The Alternative Press

MILLBURN, NJ -  With 49 municipalities and four counties in New Jersey that have adopted a 'complete streets' policy, the Millburn Township Committee listened to a presentation by former mayor of Montclair, Jerry Fried, on complete streets Tuesday night at the committee meeting.

Fried explained why complete streets would benefit the community. New Jersey’s complete streets policy is the most effective in the nation and it would reduce traffic, create bicycle lanes and safe routes to school, crosswalks, increase sales and the downtown population, decrease accidents and will have more people out walking in the downtown area.

He said the complete streets policy, which was used in Montclair, has really helped the town and made its downtown much more accessible. In Montclair, they received a million dollars in grants and a half a million in no interest loans for the project. Therefore, local governments don’t need to concern themselves with money when it comes to complete streets, Fried said.

“In our experience, there have been so many more benefits than costs,” he said. “It’s more of a philosophy and a policy than it is merely engineering.”

The former mayor said there are five key components to the policy: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation.  He said its goal is to improve the health and vitality of each town’s downtown and more importantly to put measures in play to help communities in the long term.  

“It’s been a tremendous benefit talking about complete streets in Montclair and Millburn as well,” Fried said. “Walkable livable communities are more and more what young people are looking for.”

Mayor Sandy Haimoff said after reading the comprehensive and lengthy resolution on this, she found his presentation very informative and helpful. She said this will benefit the community, but it will be a long process until it is complete.

“Sometimes you have to move slowly because you have to educate people and pull them along with you,” Haimoff said.

She said the town is going look at the models used in Montclair, Essex County, Glen Ridge and Maplewood.

In other business, Jeffrey Beachem and Michael Gorman were appointed to Board of Adjustment to fill two unexpired terms.  It was noted that the two would be brought up speed on the Stop & Shop proposal by having them listen to recordings of past Board meetings to avoid delays in decision-making on the matter.

Longtime resident of Millburn, Edward Borneman received the Community Service award for his active role in the Short Hills-Millburn Red Cross for 23 years.

The committee also amended ordinance Chapter VII “traffic” part II, so people now will be able to distinguish between receiving a ticket for “car not in space” and “rear end facing meter.”

Ordinance chapter VII “traffic” part I “on street traffic regulations”  section 7-11.1 “time limit parking” and section 7-14 “parking prohibited during certain hours on certain streets” was also amended. This addresses concerns of commuters parking on the streets near the train station and it adds hours to parking.

The next Millburn Township Committee meeting is March 19 at 8 p.m.