Strategy Session Set For Ask To Prohibit Trucks On County Roads

Township officials plan to put their heads together this week and strategize on how to ask Somerset County to decertify some County roads for truck traffic.

The idea is the latest in a number of efforts to mitigate the effect Franklin’s burgeoning warehouse inventory is having on the township environment.

The move to get the County to decertify some County roads was first broached at the November 1 Planning Board meeting by member Robert Thomas.

Thomas, who is also chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, noted that Warren County has already decertified some roads, and that Middlesex County officials are considering doing the same.

Thomas said Hillsborough and Manville should be included in the County road decertification.

Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said at the November 13 Township Council meeting that he, Principal Planner Mark Healey, Economic Development Director Vince Dominach, Thomas and Planning Board chairman Michael Orsini were going to met on November 17 to “discuss what we feel is the appropriate ask of the County Planning Board and the County Planner, Walter Lane.”

Vornlocker said he supported Thomas’ idea, but felt the region should be expanded beyond Hillsborough and Manville.

“I appreciate what he is trying to accomplish, I personally feel it should be a wider net cast than just the towns that he mentioned in his statement at the Planning Board,” Vornlocker said. “I think there are other towns that could be brought into that regional study that are either impacted by the traffic caused by this type of development or are experiencing this type of development itself.”

“That meeting will be our brainstorming session as to the direction we take with Mr. Lane and the County Planning Board,” he said.

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