The dawn of a new year finds both Millstone and Upper Freehold facing difficult challenges.
With development (specifically, how to best prevent overdevelopment) on the minds of many in the community, local elected officials may have to make some controversial choices in 2003.
Reviews of recently amended master plans by the governing bodies in Millstone and Upper Freehold will most likely appear on the respective dockets of both committees sometime before year’s end.
While Millstone’s Planning Board has recently voted to endorse the township’s new master plan and send it on to the governing body for review, Upper Freehold’s re-examination report on the master plan remains with the township’s Planning Board for further discussion.
Recently Millstone’s planners voted to raise the minimum lot size on which a residence can be built to between 6 and 10 acres — decreasing the total number of new residences that can be constructed in the future. Upper Freehold’s planners narrowly rejected a similar measure that would have raised the minimum lot size from 2 acres to 4.
Since the planning boards are only advisory bodies, the final decision on whether or not zoning changes will be made in each community rests with the elected officials. Before any changes in zoning can take effect, they must be codified in an ordinance which must be passed by a vote of the governing body.
In both instances, the governing bodies are free to accept the advisory opinion of the Planning Board and pass ordinances that support the measures suggested, or to disregard the recommendation entirely.
In both Millstone and Upper Freehold, the debates surrounding zoning changes have been heated, with many residents falling on either side of the issue. Members of the community need to make sure that elected officials have heard their voices loud and clear on these issues.
Over the past decade, both Millstone and Upper Freehold have seen heavy population growth as new homes went up and new residents flocked to the area. With the increase in population in both communities has come a rise in problems often encountered when a traditionally rural area becomes more suburban.
Where the governing bodies in both Millstone and Upper Freehold decide to come down on zoning issues will have an effect on whether Millstone and Upper Freehold retain the quiet, sleepy, rural nature many moved to the area to experience, or become a victim of the suburban sprawl evident in many neighboring communities.