To my neighbors on Harrison's residential streets,
You chose Harrison for a reason, and you chose your street for one too. A small town with farms on the edges and a Main Street people drive in to see. Quiet at night. Kids on bikes. A neighbor you know on each side. Zoning is the promise that keeps both the way you found them, and this election puts that promise on the line.
The plan my opponent is running on rewrites the rules for every residential street in Harrison.
My opponent's Café & Bakery Law lets restaurants, bars, delis, cafés and stores open inside homes without rezoning. His plan says nothing about asking the neighbors first. The house next door could start serving drinks on a Friday night, and the first notice you'd get is the cars.
My opponent's More Main Street plan lets any property within a mile of a Main Street building become a storefront with apartments or offices above. That's not a few blocks. That's a mile in every direction, through neighborhoods where families live today.
My opponent would drop minimum lot sizes for any lot on sewer and allow an in-law unit of up to 1,000 square feet on every residential lot. And my opponent would drop the township's parking minimums, so customers and extra tenants park wherever they can. On your street. In front of your house.
Think about what comes with all of it.
Delivery trucks on roads built for minivans. Customers who don't know the street and aren't watching for a kid chasing a ball. Cars lining both curbs, so a child stepping out between them can't be seen until it's too late. Strangers' cars at the bus stop where your kids wait every morning.
More homes on every lot means more students in classrooms that are already full, and more water in pipes that are already working hard. On August 27, one storm overwhelmed our sewer system, and the overflows were reported to the state. When the sewer is full, my opponent's answer is to let builders pay for upgrades or build their own wastewater treatment on site. That could mean a small treatment plant on a residential lot, next to someone's backyard.
And none of it comes back. Once a business opens in a home or an in-law unit goes up on a lot, it stays.
Harrison's codes do need work. Business owners have told me so, and they're right. That's why I helped bring back the Economic Development Committee, and why I'm working to clear the red tape on Main Street and in our business districts. That's where commerce belongs.
Fixing the code shouldn't cost you the town and the street you chose. Residential streets should stay residential, and nothing about yours should change without your voice in the room.
Election Day is November 3, and I'm asking for your vote. One more thing. Talk to the neighbor next door. They're the one who would live with this plan right beside you.
Thank you for making Harrison home.
Kevin FrenchHarrison Township Committee · Column B
Experience matters. Your vote matters. Harrison matters.
Paid for by The Committee to Elect Kevin French, PO Box 28, Richwood, NJ 08074