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[quote="Cranbury Press"]Friday, May 23, 2008 10:28 AM EDT
By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer

Some local officials say they support a proposal that would allow them to bypass approval from the state Department of Transportation in order to make local traffic improvements.

Under the bill that’s pending in state Legislature, counties and municipalities’ would be able to designate parking restrictions, install stoplights and crosswalks, create no-passing zones, erect yield and stop signs and change speed limits after their own engineers reviewed the plans and without DOT approval. The bill targets municipal and county roads, not state roads.

Assembly members Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex), Wayne DeAngelo (R-Middlesex) along with John S. Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) introduced the bill, A2731, on May 12. Ms. Greenstein said the bill has been assigned to Assembly Transportation Committee, which Mr. Wisniewski chairs.

”This takes DOT out of the process,” Ms. Greenstein said. “Each town has an engineer reviewing these things and reviewing them to federal standards.”

She said that it is too time-consuming for two sets of engineers, one from the DOT and ones representing a municipality or county, to review the same plans and apply the same standards.
   Mr. DeAngelo agreed.

”There is no reason for the DOT to continue to be involved in every traffic management decision in the state,” said Mr. DeAngelo in a press release. “Giving local officials the autonomy to make decisions about their own roads, without first consulting Trenton, would go a long way towards reducing congestion and improving quality of life for residents.”

Although counties and townships can already bypass DOT approval on some local traffic improvements, excluding speed limit changes and traffic signals, on roads that begin and end in a municipality, many still routinely consult the department on plans, as it has been a long practiced procedure, Ms. Greenstein said.

DOT is supporting the legislation as the idea was actually the suggestion of one of their officials, said DOT spokeswoman Erin Phalon.

”The DOT supports legislation that would give municipalities more control over changes of traffic signals,” Ms. Phalon said. “Commissioner (Kris) Kolluri proposed this idea as a means to increase efficiency.” Monroe’s Township Council will be considering a resolution supporting the proposal at its June 4 meeting, said Township Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton.

Jamesburg Mayor Anthony LaMantia said he thought the bill was a great idea and will discuss endorsing it at a future Borough Council meeting.

”It’s about time the state lets us monitor our own town without going through all the red tape,” Mayor LaMantia said. “All the streets coming into Jamesburg are county roads, so it does happen for us. We just hope if it’s in our municipality we have full jurisdiction to do what we need to do.”

Township Administrator Christine Smeltzer said the Cranbury professionals would need more time to review the bill and its implications on the town before anyone could comment. . . .

http://www.packetonline.com/articles/2008/05/23/cranbury_press/news/doc4836d13e3116b527870791.txt[/quote]

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