We, the residents of the Cedar Woods community, want the Quick Chek zoning application to be gone so that we may resume our separate lives without the constant intrusion of zoning board meetings ad nauseam.
Rather than losing interest in these proceedings, the prolonged wrangling has given me time to discern the impact of the bottleneck at the intersection of Route 130 and Washington Road that would arise once the lane changes would have been made to accommodate the entry and exit from the Quick Chek development. These include additional traffic signal delays due to left turning northbound 130 traffic going into Quick Chek; traffic conflict between traffic from Calvert Road attempting to gain entry into northbound Route 130 running into left turning traffic on northbound Route 130 attempting to use the same lane to enter Quick Chek; and additional time for traffic signal to accommodate traffic leaving Quick Chek at the same intersection to cross over southbound Route 130 to get into northbound Route 130.
What do we get in return? Maybe a few convenience items that we don’t have to drive to get. Forget about gasoline. What we do trade away, we get to accommodate a pronounced increase in traffic congestion, necessitating additional time spent planning to avoid the traffic buildup, noise and loss of privacy, loss of peace of mind due to the disruption of predictable community standards of behavior.
We don’t need this since it does not add value to our property. We can get all the convenience items plus more at the nearby ShopRite and maybe at a lower negotiated price.
Finally, we need to think beyond the immediate profit/loss calculation and look at the global impact of our actions. We should reduce our carbon footprint, reduce waste, recycle, save our environment, leave a more sustainable world for future generations.
Herb Lee
North Brunswick
