By Heather DeGeorge, North Plainfield resident and former Council member
There is only one Council representative to the Planning Board allowed, but one is enough to convey the message. It was traditionally Frank Righetti but I don’t know who it might be now–Skip Stabile did it for a while.
We briefly considered Villa Maria for school space and it’s a good BUILDING for it, but in terms of keeping the kids close to fields, etc. it wasn’t such a great idea due to the cost of excavating the land for fields (plus the destruction it would cause to the trees, etc.). So you could do it, but at a much greater cost and a MUCH greater impact environmentally. If nothing else, it needs to be leveled out and that alone would destroy a good number of the trees.
The Master Plan was updated around 2003-2005 (I started with it and I believe they finished it when I left due to complicated pregnancy). I’m not sure they touched the section citing school expansion because I don’t remember it coming up–but maybe it was updated after I left. If they didn’t touch it, then it would still note the need.
It has always been an issue trying to keep the kids from having to cross roads to get to fields (for practice, playing and events). The thought came up once to acquire the Ballas property on Greenbrook Rd. and it came up again that it would leave the kids (and adults) having to cross a busy street.
It’s a tough thing to accommodate.
1 response so far ↓
KW // June 24, 2008 at 1:07 pm |
I think this is the current Planning Board, unless there have been resignations and reappointments that I missed: Mayor Janice Allen; Borough Administrator David Hollod; Councilman Frank Righetti; Tom Fagan (Chair); Maureen Coxwell; Frank L. Kreder (Vice-Chair); Andre Mitchell; Frank A. Stabile; Barbara Kreder; David W. Branan (alternate); Joseph Tevlin (alternate).
So, Frank Righetti or Dave Hollod could relay the ideas about the Community Impact Study and eminent domain for a middle school.