I recieved a call today from Rob Jennings, he was interested in the "new" traffic light that CC is proposing. He asked what I thought of it. I told him it was a terrible idea based on the small winding road it was likely that the traffic back ups may cause accidents. He said there will be an article in the record tomorrow.
Good Night
Lisa
__________________
The truth wins out over slick PR and personal attacks.
The Christ Church Plan for the redevelopment of 140 Green Pond Rd is just too big for the area.
ROCKAWAY TWP. -- County officials will order a traffic light installed on Green Pond Road if Christ Church of Montclair's controversial mega-church proposal gains approval.
The 5,000-member, evangelical Christian church would be required to pay for the traffic light, Morris County Assistant Transportation Director Jerry Rohsler said on Tuesday.
It would be installed at the entrance to the proposed church complex at the 107-acre former Agilent Technologies site, Rohsler said.
Christ Church spokesman Marc Weinstein said the church would not object to the requirement.
Cost estimates for such a light were not available on Tuesday.
Rohsler said that county engineers decided to mandate a traffic light on Green Pond Road, a county road, after reviewing Christ Church's plans for a 2,512-seat sanctuary, private K-5 school and other facilities.
A traffic light was not required for Agilent, which employed approximately 800 people at one point.
Rohsler, though, said that "at least on Sundays," the proposed church complex would result in a significantly heavier traffic load than in Agilent's heyday.
By law, developers may be required to pay for various improvements relating to their proposals.
A traffic impact study submitted by Christ Church in June 2003 -- when the church was proposing a 3,000-seat sanctuary -- said that an estimated 146 vehicles pass the vacant Agilent site on Green Pond Road between 7 and 8 a.m. on Sundays. From 10 to 11 a.m. on Sundays, a total of 488 vehicles pass by the site, the study said.
The study estimated that 903 vehicles would arrive at the church between 7 and 8 a.m. for the 8 a.m. service. Between 10 and 11 a.m., 825 vehicles would depart and 953 vehicles would arrive for the 11 a.m. service.
While Weinstein said that Christ Church's proposal "would have a minimal traffic impact in the area," opponents of the building plan see things much differently.
Lisa Salberg, an organizer of the Voices of Rockaway Township group, which opposes the church plan, said a light might lead to a separate set of traffic-related problems.
"The light could be detrimental to the traffic flow in the area," Salberg said.
Parts of Green Pond Road offer poor visibility near the proposed church site, Salberg said. Traffic backups at a red light would heighten the likelihood of rear-end collisions and other accidents, Salberg said.
"You're going to have accident after accident there," Salberg said.
While the county could place warning signs along the roadway -- similar to a caution sign on Route 15 North in Jefferson -- Salberg said homeowners in the area likely wouldn't want the signs on or near their property.
Meanwhile, state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Erin Phalon confirmed on Tuesday that Christ Church had filed an application seeking an exemption from regulatory standards under the new Highlands law.
At the eighth planning board hearing on the proposal on Monday night, Christ Church's attorney, Wendy Berger, predicted that the exemption would be speedily granted because the church's total square footage of proposed pavement and buildings is less than what already exists at the site.
The Highlands law, signed by Gov. James E. McGreevey last month, strictly limits development in a 395,000-acre core area that includes the Agilent site. The law stipulates more than a dozen circumstances under which a development would be exempted from the tough new standards.
The exemption that Berger cited allows for "the reconstruction of any building .... within 125 percent of the footprint of the lawfully existing impervious surfaces on the site, provided that the reconstruction does not increase the lawfully existing impervious surface by one-quarter acre or more."
Weinstein said the church reduced the size of its proposal from 412,000 square feet to 287,000 square feet in order to qualify for the exemption. The existing Agilent building is 283,000 square feet and Christ Church has proposed parking modifications.
Berger advised the planning board to proceed under the assumption that the exemption would be granted by the DEP, perhaps by next month.
The board's chairman, Morton Dicker, declined.
Phalon did not estimate how long it would take to resolve Christ Church's request.
Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris Twp., an attorney who once offered to represent Christ Church, charged that the Highlands law was so clumsily crafted that it would be impossible to gauge a timeframe or guess the likelihood that an exemption would be granted.
"To even offer an opinion would be folly. No one knows," Carroll said.
On Monday night, Salberg said it appeared from architectural drawings that the proposal would disrupt more land than allowed for under an exemption.
Salberg said on Tuesday that the revised drawings did not appear to show a 300-foot buffer zone required under the Highlands law -- though that might not matter if Christ Church gains an exemption.
The church's pastor, David Ireland, said last week that the church's revised application would be in full compliance with the Highlands law.
Weinstein sought to clarify Ireland's remarks on Tuesday.
"It's not that he misspoke," Weinstein said. "That's how he interpreted it -- (that) getting the exemption would put the church in compliance with the Highlands law"
OH please gentleman that is so thin it is see through!
__________________
The truth wins out over slick PR and personal attacks.
The Christ Church Plan for the redevelopment of 140 Green Pond Rd is just too big for the area.
