To the editor
In response to Annette Sammer’s diatribe, dated June 27th, which blames
the Democrats for every ounce of development, I could only wonder at
herglaring omission.
She has conveniently left out the most important
piece ofthe puzzle, which is why the township is where it is today. As
a supporterof Friends of Hillsborough and an opponent of Greenbriar,
Ms. Sammer is well aware of past events that have precipitated current
lawsuits.
Hillsborough was forced to accept the burden of
settling four builderremedy lawsuits. These suits were levied against
our town in rapid succession right after COAH (Council on Affordable
Housing) eliminated our certification and protection from builder
lawsuits when the Greenbriar fiasco started to crumble. The previous
Republicans, advocates of the massive 3,000 unit Greenbriar scheme to
be situated on rural Mill Lane, left our township totally vulnerable to
these lawsuits since we had no viable COAH plan in place.
Our former Republican Township Committeemen literally
sat on a newFair Share Housing Plan, which was ready to be submitted,
before theselawsuits were levied against Hillsborough. Once builder
lawsuits are inplace, state mandates prevent a town from moving forward
with any MasterPlan revisions or a new Fair Share Housing Plan until
all of those lawsuits are settled.
The PEC/SKP development that Ms. Sammer refers to
directly borders herproperty. Does she really expect Hillsborough
planners and committeemen toavoid reaching this final settlement,
thereby leaving our town vulnerableto even more builder lawsuits, which
are already lining up? Does she wantto keep us legally unable to put
Master Plan revisions in place that willprotect our town from continued
suburban sprawl? Does she want our town totake its chances with what
the court will rule on this case, despite the fact that each and every
legal advisor warned our town that the judge could force something far
worse on our township? More houses, not age restricted (Age restricted
housing means no school-aged children, which means no increase in
school taxes)?
Is this what Ms. Sammer thinks our current leadership
should risk?
Voting down this last settlement would certainly have
looked better whenelections rolled around. It took true guts and
commitment for the TownshipCommittee and Planning Board to vote for
what was best for this town in thelong run.
Hillsborough has cut its loses before we ended up in
far worseshape, rather than worrying about what personally motivated
critics, likeMs. Sammer, would say.
Beekman Lane