October 29, 2003NIMBYism costs Montgomery TownshipUnlike the majority of today's residents of Montgomery Township, I remember when this area truly was unspoiled ... a great place to live ... when there wasn't a traffic light all the way from the Route 518/206 intersection to Amwell Road in Hillsborough. I shudder when I read things like: "Birge and Petraske also will do their utmost to stop the planned Hillsborough Bypass. Construction of this new four-lane highway would dump thousands of extra cars into Montgomery each day, putting our already stressed roads under unimaginable new strain. Mayor Louise Wilson is leading a coalition of municipalities in actively opposing construction of the highway." (from http://www.formontgomery.org/traffic.htm) Lets be realistic. This is NIMBY hogwash at its worst. Where, exactly, will those thousands of extra cars come from each day and where will they be heading? What's unimaginable is that the Democrats would actually 1) take the time to write that nonsense, and 2) approve its publication. Mayor Wilson is taking the same NIMBY route that got Montgomery Township into this mess in the first place. Pike Run's developers pushed construction ahead of the bypass. Whether they adequately warned their home buyers of the impending road is a question for the courts. Money for the road has already been allocated, and properties such as the Hillsborough Driving Range/Batting Cages/Miniature Golf Course have already been paid for with our tax dollars. Hillsborough has been planning on that bypass for years. It will be built. To borrow the jingle, it seems "like a bad neighbor, Mayor Wilson doesn't care." All Mayor Wilson can do with her actions is cost us more tax dollars, and cause bad blood with Hillsborough. Lord knows that this township has spent its share on legal fees over the years. We can't just close our eyes. The bypass is not a bad thing. The folks in Pike Run might not like it, but tough luck (they didn't have to buy those houses and force the school district into a huge, expensive game of catch up). This township has a history of stopping roads, while allowing developers the reign to rape, pillage, and plunder. If you look at the places where big road projects have been derailed in Montgomery, you'll see expensive houses and huge developer profits: where Route 95 was to pierce the southern border, there's Planters Row; where a dualized 206 was to rerouted, across from the municipal building, an outcropping of Toll Brothers McMansions. Now our mayor has plans for some roads of her own. Some make sense. But one in particular, does not. A new road, extending from Orchard Road to Route 518 will cost a great deal of money, while destroying wetlands and unspoiled countryside. This road may serve the interests of the developer that seeks to add hundreds of housing units, but it certainly doesn't serve the needs of the current residents of Montgomery Township. It's a bad idea. Posted by geekbooks at October 29, 2003 02:33 AM |
