To the editor
By:
Friends and neighbors, I have written before about the potential impact of the new highway being built through Hillsborough euphemistically called a "bypass."
I maintain that this 110-foot wide expressway is not being built for the convenience of Hillsborough’s or Somerset County’s citizens, but to provide a major link for commercial access to Central Jersey’s lucrative markets and rapidly developing towns.
With the disintegration of the McGreevey regime, it should be more abundantly clear than ever that New Jersey’s politicians are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state’s developer community.
The Star-Ledger reported Oct. 8 that the plans for the Turnpike extension known as Route 92, which will link exit 8A of the Turnpike with Route 1 in South Brunswick, includes a second phase of that project which will bring the direct Turnpike link to Route 206 in Montgomery.
This news comes in conjunction with the announced development of the VA Depot property near Docherty Park as a rail-truck intermodal transfer facility. It takes very little imagination to see that the hundreds of 18-wheelers exiting onto Route 206 daily as a result of the depot’s conversion will quickly transform the new highway expansion into another truck-choked commercial corridor.
Nor does it take any imagination to comprehend that the development of Hillsborough’s ever denser core areas will be sped up by Turnpike access from the south and east.
We are being wooed by the old siren song of ratables, but I would bet that the majority of us have moved here from areas chock full of ratables.
We didn’t come here to build another Woodbridge or Union, but to enjoy a suburban town of quiet streets, green hills and fertile fields. There are other values than the value of money, but for those of us who do own our own homes, it is in our financial interest that the residential and suburban nature of our town be preserved.
I urge all concerned citizens and taxpayers of Hillsborough to attend the Master Plan review on Oct 28th at 8 p.m. at the Municipal Building. Hard questions about this town center plan have neither been asked nor answered. I fear that the price we are paying for this Town Center may be poorly understood.
Our neighbors in Bridgewater have just discovered that the state intends for Bridgewater to become a city! Clearly, the quid pro quo for Gov. McGreevey’s Highlands Preservation Bill has been the opening of the rest of New Jersey to rapid development.
Look at the map Somerset County is the next Bergen Country. Is this what you want?
Please connect the dots. Route 22 is going to have a massive reconstruction and widening. Route 206 will be widened from Bridgewater to Montgomery, and the Turnpike will be connected from exit 8A to Route 206 in Montgomery.
What sits in the middle of all this? Why, Hillsborough does!
Hillsborough