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The West Windsor planning board meetings have been lively, heated and frequented by concerned residents, since the word got out that the township was considering paving over hundreds of acres, adjacent to wetlands and flood prone Route 1.
Recently West Windsor had been named as one of the best places to live in the US, by a few different studies. That will all change if we industrialize the region, invite flooding, traffic accidents and deaths, and the disease that accompanies living with regular diesel fuel inhalation.
Wednesday's meeting video has just been released. Here is the link to the township's YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8i0yw7Ihozymgo4N68jJdg/videos
You can watch the entire meeting for yourself. Hear the crowd respond to certain conditions of approval, and the push-back from the crowd just before the vote to memorialize. The June 29th meeting is another one to watch for sure! Wednesday's was just a procedural vote, but the residents are determined to kill the deal. Once formally announced in the paper, it will trigger a 45 day window of opportunity for an appeal to be filed. Everyone should expect a rather long and drawn out battle that could take years. "The longer the better," some residents agreed.
Currently, the DEP is reviewing the application, and it may have an approval or rejection by early December. The DOT is also reviewing the application for whether or not to grant access to Route 1, where there is not a single square inch of available road space to absorb the 200-800 vehicles per hour that have been forecasted by the applicant. The DOT has not released any information as to when to expect an answer. Next, the application will head to the Mercer County Planning Board for review, where there will be an open, public hearing. If you have a strong feeling about this project, it's important to be there! We will share the event information here, so subscribe and stay in the loop. If it earns County approval, the application will be reviewed by the state.
Those of you who stayed home during Hurricane Ida last year may not have seen Route 1, as it was closed. This is the entrance to Interstate 295.
It is urgent that the DEP, DOT, county and state all demand that stormwater calculations for ALL PROJECTS across the state be based on current flood maps. Bridge Point 8's stormwater calculations are based on storms of 1999! ...not the present and not the future. Governor Murphy allowed the business lobby to delay emergency PACT rules (Protection Against Climate Threats), that would have spared the region this poorly planned, destructive project. The business lobby won, with zero scientific basis to claim there was no iminent peril, and the project has moved forward thus far. (the lobby's letter to the Governor ending the emergency PACT rules:https://www.njspotlightnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/123/2022/06/Le…)
Now, these "urgent" safety measures, delayed and then renamed the Inland Flooding Protection Rule (https://dep.nj.gov/inland-flood-protection-rule/), may take a few years to become legislation, unless the business lobby manages another delay. In the meanwhile, we will have to navigate the destruction that is sure to follow. We have all seen numerous 100 and 500 year floods. Yet, our rule-makers did not see fit to legislate according to logic and reason, with public health and safety in mind. Instead, the Governor caved to greed. When leadership tries to please everyone, they please no one. NJ looks good on paper, but in practice, fails to protect New Jerseyans from the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.
Activists are confident that they will stop the project, and request community engagement in plenty. The battle will be long but they are ready for it. Questions, volunteers and donations should be directed to https://stopthetrucks.info/ where petition, donation and contact links can be found.
