Economic and Business Development Commission poll draws 80 responses.
By: Roger Alvarado
Traffic and signs are two common threads in the 80 survey responses local business owners have submitted to the township’s Economic and Business Development Commission, according to Vice Chairman Shawn Lipani.
Last month, the commission put together a short survey designed to elicit feedback and establish stronger ties with Hillsborough’s business owners and mailed it out to approximately 500 establishments.
The survey also was made available through the township’s official Web site.
"Prior to this survey if someone wanted to speak or air their grievances they didn’t know where to go," Mr. Lipani said. "We don’t have a business association in town or chamber of commerce and the professional business alliance in town disbanded years ago, so for most businesses in town if you had a complaint you didn’t know where to send a letter, so you’d send it to the mayor and hopefully it would be taken care of."
Mr. Lipani said the commission has been happy with the feedback it’s gotten so far, noting the "constructiveness" of the responses.
Mr. Lipani said the commission’s main objective is to establish a far greater rapport with local business owners and to offer them a place to turn in the event that they wish to offer their concerns.
"We want to build a better business environment in town and we hope that now they realize they have a tangible place where they can air their differences," he said.
A major concern of those that have responded thus far has been the construction of the 206 Bypass, Mr. Lipani said.
"We broke that down into anything traffic related in general," he said. "About 22 of the 80 brought the issue of traffic and main street downtown center traffic up."
Signage also has been a major issue that has come up, Mr. Lipani said.
"Some people feel that the township sign ordinance is too restrictive to businesses," he said. "What it does is it restricts the size of a sign and where it’s displayed. The theory of the sign ordinance was to not have Route 206 looking like Route 22 with everyone out there having 20 x 20 billboards advertising each business."
It’s an issue that Mr. Lipani said, once full data from all respondents is compiled, will be looked into further and possibly presented to the Township Committee to revisit.
Other issues brought up have been taxes, building department regulations with regard to business expansion and water and sewer issues, Mr. Lipani said.
"There have been a couple other ancillary things that were out in left field and specific to a person’s needs," Mr. Lipani said.
Mr. Lipani says that commission members also have been happy with the variety of respondents who have filled out the survey.
"The sampling of the respondents were across the board," he said. "We’ve had small sole proprietors to large vendors in town, which is a nice cross sampling of the businesses in town."
Mr. Lipani said the commission plans to invite all respondents to a local forum later this year to discuss the "two or three major topics we find to be the most popular."
Local business owners are invited to attend the Economic and Business Development Commission’s public meetings, which take place at 7 p.m. the first Monday of each month.
The commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting will take place March 7 in the Multipurpose Room of the Municipal Building.
Local business owners and operators can download copies of the commission’s survey from the township’s Web site at www.hillsborough-nj.org.

