Opposition leads township officials to rescind request.
By: Lea Kahn
Facing opposition from neighbors who do not want a 10-foot-wide asphalt bicycle path bisecting the Carson Road Woods property, township officials have quietly withdrawn an application for state funding for the path.
Township Council was scheduled to take action on a resolution that would approve the submission of a grant application for $219,200 to the state Department of Transportation for the path this week. The 183-acre Carson Road Woods parcel belongs to Lawrence Township.
This is the same grant application that was a last-minute addition to Township Council’s agenda at its June 17 meeting. Although the grant application deadline was July 1, a majority of the council decided it could not consider it on short notice.
The township had submitted the application anyway, with the provision that it would be accompanied by the approval of a subsequent Township Council resolution at its meeting Tuesday. Once again, the resolution never made it that far.
Township officials’ decision not to pursue the grant application after all was a product of a special meeting held last week by the Lawrence Hopewell Trail Task Force, which wants to build the 20-mile trail connecting the two townships.
At the July 9 meeting, held at the Chauncey Conference Center at the Educational Testing Service, the task force agreed to meet with neighborhood representatives over the summer and then return with a revised plan for the path by Sept. 30.
Lawrence Township could have submitted the grant application, but then changes might have occurred in the proposed path, said Municipal Manager William Guhl, who also sits on the Lawrence Hopewell Trail Task Force.
"The sentiment was that the appropriate way (to deal with the situation) is not to have something on the front burner ready to go, when we should be working with the neighbors," Mr. Guhl said.
"We did not want the message to be, ‘We will work with the neighbors and at the same time, submit the application.’ It is better that we should be firm on exactly what is going to be proposed when we apply," he said.
Mr. Guhl said the township will not apply for a grant until the task force and the neighbors get together and at least discuss what alternatives are available. The neighbors have objected to the location and width of the proposed path, and to the material that would be used in its construction.
The application earmarked $180,000 for construction of a proposed 10-foot-wide asphalt bicycle path through the Carson Road Woods. The proposed path would have skirted the wooded area. The property is a mix of wooded areas and former farm fields.
It also would have allocated $5,600 for signage and pavement markings on the Belleview Terrace to Rosedale Road segment. Also, $33,600 would have been set aside for signage and pavement markings on Bergen Street and Craven Lane, and signage on James and Gordon streets, plus construction of a 10-foot-wide asphalt path.
The application also called for Lawrence Township to contribute $45,000 toward the project $40,000 for site preparation for the path construction and parking lot construction at the Carson Road Woods parcel, and $5,000 for site preparation for construction of a path from Bergen Street to Route 206.
The proposed Lawrence Hopewell Trail would serve bicyclists and pedestrians alike. It would run on land and roads owned by Lawrence and Hopewell townships, as well as Mercer County-owned land.
It would also cross lands owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., the Educational Testing Service and the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Reservation. It would run across privately owned land whose owners have granted an easement.