Old Trenton Road Reconfiguration - Township Committee Meeting April 12

[Guest]

OTR was not intended to be 3 lanes. People who bought there years ago have every right not to expect their front yard to be taken over so the county can put in a turn lane in the center.

OTR was always busy, but it was at one time a very slow road traffic (not speed) wise. It has increased in traffic, but the speed which is the issue has not decreased.

[Guest]

Do you really expect residents to constantly check up on county plans? The county has a civil duty to inform residents of plans that will effect their property, safety, etc.

I know that Mr. Diamond was not contacted by the township, county, or state that part of his property would be paved over. He found out when the surveyors showed up on his front lawn. It's a good thing he realized that they were taking his land without eminent domain or condemnation proceedings.

Residents should not have to live in fear or their property being taken from them without notice.

[Guest]

What I find concerning is going back to all the electronic meeting notes I do not see one reference to a discussion of the widening of the road.

If this was discussed it was either in closed session or a sub committee meeting.

Getting to the point of the above poster. How can a resident review and be knowledgeable about something if it isn't discussed in open session? Clearly, the 2009 and prior TC knew or some of them did. Perhaps there was an engineering or road work sub committee. Were we paying any professionals legal or engineer- traffic or other? If so there were bills approved for their work.

Now, if they say now we did not know the impact or what the bills were than that is a whole other issue.

At a minimum, I would expect the county or the town to tell residents hey, we're putting this on the agenda so if you're concerned about widening OTR then please come out to discuss. Not have this whole mess happen after the project started.

[Guest]

[Guest]

[Guest]

[RobDiamond]

[RobDiamond]

Just thinking about the big picture here, I don't understand the logic of this project. The project basically designed to deliver traffic to slower stretches of road at a faster pace. This will result in even longer backups at the Millstone Bridge near One Mile Rd., and at the Main St. Intersection. It does make it more convenient for drivers having to make left turns onto cross streets, but at the expense of the safety of pedestrians, bicyclers, school bus stops, people needing to access driveways, etc.

This is crazy. This should have been a traffic calming project.

[Guest]

[Guest]

we have a cover up here at the highest levels of our county government and its all Chris Christies fault.

[resident of cranbury]

below is from cranbury sauce and unfortunately it really does sum up how many of us feel about this project.why were we not told about the widening?I guess our mayor was too busy trying to buy pnc bank for the library spending money to build a baseball field and allowing our sewer rates to double to worry about this problem. great job mayor


The apparent lack of notice about the project seemed to irk residents as much the project itself.

“We seem to get email notices from the township every time someone as much as farts at a committee meeting,” said Bill Williams, a Shadow Oaks resident. “It just seems fishy to me that there would be no communication to residents from the township regarding a change this monumental.”

A spokesman for the county said the project has been in the planning stages for more than six years, and that Cranbury Township officials have received regular status reports.

“The mayor and the township administrator have been getting weekly briefings from us over the entire planning process,” said Roy Jasper, the county’s lead engineer on the expansion project. “If anything, we’ve probably been giving them too much information.”

[Guest]

Clearly the TC last year knew and did not communicate, stating otherwise is contrary to fact. The problem is like a lot of things in the past it either it is done in private, it is done with little long term thought or little communication. Say what you will about the merit pay idea or article, but at least the process was explained and transparent this year.

The West Property was preserved despite all the former and current BOE members and former TC members stating the reason for the West Proprty being town land at all and not homes was school related. So what happens the TC preserves it and then they spend money at the TC and BOE level with attorneys to undue part of the preservation and allow for some land to be school use. Why not save the legal fees and only preserve part at the start and restrict the rest to the school?

The TC try to sneak through the PNC building for the library, but an attorney in the audience argued them that the discusison had to be in public session. It was and Mr. Panconi and Mr. Wittman said no to it.

We had a TC who voted on the sewer dramatically increasing rates and Mr. Cody was the only one saying wait this is too much too soon and we did not do a full review. Then after the uproar they decide to pay the engineer to go and see if the businesses in the warehouse district paid their share, they did not and now will have to pay back the town. However, instead of doing this first as Mr. Cody argued residents were charged increased sewer rates. They should have done the sewer study and then increased rates accordingly.

I won't discuss the ballfield...

These are just off the top of my head items the last couple of years.

The good news is that we have Mr. Cody, Mr. Cook and Mr. Taylor. All of them seem to be trying to communicate and understand resident views. They represent all parties well. We are on the right track and hopefully, Democrat or Republican we will have 2 new members and we will have re-made the TC in November and they will take their lead from these 3 gentlemen.

[Long Time Resident]

Regardless of how long the Old Trenton Road project has been planned or how long the mayor and township administrator have known about it, it is a bad plan and will do nothing more than increase the speed on this road. Middlesex county has major road repair problems, and this $1.8 million could be better utilized elsewhere. This is a major waste of our tax dollars as well as increasing danger along residential areas. Time to get more than just our local TC involved before it's too late. BTW, the speed limit will always be 50; if you try to get it changed with a traffic study, it will only get increased to 55.

[Guest]

This has to be illegal - no public notice? No notice to Mr. Diamond that his land is being taken? What is going on here?

[Guest]

[Guest]