Say No to Irresponsible Development

The Planning Board of Franklin Township convenes for the first time since new members were appointed last month. Will they or won't they vote down the Bennetts Lane proposal from Edgewood Properties? The Planning Board may be influenced by a strong showing of North Brunswick residents at their meeting. I heard a rumor that some of our own Township Council members may attend this meeting, so I think every concerned NB resident should make every effort to attend this meeting and support them, too.

 

Franklin residents are angry about this plan and have let the Township officials know about it through FRAID (Franklin Residents Against Improper Development) and Taxpayers United in Franklin. Mayor Brian Levine (R) stands nearly alone opposing this plan while the Democrats on the Township Council are showing all signs of voting for Jack Morris' plan. Don't worry Mayor Brian; to paraphrase George Washington: "...'tis better to be alone than in bad company." We are getting plenty of Franklin residents' signatures on our petition and great comments, too!

 

However it's funny how it's been so quiet about this project on the North Brunswick side of Route 27 when NB will be the town impacted by the traffic and other nuisances associated with 644 new homes, a strip mall and a Home Depot a mere few blocks from our front doors. What happened with the news coverage on this issue in our town, huh? Is it a big secret?

 

Anyway, I'll quote Edgar Watson Howe, an editor and author, before ending this: "People have discovered that they can fool the Devil; but they can't fool the neighbors."

 

Posted by Karen Ramsden-Zahler at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I had the dubious pleasure of attending the Franklin Township Council meeting last Wednesday night. My husband and I attended the Township Council meeting in December where my husband made up several copies of the location of home improvement stores in our region for the Council's viewing pleasure. My goal Wednesday was to ask a couple of fact-finding questions and present the Council with an updated map of the home improvement-type stores (new Lowes in East Brunswick!) within our area (wow - 11 of them in a ten-mile radius; I never would have thought we needed another one! Thank goodness Franklin wants to let someone build one! To the Franklin Township Council and Planning Board subcommittee: I hope you can hear the sarcasm).

I arrived a little late, but managed to find a seat in the sparsely filled room. After the agenda was reviewed by the Council the nitpicking and bickering began and continued for about 45 minutes on the lawful way to form committees, subcommittees, who could nominate who and whether it was OK for the Mayor to nominate himself on a majority of the committees. Then a tense discussion began on whether Someone should have called Someone Else about some change or whatever on a preliminary agenda. I'm surprised that fisticuffs didn't break out.

 

Anyway, finally the public comment section began. I waited for a couple of people to have their say for whatever issue they were having. Then it was my turn. I presented the new map to the Council, introduced myself as a representative of a coalition of NB residents and asked my questions. I received very hesitant answers or near-dead silence. They truly didn't know what to do with me! One Council member "thought" she heard the 5 min. timer go off, but I think she was really wishing.

 

I asked the reason for ignoring the recommendations of their Environmental Commission and Planning Board and bringing this plan back for consideration. The eventual answer I got was "Well, we need the housing." Le Duh! Maybe there wouldn't be a race to meet the COAH filing deadline if they spent more time worrying about the COAH housing issue and less time fighting amongst themselves.

 

I also asked how many housing units they would be building - and was this the revised figure? The township attorney sifted through his papers to find the answer to that one. I can't believe they didn't know this stuff by heart yet with all the conflict about it! No one else offered information while the attorney looked for this number. Finally - success - 644! I asked if this was the revised number? I was told that this was the original number, which I found out later was not correct. The original number of units was 864.

 

I then asked that how come, in such a big township, why couldn't they find other land to build this housing? This question was met with near-arctic reception and I received a response in kind. I left them with a "we'll be back"  attitude.

 

Posted by Karen Ramsden-Zahler at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)