Assemblyman Craig J. Coughlin
569 Rahway Ave.
Woodbridge, NJ 07095
Dear Assemblyman Coughlin,
I am writing to you today about a very serious matter that has arisen for me and my neighbors in Carteret regarding a project that is being funded by the State of New Jersey and which will be a huge negative for our community if it goes forward.
We live in a wonderful apartment complex called Meridian Square in a very quiet and safe part of town. Unfortunately, the borough is going to destroy our neighborhood by creating an extension to Carteret Avenue right through our complex and on into the neighborhood stretching to the waterfront.
The mayor claims the state-funded and approved road extension is necessary to handle the traffic for a ferry terminal that very few of us in the neighborhood were ever told about. There have been no public hearings about the road extension or the ferry or any of the mayor’s other plans for the waterfront.
To construct the road extension through our neighborhood, the town has initiated an eminent domain taking of the private property owned by apartment complex I live in.
Taking that property will diminish parking in our complex forcing more cars onto the street. Why is the state helping fund the taking of private property to build a road that is unnecessary? Nearby Industrial Highway was built to handle heavy volumes of traffic and it should be the primary route to the ferry.
Among the many problems we have with the road extension and the taking of property from our complex is that the new road will bring unwanted traffic, constant noise and safety concerns to our very quiet neighborhood. The reconfiguration of roads in the area will create unsafe intersections that limit site lines, thereby increasing the chances of car collisions.
The added commuter traffic to the neighborhood will put students, parents, and teachers from the nearby Columbus School in danger. Many of those parents use the parking spaces in our apartment complex to drop off and pick up their children from school. Without those spaces, where will the parents park, on the street?
None of these concerns seem to be registering with the mayor or the state Department of Transportation. The DOT has given the borough more than $7 million for the projects and the state legislature has included more than $15.7 million appropriations to Carteret for the waterfront rebuild over the past couple of years. Despite all this proposed spending there has not been one single public hearing to inform the community what is occurring. We need state representatives, such as yourself, to talk to the people in the community about projects the state is funding and we need you to question why the DOT is not more closely examining the road reconfiguration in our neighborhood.
We love the apartment complex we live in. Our neighbors outside the complex love this peaceful neighborhood. Why would the state let our neighborhood be destroyed by a road that’s only purpose seems to be serving frantic commuters trying to catch a ferry ride. I know everyone in our neighborhood, as well as school parents and teachers, would appreciate you looking into the Carteret Avenue project and see if there is a better way to serve the needs of proposed ferry.
Sincerely