Mixed messages from Mayor Hemant Marathe of West Windsor has residents feeling misled.

     Residents in opposition to the Bridge Point 8 Industrial project have been showing their dissent. Signs on lawns, brochures, zoom meetings, web pages and petitions (StopTheTrucks.info is the most recent of the two petitions). They are desperate to stop what Mayor Hemant Marathe assured them would be no trouble at all. One resident, who shall remain nameless (embarrassed that she voted for him) told me that during his last campaign for mayor, he promised that the warehouse project would not cause any traffic disruption. The homeowners of north Clarksville Rd will likely lose their front lawns to an expansion to 4 lanes that would allow more room for constant tractor trailers to be passing right by their front doors. The mayor insists that won’t happen but cannot speak definitively.  Clarksville homeowners would say that's disruptive, even intolerable.  Lawrenceville, Hamilton and Princeton will also lose, as well as the Brunswicks and every town in between. Our small local planning board wielding such great destructive power over so many adjacent towns seems fundamentally wrong. 

     One resident had the mayor engaged in a Fb conversation today, where he made a false claim, stating that, "MC has their own planning board that will hold their hearing and can impose conditions irrespective of what WW planning board decides to do.  They can simply say no trucks on any of their roads if they choose to." The MC planning board can set conditions, yes, restricting all trucks they cannot do.  Really, according to county process, the stop has to happen at the Twp level.  If the local Planning Board approves the project, then the county could become the faction with tied hands.  I was told that it will be much harder to stop BP8 once the local planning board approves it. Mayor Marathe seems to be all in on the warehouse project, despite the massive outcry from his constituents. That will be his legacy. Property values will fall, thus tax revenues as well, and there could be a mass exodus, according to some folks who told me they are planning to leave if this comes to pass. WW will no longer be such a desirable place to live. School enrollment is down, so many are wondering why he keeps talking like residents wouldn't prefer more homes to warehouses and more trucks than can be counted. He is wrong about that too.  Maybe he needs to reconnect with the folks he represents. 

     A county board member (anonymous) explained their process to me with no opinion.  The county may impose conditions, but they cannot restrict trucks from traveling on Clarksville, no matter what the residents think. It is designated as a county road, which  must connect to a state road to then connect to a federal highway. There cannot be a break in the chain. Because of the county road designation, trucks should, theoretically, be able to travel there now, past the high school and elementary school, save for the bridge over the train tracks that is in disrepair and currently restricted to big rigs. If that bridge, at Meadow Rd & Clarksville, were in good shape, trucks would be more present on northern Clarksville today. The trouble is, BP8 wants to break ground and their timeline is out of logical sequence. There would be trucks that "could not be stopped from using that bridge," long before the repairs could take place according to the applicant (Atlantic Realty). That could be a literal train wreck. The various road re-construction plans, slated to take place over years, would alone be the traffic disruption that the Mayor campaigned would not happen. BP8 does not even have guaranteed direct access to Rte 1 yet, and they want to complete all of phase 1 (many of the warehouses built and operable) before ever getting that access. It is also not lost on this author that BP8 has had a past of selling off their projects before latter phases even begin. They believe in "early stage growth." Please their investors then get out. Don't stick around long enough to worry about the ecology or be accountable for the problems that will inevitably need solving. Get the approvals, shove it down our throats, then run. What could West Windsor possibly get stuck with? 

     The size of the proposed project is 5.5 times the size of Quaker Bridge Mall. Imagine 5+ more QB malls right across the street from the mall. Maybe the mayor has a soft spot for warehouses, he is afterall in the warehouse business himself, food related specifically. It doesn't help his case that in two of the public meetings he asked the applicant about freezers and then cold storage. Seriously? The conflict of interest isn't just a question anymore. It would be impossible to assure his constituents that he nor his affiliates would never benefit from this deal. The perception of impropriety alone is palpable, no matter his retort. 

     I hear the voices of West Windsor feeling disenfranchised. The constituents are not represented in this case. The mayor's personal business industry is what is winning here, because he has indicated, per his FB post, that he will likely approve the project, referring to approval as ,"...the easiest solution," (kicking it to MC to reject so the local board doesn’t have to). Marathe knows full well he can and should stop it at the Twp level; save his seat and prove to his constituents that he really does represent the voice of the people and not his personal business industry. Otherwise, this will be the perfect example of how the people lose in minority rule. Minority rule is a cancer in this country and it seems to have metastasized in NJ. Pay attention and speak up!