Smart Growth group holds another community meeting
Planners show more detail for possible future of Routes 1 and 27
BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer

EDISON - With one more visioning meeting in the bag, the Edison Smart Growth Planning Initiative has surpassed the halfway point in its plan for Routes 1 and 27.

Members of Renaissance Planning Group and Baker Inc. have spent the better part of the last year working with the state Department of Transportation and Office of Smart Growth to create a plan for the Routes 1 and 27 corridors that would integrate the newest trends of mixed-use planning to modify Edison's master plan.

In the third installment of the Smart Growth community meetings on Sept. 20, members of these organizations met with the public to discuss conceptual demonstration plans, the first real examples of what the targeted areas could look like 20, 30 or 50 years down the road.

Sarah Oehl, a member of the Renaissance Planning Group, said that the goal of the meeting was to introduce to the public the first conceptual design for the different sites. Renaissance Planning is now focusing on the individual areas, demonstrating what could be a reality in coming decades.

"We've zoomed in to specific areas to see how it could look," Oehl said.

The group is trying to create a plan that would systematically change the disparate structures on the two main south Edison thoroughfares into cogent, planned development that would change the transportation, commerce and infrastructure logic that has pervaded the area in the past.

Eric Wright, of Renaissance, delivered a series of presentations discussing where the group saw the targeted areas going in the future and asking for public input and participation.

"This is the conceptual level," Wright said. "We want to get people's feedback and see what works and what doesn't."

The planning initiative is a partnership between the township and the state DOT and Smart Growth office to redesign developed and redeveloping areas to give Edison a downtown similar to that found in Metuchen and Highland Park. The initiative has focused on Routes 1 and 27, but offered coherent design ideas using properties that are already there.

The core of the project is the former Revlon site, which is no longer used by the company. Members of Renaissance see that site as the first step in the area's transformation, positing a mixed-use combination of retail and housing that would resemble Main Street America, not suburban sprawl.

The goal of the project is not to rewrite zoning law or propose actual building projects. The goal is to simply provide a resource for amending the township's master plan that could include these ideas and show a way for all the separate sections - which include the Edison train station and various points along Route 1 - to be integrated as one free-flowing commercial/residential area.

Mixed-use planning is often a pedestrian friendly way of developing that brings people out of cars for long periods of time while they stroll down Main Street sidewalks or meander through parks adjacent to local stores and restaurants.

Having pedestrian-friendly development is a selling point for Patti Rittman, a resident living near the train station. She said that at night, when people are coming off the train, it is often difficult to see them while driving. Having a pedestrian-friendly area would alleviate that problem.

"It would be better to be friendly for pedestrians," Rittman said. "It would have lighting and will be safer."

The conceptual plan for the train station would include laying a grid pattern for the streets over the current industrial and commercial properties now found to the north of the station. That grid, according to Renaissance, would alleviate some traffic on Plainfield Avenue, offering drivers more options for entering and exiting the general train station area.

Wright said that would allow for the inclusion of restaurants and other amenities in the area without the need to fundamentally change current thoroughfares like Plainfield Road.

Rittman is not so certain that traffic will totally be resolved, though.

"You're not going to stop traffic," she said. Removing traffic from one spot will often bring it to another.

Jane Tousman, a resident, said that she would support the smart growth plan if it includes enough open space. She said that the environmental factors of the plan are important and that there are some concerns about the Revlon site's contamination levels.

"I want to see the DEP get in there and see that the site has been remediated," she said.

The planning initiative has two more steps before it offers its final report for possible amendments to the township's master plan, including ways the plan's concepts can be implemented. Future workshops are expected.