##M:[more]##One of the topics that has not received enough attention in all the discussion of the Transit Village in West Windsor is accountability by the planners. Not long ago the Penns Neck Roundtable spent more than two years discussing the traffic problems of the area. The Roundtable was led by Rutgers University and was made up of town and county representatives, NJ and Federal DOT officials, and interested organizations and citizen groups. In the end, a vote was taken on various suggested solutions, and a consensus was reached. Finally, a federal Environmental Impact Statement was issued offering an evaluation of the process.
To my astonishment, there has been hardly a word mentioned about the Penns Neck EIS that was received with so much enthusiasm and agreement. Does such a serious and public process simply fade away with no responsible attention from our public officials, such as the mayor and the council members? Where is the all-important Vaughn Drive connector between Washington Road and Alexander Road that was intended to ease traffic on Washington Road?
Why is there no mention of the cut and cover tunneling of Route 1 under Washington Road? Or of the improvements to Route 1, including an overpass at Harrison Street and frontage roads on either side? And why is there still mention of a road (the route of the former so-called Millstone Bypass) going through the Sarnoff property, when such a road was deemed environmentally unsuitable? The accepted improvements registered the overall concerns of an area reaching a five-mile radius around Penns Neck and should be included in the planning now.
Can Robert Hillier simply rewrite the conclusions of so many dedicated citizens and officials with a plan that ignores or changes some of the basic ideas of the Penns Neck plan? If this is possible, then West Windsor Township residents should have serious doubts that their wishes will be respected in whatever future plans are decided on for a transit village.
Some formal statement of responsibility, with checkpoints at different stages of whatever development occurs, must be signed by the mayor, the council members, and the planner, committing whoever is in charge of that development in the future to abide by the decisions made at present or modified at some point with a vote by the citizens of the community as a whole. Without a document of this sort, the township opens itself up to the whims of a few rather than the will of the many.
Paula McGuire
219 Washington Road, West Windsor
