A Dozen Years Wasted and Counting

One of the last actions of the current Aberdeen Township Council will be 2011-134, which proposes to send the train station redevelopment plan back to the Planning Board for reassessment. The Council proposes to resubmit the question to Coppola and Coppola Associates, the firm that determined the need for renewal in the first place more than 12 years ago.

You might say, "The Council could ask anyone in town if redevelopment is necessary. They don't need to pay experts to determine the obvious. Most people have known for a dozen years that something needed to be done to improve the train station area. They've only been waiting for ground to be broken." But the law under which the redevelopment is allegedly being conducted has changed, so the Township plan has become obsolete and must be reconsidered and reassembled at considerable cost and delay.

The lack of progress at the train station was a campaign issue in the fall. This resolution could not have been presented before election day without consequences for the Democratic ticket. Now that the election is over, this resolution is being enacted before the new slate takes office to minimize any tarnish. This holiday session will also assure few people will even know what happened.

And ultimately, reassessment of redevelopment does not guarantee that the Township Council will resolve its differences with the Borough and NJ Transit et al. It just puts us back to where we were 12 years ago. Where will we be in 2024?