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WeLoveMillburn unanimously votes
that the Millburn Township Committee reject the Planning Board's
proposed Downtown Redevelopment Plan
September 16, 2008 — Millburn, NJ
Sunday, September 14th, WeLoveMillburn, sent the following email to all the members of Millburn Township Committee and the town's Business Manager.
That note said:
Dear Mayor Haimoff, Township Committee members and Tim Gordon,
WeLoveMillburn has unanimously voted that you not approve the Downtown Redevelopment Plan passed on to you by the Planning Board.
Mayor Haimoff was kind enough to encourage Planning Board Chairman Michael Gorman to meet with members of our organization when there had been a consistent delay to our requests. We finally had that meeting with three members of the Planning Board after having presented 25 questions in advance (his request) in writing to Michael Gorman. We published those 25 responses exactly as they were written on our website. While some of the items in the Plan are interesting like bike lanes and extra parking, we start off with these basic concerns: Is this the right time based on the economy? How can we be sure that this project will be revenue neutral? Where is the research that says the township needs new/additional condos (it looks like the Chanticlair will be converted to new condos too)? Where is the research, beyond anecdotal, that we need more retail space? Where would DPW go since it has not been stated in the plan? Is the number of additional school children projected realistic?
Would the members of the Township Committee be willing to publicly go record taking this simple pledge?
I PLEDGE:
- I will not support the final Redevelopment Plan unless it can be factually demonstrated to not increase the tax burden on Millburn's residents.
- I will not support the final Redevelopment Plan until an acceptable location can be found for the recycling center/DPW. The move of the recycling center/DPW cannot result in any increased fees or taxes for Millburn's residents.
- I will not support the final Redevelopment Plan if it would cause more than 18 new students to enter Millburn's school system. The mix of housing units in the redevelopment plan must be heavily skewed toward studio and 1 bedroom units, with a sprinkling of 2 bedroom units if necessary, and no 3 bedroom units should be built.
- I will not support the final Redevelopment Plan unless a comprehensive traffic study is completed and the Redevelopment plan adheres to the guidelines of the approved traffic study.
- I will not support the final Redevelopment Plan unless a comprehensive parking study is completed and the Redevelopment Plan adheres to the guidelines of the approved parking study.
Our basic 25 questions are posted at WeLoveMillburn.com along with the written responses from Michael Gorman and some of his group members. We would like the members of the Township Committee to respond with their own version of answers to our original 25 questions. And the pledge idea presented above is an interesting idea. We realize the Township Committee is going to have a few public meetings but since attendance is always so low you should plan on quickly mailing out a copy of the proposed Plan to the 19,177 residents (one per household) for their information. The local newspaper only reaches 3,000 out of the close to 7,000 to 8,000 or so total homes, apartments, residences and the town website is not viewed by many older people.
Previous articles on this subject:
Planning Board responses to questions about the Downtown Redevelopment Plan submitted to them by members of WeLoveMillburn. (September 7, 2008)
WeLoveMillburn meets with Planning Board members to discuss the Downtown Redevelopment Plan (August 13, 2008)
Why does the Millburn Planning Board not honor our request to have a meeting regarding our questions about the proposed Downtown Redevelopment Plan? (July 29, 2008)
WeLoveMillburn, Inc. is a non-profit, grassroots, informational organization made up of involved residents. This mission, as we have stated on our website, is to help all residents to be better informed about the issues that affect our community. We do this in a positive spirit of informing one another about what is happening, what is not happening and what is possible. We are all neighbors and this is our town. WeLoveMillburn.com
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