LAWRENCE: Council OKs Lawrence Hopewell Trail route

Path to cross Rosedale Acres, Carson Woods

By Lea Kahn
   The details of the proposed route of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail through the township-owned Carson Road Woods property gained Township Council’s approval Tuesday night, following nearly eight years of discussion with the Friends of the Carson Road Woods.
   Township Council approved a resolution setting out the details for the Lawrence Hopewell Trail, which will cut across the 186-acre parcel. The Lawrence Hopewell Trail, which has been in the works since 2001, is a 22-mile loop that connects the two townships.
   Eleanor Horne, who is co-president of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail Corp., outlined the history of the trail and the need for it. She said it would provide a connection to local businesses, communities and neighborhoods that were “previously isolated by heavily trafficked roads.”
   ”It (offers) a much-needed passive, health and recreation opportunity for children, families, walkers, cyclists, commuters and naturalists,” Ms. Horne told Township Council. “Trails make our communities more livable, provide access to open space that the township has spent millions of dollars to preserve and reduce vehicular traffic. It is a community amenity that will benefit the entire region for decades.”
   The plan is to complete the trail by 2012, she said. Over the years, the LHT Corp. has raised $5.8 million to pay for the trail. One-third of that money came from state and federal grants, and the rest from area corporations, individual donors and in-kind contributions. The goal is to build the trail with little or no expense to township taxpayers, she added.
   Meanwhile, Township Council agreed that the path — which is intended for bicyclists and pedestrians — would be eight feet wide in most areas, but six feet wide in environmentally sensitive areas in the Carson Road Woods. It will be made of reddish-brown stone dust, and not asphalt. It will never be paved. Vegetative buffers of 50 to 100 feet deep will be installed to screen the path from nearby residences.
   The resolution also stipulated that the Lawrence Hopewell Trail would follow existing public roads in the Rosedale Acres neighborhood, connecting the trail from the Carson Road Woods segment to the one through the Educational Testing Service campus.
   More than a dozen residents of the Rosedale Acres single-family-home subdivision turned out at the council’s March 15 meeting to express their displeasure at the prospect of having “strangers” — path users — walking through their neighborhood, which is between the Carson Road Woods and ETS segments.
   The resolution adopted this week said parking in Rosedale Acres would be discouraged. Trail users would be instructed — at the trail’s entrance to Mya Drive and on the Lawrence Hopewell Trail’s Web site — to park at ETS or in the parking lot area designated at the Carson Road Woods on Carson Road, near Carter Road.
   One area of contention between the Lawrence Hopewell Trail Corp. and the Friends of Carson Road Woods, however, is the parking lot on Carson Road, opposite the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. near Province Line Road. The plan calls for relocating it about 150 west of its existing location and designating it as an emergency access.
   Robert Hunsicker of the Friends of Carson Road Woods, which has maintained the Carson Road Woods property for the township, said he did not see the need for the parking lot. It would intrude into the field, he said, adding “it is totally out of keeping with the character of the area.”
   Mr. Hunsicker also objected to the number of signs that would be installed on Carson Road for a crosswalk, opposite the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. It calls for installing lights in the pavement to designate the crosswalk, plus numerous signs.
   ”It’s easy to raise your hand and say ‘yes’ (to those details), but hard to undo them,” he told Township Council. “You are willing to destroy a neighborhood for a bicycle path. You are not looking out for us.”
   Mayor Greg Puliti replied that everything that Mr. Hunsicker objected to — referring to the signage for the crosswalk — is needed for safety reasons. It has been a long process, the mayor said, and it is time to end it.
   Carson Road resident Henry Clancy said that after many years, he has come to realize that the Lawrence Hopewell Trail is a “gem” to the township. He said he would “leave it to others” to decide what is best for public safety, referring to the signage issues, and he urged Township Council to approve the resolution.