Updated on Friday September 17, 1999

Town Center Construction

The Master Plan for Washington Township includes some wild changes for the Route 130 and Route 33 Intersection. The Planning Board, in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Transportation, is refining a long term plan to build a "Town Center".

The Town Center would begin at the intersection of Washington Blvd (Foxmoor) and Route 33. It would extend north to Hutchinson Road, just behind the current townhomes. It would follow Hutchinson road out to Robbinsville Road, and then directly south back to Route 33. The zone would follow Route 33 out and across Route 130 to the rear of the Municipal Complex. From the Municipal Complex it would travel south, just west of Arbor Walk and out to Route 130 near Tammaro's Produce. The zone would then go across Route 130, past into the Wholesale Depot site and move through the woods back to Route 33 at Washington Blvd.

The planning board reprentitive likened the plan to the creation of a setting like Princeton, with mixed commercial, retail and residential use in an section that would appear to begin on the Hamilton side of Route 130 and twist through the old Wholesale Depot and Tammaros site on 130. In addition to these extra streets, activity and building, the board has worked hand in hand to widen route 130 to SIX LANES through the Washington area! Additionally there would be 5 or 6 new traffic lights.

See the "Town Center" section of the official Washington Township Government website for images of the street plan. You will be especially interested if you live in Foxmoor, Carriage Walk or on Edinburgh Road.

The current plan is the result of the Washington Township Planning Board, but it is unclear who would benefit from all of the proposed growth and expansion. Surely our neighbors in Hamilton have not gained much from all of the commercial development, only traffic congestion and overpopulation. And more importantly who would pay for all of this construction? And who would benefit?

I would suggest that we take a different path than other townships, and focus primarily on preserving the semi-rural atmosphere that originally lured most of us to Washington. Politicians use the word "growth" in an almost human context, implying that any lack thereof would be a detriment to society. Perhaps we should focus more on the long term human impact and use of natural resources.