New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 19 - OTHER AGENCIES › NEW JERSEY SCHOOLS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY › Chapter 34 - PRECONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES › Subchapter 3 - SDA SCHOOL DISTRICTS SITE PRECONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES › Section 19:34-3.3 - Feasibility studies and land-related design work

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
(a) After a site
				  has been identified, and is approved by the Department for site-related
				  preconstruction activities, the Authority shall undertake any feasibility
				  studies or land-related design work necessary to determine whether to acquire
				  the site or construct on the site.
(b) The feasibility studies relevant to site
				  acquisition or to the use of district-owned land for the construction of a
				  school facilities project may consist of a cost comparison of rehabilitation of
				  an existing school facility, conversion of a facility, and the construction of
				  a new school facility on a new site or some other basis for analysis. For
				  example, the feasibility study may include a traffic study, which analyzes the
				  existing traffic conditions in the immediate vicinity of the proposed school
				  site, determines the surrounding area of impact from the proposed school
				  facilities project, and is performed by a consultant who is a licensed engineer
				  with expertise in traffic analysis. Land-related design work may consist of any
				  of the architectural and engineering work required for the acquisition or use
				  of vacant or improved land or land with existing school or other facilities,
				  such as a architectural pre-design and programming.
(c) The Authority shall undertake an initial
				  site review for each proposed school site approved by the Department for
				  preconstruction services in order to determine whether to proceed with site
				  feasibility services and to determine the scope of the feasibility services to
				  be undertaken. The initial site review shall consist of recent aerial
				  photographs of the proposed site and the surrounding area, a review of the
				  site's historic property uses, surrounding area land uses, wetlands, flood
				  plain information, land title information, as well as a commercially available
				  database search of local, State and Federal environmental records to determine
				  the potential suitability of the proposed site for a school facilities
				  project.
(d) Based on the
				  information provided by the SDA school district, pursuant to
19:34-3.2(b)
and (f), the initial site review undertaken pursuant to (c) above,
				  and any other relevant information, the Authority, in consultation with the
				  members of the working group, shall determine whether to continue site
				  feasibility services with respect to a proposed site and, if so, the scope of
				  such feasibility services.
1. If the
				  Authority determines that a proposed site is unavailable or unsuitable for
				  acquisition or use as a school site, it shall terminate the feasibility study
				  for that site, summarize in writing the reason(s) for the rejection of the site
				  and proceed to undertake approved preconstruction activities on another site(s)
				  identified by the school district.
2. If based on the initial site review,
				  environmental and other development constraints are minimal; for example, the
				  proposed site is predominantly residential without the need for substantial
				  relocation, has no extraordinary infrastructure improvements, the site has a
				  known historic use, remediation is limited, and the environmental regulatory
				  involvement would have a minimal impact on project schedule and budget and
				  would not impede the development of the property for a school, the Authority
				  may undertake a streamlined process to acquire the site, which shall, at a
				  minimum, consist of the completion of a preliminary assessment supported by
				  such tasks as boundary surveys, title searches, relocation analysis, site
				  feasibility concept plans, preliminary geotechnical investigations and utility
				  evaluations, as well as additional tasks dependent on the site-specific
				  circumstances of the school facilities project.
3. If, based on the initial site assessment,
				  the Authority determines that significant infrastructure and environmental
				  uncertainty remains and further environmental characterization is necessary to
				  quantify development and remediation liability exposure, additional feasibility
				  studies shall be undertaken in a process of increasingly more stringent
				  investigations. Such feasibility studies shall ascertain a site's environmental
				  quality and remediation requirements, extraordinary site development and
				  infrastructure improvement needs, former property ownership, adequacy of water
				  and sewerage, geotechnical conditions or potential title complications, or some
				  other basis for analysis.