In the end, council
holds decision on road
FARRAH MAFFAI staff Kimberly Van Gordon, 14, and her aunt, Millie Stotts, both of Brick, kneel and pray in front of a makeshift memorial near where Brittney Gregory’s body was found in Lakewood. A Howell man has been charged with her murder. Brittney, 16, was buried Monday.
One of the most talked about issues in Howell right now is the Township Council’s plan to build a new road — Memorial Drive — in the Ramtown section of the township.
According to the council, Memorial Drive, with a price tag of $750,000, would provide access to a development called Hidden View that is being built in neighboring Wall Township. The project has no access from Wall.
In conjunction with the plan to build Memorial Drive, Howell officials want to annex the portion of Wall where Hidden View is being built. They believe the 177-unit adult community will generate $1 million in property taxes annually and help to pay for the emergency services that Howell will be obligated to provide to the residents of that development.
With an estimated response time of 25 minutes from Wall’s emergency responders, the task will fall to Howell to respond when residents of Hidden View need help. Letting Hidden View’s residents suffer is not an option.
The issue has generated many letters to the editor and it has been discussed at several council meetings over the past month.
Essentially, the issue boils down to this: If the council does not build Memorial Drive, the residents of Hidden View will access their homes through one Howell neighborhood by driving in front of homes. If the council builds Memorial Drive as planned be-hind a buffer in back of Jacob Drive, the residents of the first neighborhood will be spared, but the residents of the Jacob Drive neighborhood will be impacted.
What’s a council to do?
In this case, the council has decided to name an ad hoc committee of several residents who favor the construction of Memor-ial Drive and several who oppose its construction. The panel will be chaired by George Krebs, the president of the Howell Sports Federation. Officials said Krebs is well-known, well-respected and apolitical. The panel will study the issue and report back.
Councilman Peter Tobasco was strong in his opposition to the ad hoc panel, contending that since it is the council members’ duty to decide the issue, that is what they should do. We recognize Tobasco’s point but believe that when it comes to an issue that has stretched on for seven years, another month for interested parties to study the matter is not an unreasonable delay. Maybe they’ll even agree on a solution.
In the absence of a compromise, council members will have to be prepared for the political fallout they are likely to face from the residents of the neighborhood that does not get what it wants.