DID YOU KNOW THAT….
…the Franklin Township Council voted on Feb. 8 for a development plan where the farmland on Bennetts Lane and Route 27 may have eventually have a Home Depot, a strip mall, and 644 housing units?
…this will increase the traffic not only during rush hour, but at all hours of the day, 7 days a week on two lane roadways, including a lovely, narrow country lane?
…we will see an increase in cars and trucks cutting through neighborhoods off Route 27 due to congestion on the highway if this plan goes through?
…the Franklin Environmental Commission and Planning Board both previously rejected this redevelopment plan, but the Franklin Township Council ignored their recommendations and ;ushed it through?
…there is protected wildlife and wetlands including a Category 1 stream on or near Bennetts Lane?
…A New Jersey State traffic plan proposal to align Bennetts Lane with Huron Road, allowing more traffic into Brunswick Knolls area of North Brunswick near the John Adams Elementary School, might become a reality if this development is built?
…that if you don’t act TODAY this will be our future?
Background: The Franklin Planning Board voted down a plan by Edgewood Properties to develop the farmland near the old ShopRite to build a strip mall, 864 housing units and a Home Depot in July, 2004. In early 2005, the Planning Board turned down a revised plan, but the Franklin Township Council has recently set aside this recommendation and approved this revised plan. The revision changed the number of homes from 864 to 644, and made some concessions to building along Route 27. The property involved includes the Ruffles Inn site and virgin farmland bordering Bennetts Lane, Route 27 and Veronica (please see the attached illustration for further clarification). The old ShopRite strip mall is also owned by Edgewood and is supposed to be redeveloped into another supermarket.
Environmental concerns: The Franklin Environmental Commission also issued a resolution of disapproval for this plan as the Commission determined that the environment could not support a development of this size. There is a Category 1 stream and wetlands off Bennetts Lane that feed into the Millstone, which in turn feeds into the Raritan River. Built-on and paved-over ground will not allow the rainwater to seep into the ground and this causes flooding. Also rainwater will mix with oil and gasoline from cars and other waste products and wash into these streams causing pollution of our drinking water source. The NJ Department of Environmental Protection issued a classification requiring the builder to leave a 150 foot buffer between the protected wetlands and whatever the builder constructs. Route 27 and other roadways that border this development are already congested with traffic. There is also the presence of an endangered species of bird – the Red-shouldered Hawk – and development of this land will deprive this species of a home. However, since the owner of Edgewood, Jack Morris, persuaded Franklin’s Township Council to revive the plan and the Council approved this plan despite community objection and environmental concerns.
Who is the developer? Mr. Morris is the owner of Edgewood Properties and has been portrayed in the newspapers recently as a politically-connected developer. He has several projects in the works including one in North Brunswick (senior citizen development on the pristine Pulda farm) and another in Piscataway (a transit village on the Fairway Golf recreation center). There is speculation that Mr. Morris gets his proposals rubberstamped by township politicians because of his political donations through the development companies that he controls.
What does this Franklin Township issue has to do with residents of North Brunswick? North Brunswick will get the majority of the traffic burden without the tax benefit. North Brunswick residents who live off Route 27 already know the horrors of rush hour on Route 27 and the surrounding roadways. There has been an increase in recent years of large housing and apartment developments on the Somerset County side of Route 27 that have contributed to the traffic madness, in addition to the strip malls and housing that has been built on the North Brunswick side of Route 27.
Other problems for North Brunswick: Cars cut through the neighborhoods in North Brunswick to avoid traffic on Route 27, and many of these vehicles do not respect the traffic laws and speed limits thus endangering the families that live in these neighborhoods. There will probably have to be a widening of the roadways and traffic controls installed to handle the increased traffic due to development in the North Brunswick – Franklin Township region. About two years ago, the State of NJ DOT proposed a Route 27 traffic plan that will affect our homes’ property values as it aligns Bennetts Lane with Huron Road, allowing traffic to enter into our neighborhood, just three blocks away from the John Adams Elementary School! The North Brunswick Township Council issued a resolution that didn’t support this plan, but it could come back into play if traffic on Route 27 becomes unbearable. The final decision on this is up to the State, not North Brunswick Township!
So why did this development issue resurface if the Franklin Planning Board and Environmental Commission nixed the proposal? Sanity prevailed when the Planning Board in Franklin turned down Mr. Morris’ revised proposal in early 2005, but after elections and new appointments in late 2005, Mr. Morris persuaded the Township Council to reconsider the proposal. The Township Council was enticed because the project will satisfy their Fair-Share housing quota as required by the state's Commission on Affordable Housing (COAH) by providing 132 affordable housing units out of the 644 proposed homes. The Environmental Commission also sent the resolution of disapproval to the Township Council in November 2005. However, a newly appointed Planning Board subcommittee made up of Council members met Jan. 26 and gave approval for the plan as it exists and the Franklin Township Council voted Feb. 8 to accept the revamped plan just in time to meet the state’s Fair-Share filing deadline on Feb. 11.