The Planning Board has been presented with a petition signed by 150 residents urging the township to revise its master plan to remove a proposed extension of Ward Road to connect Village and Penn Lyle Roads.
##M:[more]##“It will reduce the quality of life for the residents in the area without improving it for others,” said Andrew Kulley, one of a dozen residents who attended the April 25 Planning Board meeting.
While the Ward Road extension has been in the Master Plan for years, the residents are petitioning the planning board now because of an impending application for a development in the area. If the application were to be approved, it could be on the condition that the developer complete the extension at his own expense.
The petition asks the township to take the extension out of its master plan, to remove funding for the road from its capital budget, and to take the extension off of maps that show the road as having been completed. Kulley says people following maps often take Ward Road expecting to be able to drive through.
The proposed road has been designated as a “minor collector,” or a street that would average between 500 and 3,”000 trips per day, by the Department of Transportation. The petitioners argue that connecting the roadway would not alleviate traffic on Village or Penn Lyle Roads. “I don’t feel creating this road would improve the general flow of traffic in the township,” said former school board member and Jacob Drive resident Diane Hasling. “There are so many neighborhoods in West Windsor seeking relief from too much traffic moving too fast on their streets. Let’s not create another problem for which we would need a solution.”
Ashley Hasling, age 12, also spoke in favor of leaving the street as a dead end. “There will be more cars, making it dangerous for my friends and me to play tennis, run, ride bikes, and roller blade,” she said.
Intesar Zaidi owns Shalimar Holdings of Jackson, the development company proposing “Cherry Grove,” a 12-lot subdivision of a 22-acre property. Zaidi met with Kulley and other interested residents to hear their concerns about the connection. “I was pleased to meet with them, and I encouraged them to take up the concerns with the township. We will do whatever the township rules is best for the residents.”
The Cherry Grove application is scheduled to be heard by the Site Plan Review Advisory Board on Monday, June 11. Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner asked the township professionals to provide a report for the planning board by May 9 detailing the reasons the connection was put in the master plan in 2002, and whether changing circumstances dictate that the roads should remain as they are.
