Lincroft Task Force told: Fix the traffic problems Traffic fix put ahead of beautification at panel’s first public meeting

Lincroft Task Force told: Fix the traffic problems
Traffic fix put ahead of
beautification at panel’s
first public meeting

IIt was supposed to be a meeting concentrating on how to beautify a stretch of Route 520 through the Lincroft section of Middletown, while making it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

But last Wednesday’s public meeting of the Lincroft Village Task Force quickly became a forum for residents to complain about traffic conditions and congestion along the busy county roadway, congestion which they say is destroying the small-town atmosphere they had come to love over the years.

"This is the first time I’ve been on this side of the street in three years," one irate senior citizen said at the Lincroft firehouse on the south side of the road. "Route 520 is more like the Indy 500."

Other residents complained about the rate of development in the area and criticized any notion of adding lanes to Route 520 as a means of improving the road’s traffic flow.

Prior to the public comment portion of the meeting, Township Committee-woman Joan Smith, who organized the 13-member task force, spoke to the audience and introduced the residents and business owners on the force, as well as the township’s assistant planner Christine Nazzaro.

Mayor Rosemarie Peters was also present and opened the meeting with an explanation of the process that the task force will follow in making any decisions.

"We’re here to bring together the residents, business owners and local, state and federal government officials to begin to understand each other’s priorities," she said.

Nazzaro made a brief presentation detailing some of the ideas the task force has been discussing. Some of the improvements being considered are additional crosswalks, bicycle paths and racks, pedestrian paths and sidewalks, as well as more attractive lighting and streetscapes.

The task force has also discussed improving some of the existing plazas along the strip, which runs from the east campus of Brookdale Community College to Garden State Parkway Interchange 109.

However, the only thing the majority of the residents on hand were interested in was what the township is planning to do about the congestion along Route 520.

The county has hired Orth-Rodgers Associates, an engineering firm out of Bridgewater, to perform a four-month traffic study of the corridor and to recommend improvements to enhance vehicular traffic flow and pedestrian safety. According to Robert Vilak, a project engineer with the firm, the majority of the work will be done after schools reopen in September.

Vilak also spoke of the scope of the project and said that the firm will try to find a way to coordinate the seven traffic signals along the targeted segment as a means of improving the flow of traffic.

Following Vilak’s comments, members of the audience were asked for their thoughts on the project, opening the door for a barrage of complaints from residents about the existing rate of development in the Lincroft area and their increasing traffic concerns.

Nazzaro explained to the audience that the township is also concerned with the area’s rate of development, but can not disobey the state land use laws in reviewing applications for development.

Despite the residents’ overwhelming concern about traffic, the task force was able to pull a few recommendations from the meeting. The residents’ ideas included:

• lowering the speed limit along Route 520,

• replacing a center turning lane, which they consider dangerous, with islands,

• and turning a 5.9-acre triangular parcel of land near the southwest corner of the Middletown-Lincroft Road intersection, which the township is acquiring from Brookdale College, into a park.

According to Smith, the residents’ comments will be very helpful as the task force moves forward.

"Many of their concerns were the same as the ones we’re focusing on," she said. "We’ll probably begin to move in a lot of the directions mentioned by the residents. ... The meeting only helped to enthuse the task force because of the tremendous input we received."