Residents debate overall route in focused discussion.
By: Lea Kahn
A community forum, sponsored last week by the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail Task Force, was intended to discuss solely the proposed route through the village of Lawrenceville.
However, comments from the approximately 100 audience members led to a discussion of the overall 20-mile loop that would connect Lawrence and Hopewell. In that dialogue, the task force heard a diverse mix of support and distaste for the project.
Part of the dissent was directed at the route the trail would take through the Carson Road Woods parcel, which belongs to Lawrence Township. The 183-acre tract is bordered by Carson Road, Carter Road and Belleview Terrace in the Rosedale Acres subdivision.
Robert Hunsicker of Carson Road asked whether the LHT task force had reached a decision on the trail’s route through the township-owned property. He is the president of the Friends of Carson Road Woods Inc.’s board of directors.
The Friends of Carson Road Woods Inc. objects to proposals to run the path through the tract. Although the group encourages people to use the existing unpaved trails in the park, the members are concerned about the prospect of a 10-foot-wide asphalt path bisecting the parcel.
LHT Co-chairwoman Eleanor Horne said the group has not made any decisions regarding the Carson Road Woods segment of the trail. The group decided to divide the trail into small segments and focus on each one, she said.
Becky Taylor, who also co-chairs the LHT, said the Jan. 28 meeting was not intended to discuss the trail in its entirety, though it had been reported otherwise in a local daily newspaper. Instead, the purpose of the meeting was to solely discuss the portion of the trail that runs through the village of Lawrenceville, she said.
There will be additional meetings to discuss other neighborhoods that are affected by the proposed trail, added Municipal Manager William Guhl, who chairs the LHT’s Finance Committee. Two meetings were held last year to discuss the Carson Road Woods portion of the trail.
Gary Brickner of Belleview Terrace, off Rosedale Road, questioned whether there is a need for the proposed trail.
He said no one approached the public and asked folks whether they wanted such a trail. In fact, the trail is the dream of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and the Educational Testing Service, whose campuses in the townships would be linked by the trail, he said.
Ms. Horne and Ms. Taylor said the trail grew out of a survey conducted by the Hopewell YMCA about a year or so ago.
The survey asked about recreational activities, and respondents indicated a preference for bicycle and walking trails, they said. BMS offered to help create such a trail as a community service, Ms. Taylor added.
Anne Demarais of the Lawrence Township Greenway Committee, who also sits on the LHT task force, said the township’s 1995 Master Plan which outlines a community’s vision for itself calls for a greenway network that would connect the neighborhoods in Lawrence. That vision predates the LHT, she said.
"That vision still exists," Ms. Demarais said. "If you want to quibble with that vision, go to the Planning Board (which prepares the Master Plan). As a community, surely we can get together and make something better for us. This town is chopped up by roads."
Several other Lawrence Township residents openly supported the planned trail at the meeting.
Donald Stryker, who lives on Carson Road, said the loop should be extended south through the rest of Lawrence Township. He suggested incorporating the former Johnson Trolley Line right-of-way into part of a larger bicycle path so that people could reach the Farmers Market on Spruce Street, for example.
Leslie Floyd, who lives on Merion Place and who represents Mercer County on the LHT task force, said that she was drawn to her neighborhood because of the presence of the former Johnson Trolley Line. Her children have used it to reach their friends’ homes, she said.
Titus Avenue resident Joyce Copleman said she is an avid bicyclist, and she would welcome the LHT loop. The longtime township resident said she "lived through" the opposition against the creation of Village Park.
"No one wanted Village Park," Ms. Copleman said. "Now we have a wonderful park. We won’t have 5,000 people on the (LHT) trail. It’s nice to have that option (of a bicycle and pedestrian path). It will get people out of their cars. It’s a wonderful opportunity."