December 31, 2003Montgomery Township Bends Over For Developers, AgainIn a questionably timed meeting, Montgomery Township's Township Committee poured more gasoline on the Route 206/518 intersection tinderbox. Why did this meeting run at 8:00 am on a Monday morning? Political attempts to spin this decision as being positive and in the best interest of the community are positively laughable. The Princeton Packet reports that "The overlay gives the township greater square footage of non-residential tax ratables than the current zoning provides, but with less rush-hour traffic from commuting workers than would occur if the parcels were developed as office space." Pardon the question, but exactly how much less rush hour traffic would this new plan produce? Surely those stores need workers. Surely they need customers. We can't expect them all to WALK to the pedestrian-friendly (cough) parking lot. Lets stop sucking up to the developers. And lets stop repeating those questionable claims, without presenting solid evidence. The Packet associated Mayor Wilson with the following spin "In addition, new roads under the municipality's Master Plan will be built as part of an overlay development, which will take some pressure off the Route 206-Route 518 intersection." Hogwash. :) It's absurd to expect that a smattering of asphalt spaghetti will help take the pressure off the 206/518 intersection. Between the opening of Stonebridge on Montgomery Avenue (just north of the intersection, off Route 206) and the greenlighted Sharbell development (behind the Village Shopper), the two new age-restricted developments stand to add more residents to the portion of Montgomery surrounding the intersection than the entire existing population of Rocky Hill. The land surrounding the Route 206/518 intersection should not be developed. It should be put into preservation. It's time to stop bending over for the developers. It's time to fix the intersection for good. When the Landmark development threatened to explode the population of Rocky Hill, decades ago, the village fought long and hard to preserve their way of life. And after all of these years, Rocky Hill is choked in traffic because of Montgomery's out-of-control development. Montgomery politicos love to trumpet their land preservation victories. And all the while, as they pick off one piece of low hanging fruit after another (at the taxpayers' expense, of course), the intersection burns ... Posted by geekbooks at December 31, 2003 08:45 PM |
