By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP Clifton Mill residents upset about the expansion of the nearby NJ Turnpike will have a thicker buffer of trees between them and the highway, the NJ Turnpike Authority told township officials this week.
In a letter sent to the township Monday, the NJTA agreed to a request from Mayor William Morelli to increase the density of a reforestation plan for a crescent area of land between Clifton Mill and the highway.
”I think that’s really exciting,” Mayor Morelli said Monday. “It shows what reasonable people working toward common goals can accomplish.”
The Turnpike runs through Bordentown Township and next to residences, including the Clifton Mills and Holloway Meadows developments. The NJTA’s plan to expand the highway between Interchanges 6 and 9 has worried Clifton Mill residents in particular, who repeatedly have expressed concern about the noise they expect as a result of the project. Construction began this year and is expected to end in 2013.
While the increased tree density is good news for noise-wary citizens, many have called for a sound wall to be erected between Clifton Mill and the Turnpike. Deputy Mayor Jim Cann, who is the Township Committee liaison to the NJTA, took over the negotiations in January. He has said the Authority remains steadfast in its refusal to offer Bordentown a sound wall because it does not meet NJTA criteria.
Oct. 16, Mayor Morelli sent a letter to authority Supervising Engineer John M. Keller, saying, “We have concluded that a denser planting of the (Clifton Mill) area would be more beneficial to both the Clifton Mill community and the NJTA. We are, therefore, requesting a denser planting of the area to the extent that this would be permitted by the state Department of Environment’s reforestation requirements.”
In his response Monday, Mr. Keller wrote to say the Authority would increase the number of trees coming to that area from about 3,400 to the maximum allowed by DEP regulations, about 3,600 trees. He also said the township will receive a greater percentage of coniferous trees “to further enhance both noise and aesthetic mitigation to the Clifton Mill residential community.”
”The Authority in conjunction with the NJDEP will continue to coordinate directly with the township as the planting design is progressed,” he said. “We look forward to fulfilling our commitment of minimizing Widening Program impacts to your community to the greatest extent practical.”
Mayor Morelli said he agreed the new plan will have those two effects on the area.
”It will block more noise, and it will also visually create a better vista for the people looking west,” he said.
The NJTA also will guarantee the lives of all the trees for five years after planting, he added.
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