By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Manville Councilman Richard Onderko may have sparked a spat with Hillsborough municipal officials.
Motivated by questions from his constituents, Mr. Onderko attended the April 24 Hillsborough Township meeting to express his concerns about planning decisions that may affect potential flooding in his borough.
His comments expressed his frustration that “no one is helping to mitigate the problem either.”
Federal officials aren’t quickly funding a Army Corps of Engineers examination of the river basin; it has taken more than 10 years to complete a three-year study, he said.
He said “overdevelopment of upstream communities has, in my opinion, contributed to the problem.”
He specifically pointed to two large developments moving forward in an area that drains into Royce Brook and, ultimately, into Manville.
”Adding more impervious surface and cutting down thousands of trees has a direct impact to regional flooding,” he said. “I don’t think anyone can dispute that.”
Apparently people can.
Hillsborough Mayor Carl Suraci responded by letter this week, saying Mr. Onderko “grossly misrepresents the circumstances surrounding two development projects in Hillsborough.”
Mr. Suraci pointed out Hillsborough, as well as Manville, is a founding member of the Raritan and Millstone Rivers Flood Control Commission, which organized this winter. The commission “recognized that a regional approach is required to mitigate and prevent the flooding” witnessed in last year’s late summer storms, he said.
At the meeting and in the letter, the mayor told Mr. Onderko that the two development projects, Gateway at Sunnymead and Green Village, are both affordable housing projects that are the result of past state Supreme Court Mt. Laurel decisions on affordable housing.
The mayor also pointed out Mr. Onderko was wrong to say the approved developments will contribute more stormwater runoff.
By law, “the Green Village project has been engineered to promote percolation of stormwater back into the ground rather than being controlled to runoff into nearby streams. In other words, the project will not contribute to flooding,” Mr. Suraci said.
Mr. Onderko conceded this week that he had erred on that point. He said he learned at the April 25 regional flood commission meeting that all new development must adhere to state stormwater management laws that regulate a “zero contribution” to additional runoff.
Most residents are unaware of this law, he said in his own apologetic letter this week.
”That law is a big step in the right direction and will ease residents’ concerns in Manville,” he said. “Also, having a regional commission on which Hillsborough is a member is the best thing to happen to keep residents informed.”
Mayor Suraci said perhaps the best way for Mr. Onderko to express his concerns would have been in a private conversation with township officials.
”I have always practiced that, if I had an issue with a municipal or elected official, I’d pick up the phone rather than do it in the open at a public meeting,” he said.
Mr. Onderko said that, in attending both Hillsborough and Franklin meetings, he was only trying to act in the interests of his constituents. He wasn’t trying to attack fellow municipal leaders, but to “make a difference for people here who have been suffering with this issue for the last decade.”
He said he apologized for the “misinformation” and exclaimed “zero additional runoff is the best news possible.”
He also commended Hillsborough for backing the commission’s work and purpose.
”Many communities working together to confront and solve this problem is the best path forward,” he wrote.
