Special Township Committe meeting May 2, 2013

[anon-310p]

Special Township Committe meeting May 2, 2013
http://www.cranburytownship.org/TC-Documents/2013/TC_agenda050213-notice.pdf

The May 2, 2013 Township Committee meeting agenda has been posted.
http://www.cranburytownship.org/TC-Documents/2013/TC_agenda050213.pdf

The May 7, 2013 Municipal Alliance meeting agenda has been posted.
http://www.cranburytownship.org/ma_agendas/2013/MA_agenda050713.pdf

[Sunshine-7449]

Special Meeting of TC at 9 A.M. on May 2nd. It was posted at 8:48 A.M.
Is this sufficient notice. When is the Land Acquisition item to be released to the public?
What could have been so urgent?

[home]

I received email about this meeting on 5/1/2013 at 10:25pm.

Normally, the town sends out a meeting notice a few days earlier before the meeting. This one is an exception.

[anon-8670]

[anon-69np]

I hope this is not to buy the old water tower lot on Maplewood. It would not serve Main St. since one would need to cross private property to get to Main St. from the lot. This would turn out to be a private parking lot for residents of Maplewood. This is a topic that deserves public discussion, not a secret meeting.

[guest555-617n]

I hope that is what they are doing. We should be taking advantage of parking opportunities when we can. There are few options left close to Main Street. We should seize them while we can. I would call that good government!!

[anon-sp08]

Regardless of which side your on for this issue, it should be a decision open to public scrutiny. Of course you're all just speculating that's what it's about.

Why is it good government to spend money to solve a non-existent problem? I park on Main Street usually at least a couple times a day and never have a real problem. I don't even have an issue on Cranbury, 5th of July or the Memorial Day Parade. When I ask people to define their parking problem it usually turns out to be proximity to the place they want to go rather than a complete lack of parking. As it is, the spots on Main at the entrance to the Preserve, the spots down Park Place and the public lot behind the restaurant off Park Place are rarely if ever full. Same with the new spots on the side road next to the Constitution Bank. So if the "parking problem" is convenience and not overall capacity, how will a new parking lot a full block away from Main Street solve a problem that parking right around the corner from Main Street apparently isn't able to solve? For that matter, even the large lot at the school would be as close.

I would like to see a traffic study to prove they have a true parking problem.

Besides, I'd rather see the money spend adding the parking lot and road extension between Park Place and the Town Hall/Library/School. That's in the Master Plan and would see much more use.

[anon-8670]

I'd actually like this to happen. There aren't many opportunities to secure land in the middle of town.

I thought it was discussed at the last TC meeting?

[anon-p819]

There was a traffic study- the 2010 master plan addition. it cost us around 125k, focused on main street and concluded that additional parking wasn't needed at that time due to our mixed use and subsequent varying peak demamds for residential, dining and retail. The study also added that if more parking was needed, it would spill over to Westminster and park streets.

[Sunshine Again-7544]

If the secret and closed meeting concerned the Water Tower property, as has been suggested, the substance of that meeting (labeled land acquisition) must be made public. Any decisions could be tainted.
A professional study of the current and possible future state of the Water Tower land from an environmental perspective is in order and should be required to protect Cranbury residents. The state of NJ may need to be involved at this time.

[anon-5n11]

Does the Maplewood lot have access to Main St? If it was made a parking lot, is there a cut through to Main St for people to walk?

[Guest 4-s8r1]

I think that the only access is between the Richard Grubb office and the old bank. But the only car access to the lot would be from Maplewood Ave.

[anon-97on]

Why would anyone use this lot for parking? What would they be parking for where this lot would be closer than the lot off of Park Place just behind the restaurant on Main? It's directly behind probably a fourth of the businesses on Main Street versus a couple blocks away, and it's almost never full. How would people even know to drive over to Maplewood and check it out?

[Odd Fellows-7544]

The poster who referred to the Richard Grubb office probably means the Odd Fellows building. Grubb's firm has not occupied the building for some time. It has a for rent/for sale in front.

[anon-69np]

It seems the water tower lot is being bought, it is on the agenda for the next meeting.

CRANBURY TOWNSHIP ORDINANCE # 04-13-14 – AN ORDINANCE OF
THE TOWNSHIP OF CRANBURY, MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY,
AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF AN AGREEMENT WITH NEW JERSEY
AMERICAN WATER COMPANY, INC. FOR THE ACQUISITION OF
CERTAIN REAL PROPERTY KNOWN AS BLOCK 32, LOTS 9, 17 AND 25
ON THE TAX MAP OF CRANBURY TOWNSHIP.

[anon-p2s1]

Good. I am glad they are not being short sighted.