. Some wanted a massive indoor aquatic center. Many did want the huge recreation center with treadmills, basketball courts and a walking track running along the ceiling.
Others cited a lack of good biking areas in Hillsborough as a reason for installing bike trails that would run throughout the property.
The vision for the area is a mix of everything, Hoagland said in a presentation to the gathered residents. He read from a slideshow that the optimum plan would be “balanced between maintenance of existing facilities, new active and passive activities and open space for the future.”
Joetta Clark Diggs, a former Olympian and head of an advisory committee for the depot, also said a combination of the different options would be ideal.
“I would like to see a good mix of what we have in town now: youth activities, senior activities, cultural activities and family activities,” Diggs said. “I want to see something that mirrors the community.”
The committee, engineers, architects and township have a long way to go. The design process only began in August, and environmental remediation hasn’t been started in full.
The depot land was a storage site for materials during World War II, along with housing Italian prisoners of war. It continued storing materials until the 1980s, and various contaminants have leaked into the ground and surrounding area during that time, said Tom Miller, counsel for Somerset County.
Complete environmental remediation won’t begin, though, until a plan is set in place.
“They have to go hand-in-hand,” Miller said. “As we design it we want to excavate and shape the area to facilitate the uses. That way we can save money by doing both.”
Residents threw around the issue of money during the charette, wondering aloud where funding would come from for the design and if it would be the responsibility of the township or the county to pay.
Although the park will be located in Hillsborough, it will serve as a county park for the southern half of Somerset County, Hoagland said.
The county and Hillsborough bought the property together and remain 50-50 partners, Miller said. Both entities have to agree on whatever will go in the area.
On the same note, residents also asked whether money from the parks would go back to the township or the county as a whole.
Those questions didn’t receive any answers. It’s only the first phase of the design process that will last until March, and Hoagland said the budget is nowhere in the picture yet.
“We haven’t even begun to do that yet,” Hoagland said. “We like to do a lot of listening before we start designing.”
He added, though, that the budget “is going to be big.”
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