Letters to the editor for the week of 12/8/17

Cranbury has been responsive
to Planning Board request
To the editor:
As a member of the Cranbury Township Committee for the last eight years I would like to respond to a letter that was submitted to you by Mr. Alan Kehrt. I have had the privilege of working with him for more than two years on the Planning Board and I have nothing but good things to say about that experience.
However, I do believe his perspective as it relates to the current and previous Township Committees is disingenuous and to use his word, irresponsible. His suggestion that we have been unresponsive to his request to appoint a woman to the Planning Board is incorrect.
Another member of the Township Committee and I sat down with Mr. Kehrt just last year and offered the idea of asking a woman serving on the Zoning Board to move to the Planning Board. This would have involved changes at the time that Mr. Kehrt was unwilling to make.
In addition, to imply that women who have been on the Planning Board representing the School Board and Township Committee as somehow not fully contributing to the process is disappointing. All members, whether representing the Board of Education or the Township Committee, have the same rights and responsibilities as an appointed member.
Finally, I would like to be clear about the amount of acreage of preserved farmland in Cranbury. Currently that amount is approximately 2,571 acres. The amount of producing warehouse space based on property tax records is just more than 14.5 million square feet. In addition the Master Plan has been compiled by many honorable individuals, both men and women who have come from our Zoning Board, Planning Board as well as the Township Committees and its professionals.
I do appreciate Mr Kehrt’s 25 years of service to the Cranbury Planning Board and wish him well on his future endeavors.
David Cook
Mayor
Cranbury Township Committee