Circulation improvements recommended in new plan
2001 Roosevelt development plan also emphasizes
protection of open space
Millstone Middle School music teacher Heather Philhower accepts a $1,296 grant from Millstone Foundation for Educational Excellence Vice President Matthew Siegel for an innovative “World Drumming” program which will be offered to students in the second half of the school year.
ROOSEVELT — After a public hearing on the final draft, the 2001 master plan was adopted last month with a few grammar and language changes.
Only about 15 people attended the hearing, but Planning Board Chairwoman Gail Hunton said that was because the hearings on the plan were well publicized and people knew what was being discussed.
"People have been talking with us over the course of the past year when the master plan was being developed. Actually it has been more than a year," she said. "We had an initial setback because we thought we were going to get GIS [Geographic Information System] maps free but that didn’t come through."
Besides, she said, there is nothing radically different in the new plan.
"The master plan states in a better way our objectives for conserving our green belt and the common lands behind the houses. It expresses a growing consensus that we attend to our open spaces," she explained.
Hunton said the only significant change was the addition of some pedestrian trails in the circulation element of the plan.
"A big part of the circulation element is the pedestrian trails and a map that shows existing and new trails," she said.
There are also other changes regarding the improvement of the environment with things like sidewalks, she said.
According to the plan, there are only remnants of sidewalks along North Rochdale Avenue, the borough’s primary street where the bulk of public and community facilities are located. The plan recommends that pedestrian/bicycle routes/paths be located along North Rochdale Road from a former service station site to the southern boundary of the borough and from Homestead Lane to Farm Lane.
The plan, prepared by Michael F. Sullivan of Clarke, Caton, Hintz, Trenton, is divided into five sections, goals and objectives and the following elements: land use conservation, circulation and housing plan, together with a number of graphics.
In light of the fact that the entire borough is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, historic preservation is integrated into the overall planning framework and not a separate section. The 2001 master plan replaces the 1978 master plan and the 1991 amendment to the master plan.