Why I Oppose the Allen Road Project: Then, Now, and On the Committee
My position on 150 Allen Road has never changed. I opposed Signature Acquisitions’ plan from
the start. I oppose it today. And if elected to the Township Committee, I will keep opposing it.
This is not a close call. The proposal would tear down an office building and replace it with two
light-industrial and manufacturing buildings on a residential road. It would bring tractor-trailers
onto a stretch with a hill, a blind curve, and Mount Prospect School nearby. Our teenage drivers
learn on these roads. Our kids walk and ride on them. No traffic study changes what a loaded
truck does on a blind curve.
The environmental cost is just as clear. The plan called for clearing hundreds of trees, more than
400 by residents’ count, with far fewer replacements than our ordinance requires. We already
have drainage and stormwater problems near Allen and Martinsville. Removing that canopy
makes them worse, permanently.
Then there is density. Our zoning allows a floor area ratio of 15 percent. The applicant asked for
nearly 20. That is not a minor adjustment. It is a request to put more building, more traffic, and
more noise on land that cannot carry it.
Our Zoning Board heard 18 months of testimony and voted 6 to 0 to deny the application.
Residents showed up by the dozens, night after night. The process worked, and the answer was
no.
Now the matter is back before the board. My answer is the same. A revised plan that keeps the
same basic use in the same place does not fix the underlying problem.
On the Committee, I will:
Support the board’s denial and a vigorous legal defense of it
Back zoning that ends light manufacturing as a permitted use in residential-adjacent
areas, which the Committee has already moved to do
Keep residents informed and heard at every step
Bernards Township’s charm is not an accident. It is the result of decisions made by people
who cared enough to protect it. I intend to be one of them.
P.S. Before you vote, make sure you know where each candidate for Township Committee stands
on this critical issue. If they won't tell you now, you know what they'll do if elected.
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