News Release: October 20, 2003
Contact: Steve Wilson, ext. 245The New Jersey Business & Industry Association will present its Environmental Quality Award to the Seaboard Point development in North Wildwood during the 2003 Awards for Excellence Dinner to be held at the Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village on October 21.
The Environmental Quality Award is presented annually to companies that have done outstanding work to preserve or enhance the quality of the natural environment. The developers, engineers and architects of Seaboard Point are being recognized for obtaining the permits needed to turn an idle landfill into a high-end housing development.
"Seaboard Point is an extraordinary environmental success story," NJBIA President Philip Kirschner said. "Seaboard Development put together a crack team of environmental engineers to take an uncapped and environmentally unsound landfill and turn it into a first-rate housing complex."
The 20-acre Seaboard project is the first of its kind in New Jersey. It will cap an inactive 30-year-old, unsecured landfill to prevent water and air contamination. It will turn a vacant 20-acre parcel with views of both the ocean and Back Bay into 96 high-end residential housing units, producing a significant tax ratable for the city. And it will conserve natural resources by leaving 76 percent of the land undeveloped.
The development project now underway involves securing the landfill that was not properly closed when it became inactive 30 years ago. Clean dredge materials will be spread over the top of the landfill as a low permeability cover. This will cut costs for the developer and save dredge-spoil disposal space for the state. Landscaping, building foundations and paved areas will further secure the surface.
A 3.6-acre avian preserve will be created to provide habitat for two protected bird species-the Yellow-Crowned and Black-Crowned Night Herons-that were using part of the site for nesting. Passive walkways will allow residents to view the ecosystem without disturbing the habitat. The project will also provide for wetlands, wetland buffers and open space, leaving most of the site undeveloped.
The project was a joint effort with Sadat Associates, Inc., environmental engineers; Lomax Morey Consulting; Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, law firm; and Cooper Levenson, law firm. State Senator Jim Cafiero and North Wildwood Mayor Aldo Palumbo supported the project.
Since 1984, NJBIA annually has honored a select group of its members with an Award for Excellence. The Awards for Excellence winners demonstrate outstanding achievements in one of three award categories: Environmental Quality, Outstanding Employer, and Enterprise. A Public Service award is also presented to one or more individual business professionals. All NJBIA member companies are eligible to be nominated.
An independent panel of judges comprised of members of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) selected the winners along with three NJBIA policy committee chairs: JoAnn Trezza, Human Resources Committee; Edward Hogan, Environmental Quality Committee; and Tim Carden, Economic Development Council.
WithumSmith+Brown, the New Jersey-based accounting and consulting firm, verified the information supplied by the winning applicants.
With more than 20,000 member companies, NJBIA is one of the nation's largest state-level employer association.
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