Jennings Road in Medford to remain closed to through traffic.
Residents who live along Jennings Road in Medford left Tuesday night’s Council meeting happy as council decided against re-opening the road to through traffic.
The Council’s decision came after Township Engineer Dante Guzzi reported that he had some concerns about re-opening the road to public traffic.
Jennings Road runs from Route 70 to Hartford Road. It was closed to through traffic with barricades 15 years ago. Council wanted to examine whether re-opening the road would be viable with a new development, Heritage, opening along the road.
The report from Guzzi showed a number of issues that would take time and resources to fix.
“The problem we encountered with the road is that it is in very poor condition,” Guzzi said.
In addition, the width of the road would have to be expanded to 18 or more feet. While Medford Township has the right of way to do this, there are properties and other obstacles in the way.
“I can’t imagine widening that road,” Deputy Mayor Chris Buoni said. “At points, that road is within five feet of a house.”
The concern for residents of the existing Wildflower and Glen developments goes beyond the road condition. Many residents use that road to walk along and for recreation. The feeling is that traffic flow would greatly increase with motorists using the road as a short cut to go from Route 70 to Hartford.
Nearly all of the residents from the Wildflower and Glen communities signed petitions asking Council to keep the road closed.
Wildflower, Glen and the under construction Heritage developments are all age-restricted housing for adults 55 years and older. This led to the state saying in a traffic study that the traffic flow would not increase much since many of the residents don’t work.
Wildflower resident Jeff Allen disagreed.
“Fifty-five percent of the residents work full-time,” he said. “So you can fully expect a lot of traffic.”
Buoni said he also has a major concern about traffic turning left from Jennings Road on to Route 70. The state’s Department of Transportation rejected a township proposal to build a light at the intersection, stating that the light would be too close to the one at the intersection of Jones Road and Route 70.
While the traffic light issue will be taken back to the state in 2014, the concerns about traffic flow still loomed large.
“It would be the wrong thing to open up the road,” Councilman Chuck Watson said. “Let’s use it as the gem it is.”
Councilman Jeffrey Beenstock suggested looking at another option to construct a road that will allow Jennings Road to remain close.
“If Jennings Road is not a viable option, why not look at a northerly exit or an easterly exit,” he said.
In other news:
• Medford Council agreed to drop the minimum bid for the township’s available liquor license to $450,000. This comes after the township received no bids on the license when it was originally put up for bid in the summer. The original minimum bid for the license was $600,000.
• Council honored volunteers who help maintain the Freedom Dog Park. The park received a $2,000 grant from The Nutro Company earlier in November.
• The next Medford Council meeting is on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Public Safety Building.
