Study: Improve Connectivity of Business District

A planning study of the Franklin Ave. Corridor presented to the Franklin Lakes Planning Board Wednesday night emphasized long-term recommendations to increase connectivity between the borough’s business district and surrounding areas.

The study, approved by the borough council in Dec. 2012 and prepared by the Trenton-based firm Clarke Caton Hintz, was presented to the board and public by planner Beth McManus.

“For years there’s been a recognition that Franklin Lakes has the potential to be more than what you see out there,” McManus said in introductory remarks to the presentation.

The key to improving the district, she suggested in several of her recommendations to the planning board, was to take long-term steps to increase the circulation between the cluster of businesses on Franklin Ave. and the surrounding area.

“When you think about the assets of the downtown,” she said, “I think it’s important to not just think about the stores that are there, the offices that are there that may provide your daily shopping and places to eat ice cream, but also to think about what it connects to.”

One area she told the board that the borough should seek to more closely link with the business district is the municipal complex and surrounding recreation areas, which she said could be accomplished with improvements to Bender Court, adding sidewalks to the road to make it a “primary thoroughfare” between Franklin Ave. and the amenities off DeKorte Drive.

Another proposal, which McManus said would take place in the long-term, was to extend Tice Road through the Franklin Lakes Shopping Center, creating a four-way intersection with Colonial Road and Franklin Ave.

The recommendation is a holdover from a 2003 study of the business district, but McManus said that the project could be a long-term goal of the planning board, acquiring a path for the roadway through negotiations with developers in the future.

“I think this is an opportunity to create more commercially viable land,” she said, adding that potential property owners that sacrifice lot portions in the future would gain valuable street access to their storefronts.

McManus also suggested that the borough work closely with the county, as Franklin Ave. is a county road, to install more continuous sidewalks extending on both sides of the commercial district, improving access to businesses by pedestrians and cyclists.

 “We want to create an opportunity for folks to not just walk and bike within the district, but also walk or bike to the district,” she said.

The study did not include consideration of traffic patterns on Franklin Ave., and in a discussion with board members after the presentation McManus said that the borough may want to consider commissioning a separate traffic study to utilize in future planning efforts.

The recommendations, McManus said, represent a “checklist” that the planning board could adopt as an amendment to the borough’s master plan, which both the planning board and borough council could pursue in the long term. The board will provide input on the study at its Aug. 7 meeting.