Honeywell Rezoning Opponents: 'We Told You So'

The following letter is by Julia M. Somers, executive director of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition.

“We told you so” is what many Morris Township residents are thinking now that Honeywell has come clean and admitted what we knew all along—that they are leaving their contaminated site on Park Avenue and Columbia Turnpike, but only after maximizing the value of its property through a zoning change no one wanted while threatening to leave town unless it was approved.

Morris Township continues to ignore everything else in its mad pursuit of ratables. It has ignored the thoughtful appeals of its citizens whose property values and quality of life are diminished by the result. It has ignored all evidence that demonstrates that towns with the most ratables have the highest taxes. And they have ignored any suggestion that Honeywell would leave even with the zoning change.

The process Honeywell and Morris Township have been going through has been entirely about increasing the resale value of the property (for Honeywell) and chasing ratables (the township), and they colluded to make it happen. The citizens have been ignored (allowed to speak, yes, but not heard), and now the township has inspired the creation of a hard-working, informed and effective community group (Citizens for Better Planning in Morris Township). That group will not give up on trying to protect the township’s character, and likely ward off any sensible residential developer who might try to build those townhouses on top of the most precious environmental feature of the site—what locals call the Great Lawn. And rightly so.

The time is now for the township to stop, reassess, revisit and reverse this disastrous rezoning decision.