Earlier this month, a teardown of a portion of Route 29 in Trenton got a huge boost when the city of Trenton signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with virtually every county, regional, and state agency that has a say in the roadway’s future. The MOU expresses the commitment of the agencies to replace Route 29 with a boulevard and waterfront park that will promote development and create better pedestrian and car linkages between the waterfront and the rest of the city.
Signatories include the city of Trenton, Mercer County, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Council, and the state departments of Transportation, Environmental Protection, Treasury, and Community Affairs.
Trenton’s downtown master plan and a city economic development corporation’s “Renaissance Plan,” both of which endorse a boulevard conversion of Route 29, are among the studies that will be used as a framework for future development. However, the MOU does not commit any agency to fund the teardown. Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer has put the project on the city’s wish list of projects to be funded with federal stimulus money. He has said that the construction on the first phase of the project can begin before the end of the year.
An NJDOT feasibility study of the boulevard conversion should be completed in March and could spur real movement on the flagship project in NJDOT’s NJ Future in Transportation program, which links land use and transportation planning.
Great in theory, except that nothing will end up being built other than more government office buildings. The funds would be better spent on redeveloping existing neighborhoods of Trenton, such as Chambersburg.
Without a doubt this is the WORST project ever put into the NJDOT pipeline. The idea of spending millions of taxpayer dollars to INCREASE travel times is appalling. The officials who support this project have probably never considered consulting those who would be the most impacted — that is, the actual users of Route 29.
I agree that the mass of ramps in the area is excessive, but the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater. It would be far better to do it the way it is being done on Route 18 in New Brunswick.
What will happen to those of us who live on the Island?
Will we be kicked out of our apartments or homes just so that you politicians can look good?
What About Us!!!
[…] Corporation to convert just under 2 miles of the roadway into a boulevard. The year prior, a memorandum of understanding was signed by a variety of interested parties to help develop the area. That group included the […]