This letter is in regard to the article titled "Board To Continue Hearings Tuesday on Oakwoode Plan" that appeared in the Aug. 1 issue of the Suburban.
Developer K. Hovnanian once again is bullying residents with its battery of high-priced lawyers and experts to convince the Old Bridge Planning Board to allow an additional 386 homes in the town.
I challenge one of their experts, Henry Ney, a traffic consultant who testified and offered all sorts of statistics concerning his study on traffic if the development gets approved.
I’m not a traffic expert, but as a 13-year resident of Old Bridge, I can tell Mr. Ney that morning commuter traffic doesn’t flow only from 7-9 a.m. Does he not know that many residents start their morning commute at 5 a.m.? Why wasn’t a study done to include potential traffic between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., instead of just between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.?
With 386 new homes, my estimate is an additional 1,500-2,000 car trips a day if they open Prest’s Mill Road. Where does Mr. Ney come up with only 38 additional cars during the a.m. commute and 47 during the p.m. commute? Why didn’t he testify that cars also will be driven on that road during the day?
It’s very clear that K. Hovnanian and its paid experts have only given the board limited information and have not done a comprehensive review and study.
Prest’s Mill Road must remain as is and not be opened. It is a hilly road with limited sight, and this road cannot handle any additional traffic. Everyone is forgetting about the additional traffic that this will also dump out onto Ticetown Road.
We must persuade the board to keep Prest’s Mill Road a dead-end road.
Ed Timmons
Lakeridge West Development
Old Bridge