North Jersey town looks to turn empty school into recreation complex

WEST MILFORD — Nearly eight years after a survey found residents in support of converting the former Hillcrest School into a sports complex, municipal and school board officials want an expert to examine the possibility.

This month, the town Council agreed to use $43,500 in open space tax funds to pay for a feasibility study for the conversion of the 7.75-acre complex off Macopin Road and its nearly 80-year-old schoolhouse into a recreation complex. The 34,000-square-foot facility has been sitting idle since 2017. Before then, it housed a drug rehabilitation and recovery center and a township-run community center that regularly bustled with activity.

The feasibility study was recommended by a joint subcommittee to determine the best options for the building's public use, said Councilman Matthew Conlon, also a former school board member, during a recent Council meeting. Due to potential constraints due to the property's location, condition and infrastructure, he said there are many questions in need of answers. The potential cost and permitted size of a new facility given Highlands Region development restrictions are among them.

"This is the first step in figuring out what we are able to do," Conlon said.

School district officials have pitched building a swimming pool and a multi-use gym while preserving the baseball fields as one potential option.

The facility’s conversion into a sports complex was backed by the public during an online survey released by the school board in 2016. Other options proposed by that survey included the creation of a satellite medical center or donating the property currently assessed at more than $4.4 million.

Prior to its closure in 2017, the township had been a long-term tenant at Hillcrest. The former school once housed the town's Recreation Department and for 25 years cost the town just $1 a year in rent.

In 2011, renegotiations led to rising rent payments that started at $68,000 per year. Within five years, township officials chose to move out and reallocate those funds to the new library and its new recreation center, the former PAL center off Cahill Cross Road. After the move, Board of Education officials twice said they were offering the property for sale.

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While the district currently owns the site once leased by the municipality, Board of Education President Kate Romeo said in a June statement that transferring partial or full ownership to the local government is an option if a new facility is built.

School district officials this spring began a search for consultants to execute the feasibility study for Hillcrest. A contract with ENV (formerly Environetics) architectural firm of Englewood Cliffs is pending, records show.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Jersey town looks to turn empty school into recreation complex