I must admire citizens of Marlboro that run for office and take appointments for some very unforgiving jobs in front of the public eye. Giving up much of their personal time to see that those they represent are served. But when they get there and go off on their own or party’s agenda and don’t serve us, we need to oust them. Just like the Congress, we put them there, and we can take them away if they don’t do what they promise.
With that said.
I hate small-town politics just because it satisfies in most cases ego-minded people that lack the recognition they don’t get from their jobs or family. They deceive us with the idea they are like us and will put forth what we, Marlboro’s citizens, want and what is best for our town. We citizens also rely on their best judgment to appoint the finest people to the boards we do not elect.
After watching (Councilman) Barry Denkensohn pontificate as if he were personally offended by the editorial in the paper was to say the least for the reporter’s consumption. Then he was required to go to bat for Ms. (Sherry) Hoffer and the Zoning Board of Adjustment because his appointees were under fire. Rattling off the qualifications of many of the zoning board’s private sector jobs as if this would make them less prone to the pressures of political party they either belong to or raise money for.
I distinctly remember on the Saturday before Election Day a political junk mail piece showed up damning the opposing candidates for not stopping the builders’ wrecking of our town by allowing unacceptable urbanization to take place. "Make Marlboro Better not Bigger" it said. Next thing we have is new schools being built to deal with poor decisions on part of the planning and zoning boards. Builders’ lawsuits, a chairperson and council member that thinks a 15-acre C-2 zone containing 35 new homes is an appropriate use for the town is absolutely reckless.
I agree I would not like to see a strip mall on Tennent Road — traffic is bad enough — but what would 35 homes look like? The applicant applied for relief to circumvent the law in more than one way and they got it through a careful planning. The benefit to the township’s people was a sanitary sewer deep enough to service many homes and businesses, if they bore the high costs of putting the line to their homes and paying a connection fee as well.
Secondly, a generous contribution to the township’s COAH (affordable housing) fund of $188,000 generously rounded up to $200,000. First, according to the municipal code book, homes being built in an R-10AH zone shall have a builder’s contribution made of $572,000. I also have been told that it should be at a rate of 6 percent of equalized assessed value.
Let’s do the math — 35 homes times an average sale value of say $400,000 equals $14,000,000, times 6 percent equals $840,000. No matter how you slice it, the COAH fund is getting cheated with the help of our zoning board who says that COAH is a Township Council issue. Yet they are willing to hear it as a tangible benefit to grant a use variance.
With people like Denkensohn and Hoffer on the council and zoning board, we are headed down a road that will not be beneficial to Marlboro. God forbid either of these people go on to serve Marlboro in higher office.
Peter Bellone
Marlboro