They need to do something soon. The area looks like a couple of abandoned city blocks with the recent closure of 7-11. Come on officials and politicians, you need to take advantage of our towns best resource and make an inviting, walking community transit village that will bring more permanent residents and shoppers to our town!

It would be nice if a council member provided a copy of the report and map to the public library to make it more widely available for inspection. It could be left at the Reference Desk.

Barzillai,

Mayor Tagliarini asked me to let you know that a copy would be placed in the library within the next few days for residents to review. It is also available in township hall.

Thanks. Most appreciated.

People who are saying that this is just a routine update and not much has changed haven't read the report. Coppola & Coppola actually say a lot. The nature of the redevelopment zone has changed from light industrial to residential since 1999 because two major blocks of the zone have been allocated to development. ". . . the land use changes . . . have created an unpredictable atmosphere for private capital investment in land development, since zoning provisions alone cannot assure that the lands in the subject area will be compatibly developed, and that the lands will be developed in a manner which safeguards and builds upon the public investment already being expended on the . . . . train station improvements." "[T]he diversified ownership . . .remains a problem for the proper redevelopment of the lands and continues to create an unpredictable development atmosphere. . . [T]otal control of the lands . . . remains a goal yet to be achieved." The report identifies the severe deterioration of 2 abandoned buildings, one a Super Fund site, as a changed condition since 1999. So, approaching development of the area in a piecemeal manner over the past dozen or so years has made it more difficult to develop the place as initially envisioned. The lack of cooperation among the various owners remains a major sticking point in moving forward. I'm pleased to see the hat tip towards environmental protection and land preservation. The report is at the library reference desk. Ask for it.

For those of us ancient enough to recall the 70s, Urban Planning was the hot new major at the time. Many of us dabbled in it, and in the introductory course, the concepts of land use, city vision, coordination among development partners and having a unified vision going into the future as well as proper development of interfacing zones that feathered out into adjacent municipalities were covered. I'm wondering if such ideas fell into disuse, or whether the ideas became unpopular for a valid reason. The public seems to be clamoring for a strong, unified vision of town development that looks smartly coordinated and is reflective of a distinctive town identity. The Matawan borough downtown looks a shambles, and the Aberdeen Township properties and zoning are disjointed temples to quick ratables and lazy lawyering.