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Work To Begin On County College Master Plan
TOMS RIVER - Parking, roadways, facilities and access are all areas that will be reviewed as part of the Ocean County College master site plan.
"This plan will serve as the tool to bring Ocean County College into the future and to incorporate Kean University onto the Toms River Campus," said Ocean County Freeholder James F. Lacey, who serves as liaison to the college. "We expect the master plan will take about 10 months to complete and will be the blueprint for a long-range facilities plan of the campus."
In order to move the future planning forward, the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders awarded a contract to T&M Associates to prepare a master site plan and perform a comprehensive feasibility study.
"This study will take into consideration the concerns of the surrounding communities," Lacey said. "It is key, for this planning to be successful, that we are sensitive to our neighbors."
The master site plan will have three main themes to define the institution and how it supports the education experience. The three themes are: reinforcing the benefits of a county college experience, supporting the transfer opportunities to a larger university setting and creating partnerships with the local community. In 2005, the Ocean County College Board of Trustees approved the construction of classroom buildings for Kean University on the Ocean County College campus.
"This partnership will afford Ocean County residents the opportunity to receive bachelor and master degrees from a senior public university without leaving Ocean County," Lacey said. "However, we must also make certain the appropriate planning takes place so the college campus can accommodate more students and the surrounding communities are not being adversely affected."
The master plan and feasibility study will look at the impacts on the college campus and surrounding area. The information will be used to implement the most beneficial plan of action. The scope of work includes an environmental constraints analysis of undeveloped county land that may be available to Ocean County College for future growth, preparing a list of permits required for future development and preparing a proposed campus building development plan based upon the needs assessment, county comments and direction.
"We need to study the access to the college campus, the traffic capacity of College Drive and Hooper Avenue and what improvements may be needed," Lacey said. "We also need to look at the utilities that are in place on the campus, the campus topography and a host of other areas."
Prior to the study getting underway, a public information session will be held on the campus to provide information to the campus and surrounding communities and to get some initial feedback.
A date for the information session will be announced
in the near future. "Keeping everyone
informed will help in this process," Lacey said. "It's important to get feedback before implementing
future plans."
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