ALLENTOWN – Mayor Thomas Fritts has informed residents the developer of the Mercer Corporate Park in neighboring Robbinsville is working with borough officials on several items “to mitigate the impact of the development on Allentown.”
Mercer Corporate Park is off Robbinsville-Allentown Road, which is known as Church Street in Allentown. Fritts said portions of the corporate park border Allentown residential developments in the vicinity of Pondview and Probasco drives.
The mayor discussed issues associated with the corporate park during the Feb. 2 meeting of the mayor and Borough Council. The meeting was conducted in a virtual manner during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s a long way to go, but we have a developer (of the Mercer Corporate Park) that is willing to work with us. … The key point is to conduct a post-traffic study after they get a tenant for the corporate park. They have said they are willing to do that,” Fritts said.
The primary issue of concern to Allentown officials and residents is the volume and types of vehicles that will be heading to and from the corporate park that is at the border of Allentown and Robbinsville, and the impact those vehicles will have on the borough.
On a daily basis, Allentown already deals with the impact of trucks heading to and from an Amazon facility off Old York Road in Robbinsville, a short distance outside the borough.
Once again, traffic in Allentown was a topic of discussion for municipal officials during the Feb. 2 meeting of the governing body. The mayor and council members were joined by Police Chief Daniel Panckeri.
“We appreciate that you are listening to the ideas we are putting forward,” Fritts told Panckeri. “It will be up to our police officers to enforce” the measures borough officials enact.
Fritts mentioned what he called “a big win for the borough” in reference to a recent decision by the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners to establish no passing zones at several locations in Allentown.
Technical work continues as borough officials prepare to enforce tougher traffic laws in several designated speed enforcement zones, according to the mayor.
And a petition is being circulated throughout the borough to get as many residents as possible on board with the movement to ban trucks from the town’s streets, Fritts said.
“The idea is to gather information and take it to the county commissioners,” the mayor said.
He said municipal representatives are reaching out to the distribution centers that surround Allentown to make the executives who operate those facilities aware “that we don’t want their trucks in our downtown. We want them to (change the exit they use) on Interstate 195.”
Council President John A. Elder III said, “Trucks are detrimental to our historic village and to our infrastructure.”
Councilwoman Erica Torsiello expressed that she is “excited to get members of the public involved in this grassroots effort” to address traffic concerns in the borough.
“Truck issues have increased over the years. It will be nice to see some relief in that area.” Panckeri said.