Washington Planning Board REJECTS Baker Settlement

[MrBenchley]

Democracy in action. It's hard not to feel like the guy in the Norman Rockwell "freedom of speech" poster when you speak up in a meeting with your neighbors and something like this happens:

"Residents cheered and applauded during a special meeting Monday after the borough planning board voted against a proposed agreement with the developers of a hotly contested housing plan.
Most residents urged officials to stand by their original denial of Baker Residential's housing development. Their passionate pleas prompted board members to not support the settlement.
"Hearing the voice of the borough residents and seeing the passion of the residents, that was all I needed," said planning board member Patrick Boyle. "

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1122471379171100.xml?expresstimes?nnj&coll=2

This is a great opportunity for Democrats here...the all-Republican City Council has been trying to push settlement of a lawsuit Baker Residential filed. Baker is trying to build hundreds of townhouses.

The plan Baker has is utterly unsuitable in EVERY way...
--There's no existing access in any way to the site.
--The only possible ways to create access are either through private property (the owner is already counter-suing) or via a narrow twisting mountain road that goes over a one lanestone bridge.
--Development on the site would be an environmental disaster
--The town's fire trucks can't get to the site and won't operate on the slope
--Property taxes would have to rise due to expansion of services
--Already overcrowded roads would be clogged past capacity
--There's a railroad crossing (where toxic waste is sometimes hauled) to be taken into consideration (the railroad is also countersuing to block the development)

And the cherry on the sundae is that Baker just LOST an almost identical lawsuit in a separate part of the state.

Despite all this the Republican mayor is still pushing the all-Republican City Council for a settlement, even AFTER the planning board rejected it. Citizen opposition to the settlement has been all but unanimous, and when some of us said out loud at the public meeting that it felt like the fix was in already, I thought the mayor was going to puke.

[JDPriestly]

1. In light of the recent Supreme Court decision

on eminent domain, this could get interesting.

[MrBenchley]

2. It could indeed...

and it should be tied firmly round the GOP's necks....

By the way, Baker Residential is the builder who created a flooding disaster in Oakland, NJ by tearing down the side of the mountain and ignoring existing regulations and restrictions.