To the Editor:
Thursday, June 22, 2017, is a date that will live in infamy in Hopewell Township. For on that day, at its regular 7:00 PM meeting, the Hopewell Township Planning Board will vote to recommend to the Township Committee that both east side AND west side of Scotch Road are areas in need of redevelopment. And the demise of the Scotch Road area will result forever.
See MercerMe’s coverage, “Hopewell Township Considering Three Areas in Need of Redevelopment,” at this link.
Step by step, Scotch Road gets closer to massive development. Less than 6 months ago, the Planning Board voted to recommend that the Township Committee re-zone the east side under the guise of protecting the west side. At the most recent Planning Board meeting, on May 25, the public was told, for the first time, that because the Planning Board recommended to re-zone the east side, the cornfield that is the west side became eligible to be denoted an area in need of re-development. But for the Planning Board’s ill-conceived action, the west side would not be in the cross-hairs.
And those Township power-brokers that could stop the relentless march to massive development are, in reality, the very ones who are promoting the over-development of Scotch Road.
Why else would the Township Committee have asked the Planning Board for EXPEDITED consideration?
Remember the Planning Board’s 2014 failed attempt to create a “destination” on both east and west Scotch Road called Jacob’s Creek Village? 2017’s version should be called Jacob’s Creek City. It will be a destination, alright, a destination to public betrayal.
Harvey Lester, Hopewell Township
