CRANFORD — Cranford residents are quickly losing patience with construction-related traffic delays, noise pollution, parking challenges and other disruptions associated with Hartz Mountain’s 750 Walnut Avenue construction site.
“This project came about as a direct consequence of the township ignoring and fighting its affordable housing requirements for far too long. This is a project that I don’t like — which I don’t think any of [the members of the township committee] really like — but which was approved well before any of us took office,” Mayor Brian Andrews said, speaking during an informal information session that was held at the Cranford Community Center on Wednesday. “But we do have an obligation to mitigate the disruption and the problems associated with it.”
Approximately 20 residents joined Mayor Andrews, Cranford Police Detective James Knight, Township Engineer Kevin Boyer, Traffic Consultant Maurice Rached, Township Administrator Lavona Patterson, Commissioner Gina Black and other community members for Wednesday night’s conversation.
“I should let you know that we did invite a representative from Hartz to join us this evening. We were hopeful that they would attend so they could hear directly from the residents, but they declined our invitation,” Mayor Andrews said.
The township committee has implemented multiple changes in recent months — like reducing the speed on Walnut Avenue to 25 mph and restricting truck traffic on Lexington Avenue, Behnert Place and Mitchell Place — to try to lessen the impact of the construction site on neighboring residential areas. Additionally, the township has increased its police presence in the area in order to make sure that the new policies are enforced and has been working to ensure that the developer is communicating its plans more efficiently.
“We had an incident about four or five weeks ago where they closed a road without notifying the township. It caused disruptions for a number of the residents down there. The police department has reached out to them and we now have an agreement in place,” Mayor Andrews said. “These are all positive steps, but more improvements are going to be necessary. None of these solutions are silver bullets.”
Mayor Andrews went on to note that the township also intends to install a new traffic light at the corner of Walnut Avenue and Raritan Road as part of its more comprehensive mitigation plans over the coming months.
“We’re hoping that [the new light] will help to ease the flow and discourage people from using the side streets as cut-throughs,” he said.
The township has received a $700,000 payment from Hartz Mountain, Ms. Patterson said, and plans to utilize those funds to make necessary improvements throughout the community.
Mr. Rached, the senior principal and the regional director of Transportation Services for Colliers Engineering & Design, said the township is considering additional measures — like adding speed bumps and raised crosswalks to busier areas and potentially converting smaller roads like Behnert Place into one-way streets — as well.
Several residents also raised concerns related to dust, pollutants and noise emanating from the site.
“We knew that this was going to happen, but we didn’t realize that it would be this bad,” one woman said. “This is about our quality of life, and right now, we’re dealing with a lot of problems.”
“This is going to be an ongoing conversation,” Mayor Andrews said. “We are very open to suggestions.”
Requests for comment by Hartz Mountain were not returned at the time of publication.
