A petition outlining those requests was presented to Township Council last week.
By: Lea Kahn
The Eggerts Crossing neighborhood has been forgotten by time and Lawrence Township officials. That’s what some residents of the neighborhood claim.
Those who live in the neighborhood want to see the installation of water and natural gas lines. They want landscaping for the Lawrence Greenway path on the former trolley tracks and a development plan for the vacant lots that dot the neighborhood. And they want the neighborhood to be cleaned up, said Harold Vereen of Bunker Hill Road.
A petition outlining those requests was presented to Township Council last week. The petition, circulated by the Eggerts Crossing Civic League, was signed by more than 180 people who live in the neighborhood and surrounding area.
The petition also called on Township Council to hire a planning consultant to draw up a redevelopment plan for the neighborhood. The council said it would consider the request.
The Eggerts Crossing Civic League, which was organized in 1949, serves the neighborhood, said Mr. Vereen. He is the organization’s president. The civic group has about 50 members.
The Eggerts Crossing neighborhood is bordered by the trolley tracks that have been turned into a Lawrence Greenway path on the east, Eggerts Crossing Road on the north and Ewing Township to the west and south. The Eggerts Crossing Village rental housing development also is in the neighborhood.
"Eggerts Crossing has always been behind the rest of the township, as far as growth, development and the maintenance of streets and sidewalks is concerned," said Mr. Vereen, who grew up on Landover Road, off Eggerts Crossing Road.
"We are trying to make improvements," he said. "Eggerts Crossing has been neglected for such a long time. Part of it could be because people have accepted it because Eggerts Crossing has been like that for so long.
"It’s a challenge. So many people would like to see change come about. Everything we ever wanted, it’s been a fight. It has always been a struggle. Our streets were the last to be paved."
The streets in the Eggerts Crossing neighborhood were not paved until 1983, when the township received a federal grant to do the work, he said. At that time, the residents asked Lawrence Township to install water lines and natural gas lines on their streets, but they were told that it could not be done, he said.
There are water lines on Eggerts Crossing Road and Johnson Avenue, but not on Albemarle, Cheverly or Landover roads, Mr. Vereen said. Only one house on Cheverly Road has natural gas service. None of the handful of houses on Albemarle or Landover roads is served by natural gas, he said.
Municipal Manager William Guhl said it is not Lawrence Township’s policy to install natural gas and water lines. The utilities are installed by developers as part of their projects, he said.
But there hasn’t been any development in Eggerts Crossing for about 20 years, Mr. Vereen said. Four new houses were built in the 1980s by VMZ Associates, but the developers had difficulty in selling the houses because of the negative image of the neighborhood, he said.
VMZ Associates, which included Mr. Vereen’s brother, Fred, also tried to build townhouses in the neighborhood in the 1980s on Johnson Avenue. The developers gained township approval, but the Sunrise Court development did not go forward.
Several years later, another developer sought to buy the Sunrise Court tract and asked Township Council for a subsidy to make the units affordable to low- and moderate-income households. Neighbors objected and the township bought the tract.
"The people who were against Sunrise Court felt it wasn’t needed, but that is far from the truth. After Sunrise Court was defeated, Fred and I said, ‘We are not going to stop. We will look at the whole area and see where we can make improvements,’ " Mr. Vereen said.
"As far as Fred and I are concerned, this is not something that just got started. We have always tried (to improve the community). We want to get the whole Eggerts Crossing community involved. It’s not Fred’s plan, it’s not my plan, it’s the whole community’s plan," said Mr. Vereen, who is the president of the Eggerts Crossing Civic League.
Housing that would be affordable to young people should be included in the redevelopment plan, said Mr. Vereen. Many young people who grew up in Eggerts Crossing would like to live in Lawrence, but they cannot afford the housing, he said.
"We are tired of seeing Eggerts Crossing look like this. We want to remove the negative image that we have. The people who live here have a negative image (of the neighborhood). People ask, ‘Is this part of Lawrence Township?’ " Mr. Vereen said.
"The main thing is, we want to go through the planning process and see what the planners might come up with and see how they can help the community grow. It will help the community come together," he said.
"As long as the place stays the way it is now, people will say, ‘Who cares?’ If people see that the plan has an impact, they will become part of the process," he said.
Mayor Doris Weisberg said Tuesday that Township Council would like to move forward with redeveloping the Eggerts Crossing neighborhood, including allocating some money toward the cost of a planning study.
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, whose 12th Congressional District includes Lawrence, has been contacted to seek federal funding to pay for natural gas and water line installations, Mayor Weisberg said.
If the township receives a federal grant, it would bid out the work to install gas and water lines, said Mr. Guhl, the municipal manager. A contractor would be hired to install the utilities, he said.