Morris Township's Master Plan Splits Housing and Traffic Into Separate November Workshops

At the May 30 visioning session for Morris Township's 2027 Master Plan, one comment went into the notes as a single line: "Overdevelopment – saturated. Concerns on impacts to traffic and pedestrian safety from overpopulation." In that line, housing and traffic are one subject. The November workshops treat them as two. Housing is discussed on a Monday night, and traffic is discussed twelve days later on a Saturday morning, in a different school building.

The township posted the Topical Workshops flyer on October 30. It divides four subjects across the two sessions.

The flyer invites all residents and lists no registration step. It describes the workshops as the place to "consider potential trade-offs, and offer strategic recommendations." Those trade-offs are why the split matters. A housing recommendation made on the 9th will raise traffic questions that the room on the 21st has to answer.

The May record already links the two topics

The township held three visioning sessions this spring. The first was May 21 at Frelinghuysen Middle School, the second was May 28 on Zoom, and the third was May 30 at Normandy Park Elementary School, as TAPinto Morristown reported when they were announced. The township has posted the notes from the last two sessions. Throughout the May 30 notes, comments about development and comments about traffic appear together.

Under the question about the township's biggest challenges over the next five to ten years, the notes record:

Traffic and congestion especially in Cromwell neighborhood and Columbia & Park. Traffic studies do not incorporate future long-term demand on the roads. Need comprehensive municipal traffic plan.

The same page includes "Infrastructure to support development," a request to balance "single-family and multifamily development," and, in the closing section, a call for a "Moratorium on development at a density limit." The Planning Board raised a similar point in public. TAPinto Morristown's June 4 account of the board's June 1 meeting reported that several board members were concerned that traffic studies "often evaluate projects individually without accounting for long-term regional growth."

Under the November format, the density half of that concern goes to the Housing session on the 9th, and the road-capacity half goes to the Mobility session on the 21st.

November 9 at Frelinghuysen: housing, parks and sustainability

The housing comments from May are more specific than "build more" or "build less." TAPinto's June summary says residents supported options that would let younger families and older adults stay in Morris Township while keeping its suburban character. Their suggestions included accessory dwelling units, smaller single-family homes and "other housing options that could provide affordability without relying exclusively on large apartment complexes." Board members responded that those goals have to be balanced against limited available land and existing zoning.

The May 30 notes list several specific ideas on this subject:

• Examine the township's Accessory Dwelling Unit ordinance and intergenerational housing
• Senior housing and intergenerational land uses, with "senior center near daycare" given as an example
• Housing affordability for younger families and older residents
• Examine residential single-family lot coverage standards

The same Monday covers Parks/Recreation and Sustainability, and the May list there is long. When people described the township's greatest assets, they named the Arboretum, the sidewalk to it on Normandy Parkway, and new tree plantings and bike lanes at South Gate. Their wish list included a Shade Tree Commission and an arborist, planting more trees than are removed, more native species, a dog park in every neighborhood, municipal composting, and better lighting, seating and snack stands at recreation facilities, with a request to avoid artificial turf. TAPinto's summary adds flooding, stormwater management, infrastructure capacity and electric grid reliability to the sustainability concerns.

Several of those items pull against each other. Requests for more housing types appear on the same pages as requests to "Designate more green space" and to "balance keeping green space and limiting development." Putting housing and open space in the same Monday session means the land-use tension will at least be discussed in one room.

November 21 at Normandy Park: the intersection list

The Saturday session takes on the topic with the most specific complaints. In TAPinto's June summary, mobility and connectivity were among the most frequently discussed subjects. Residents asked for sidewalks, bike routes, trails, and links between neighborhoods, parks, schools and neighboring towns such as Morristown and Morris Plains. They also raised the problem of neighborhood streets being used as GPS-directed bypass routes.

Across the May 28 and May 30 notes, residents named these places:

1. Route 24 at rush hour, plus Route 24 connectivity
2. The ramp toward Madison from Route 24
3. Columbia and Normandy
4. Columbia and Park Avenue, near the Morris Museum
5. The Cromwell neighborhood
6. Madison Avenue, which one comment called "too crowded"
7. Mount Kemble Avenue and Hanover Avenue, with Hanover described as "not connected properly"
8. The South Street and Woodland intersection
9. The MLK and Mennen intersections
10. Park Avenue

The May 30 notes also include requests for roundabouts and traffic calming, a trolley or electric shuttle running east-west around town, enforcement of e-bike rules, and "Do not convert 2 to 4 lane roads." Sidewalks come up three separate times. One comment says sidewalks and bike paths "do not connect or are inaccessible." Another says it is "unclear who is responsible" for sidewalk repairs, the township or the property owner.

Economic Development shares the Saturday session, and it covers many of the same streets. TAPinto reported interest in improving the Madison Avenue, Speedwell Avenue, Mount Kemble Avenue and Hanover Avenue corridors so residents could walk to restaurants and shops. The same report said the future of "aging office parks and underutilized corporate campuses" will likely play a significant role in long-term planning. The May 28 notes describe dormant commercial areas along Speedwell and Madison and raise mixed-use development as a possibility. Mixed-use development is a housing question as much as a business question. An idea floated for a corridor on the 21st would depend on the housing discussion from the 9th.

How many residents have weighed in so far

The online survey ran from July through October, according to the flyer. At the August 25 Planning Board meeting, the planner reported "something in excess of 400 responses," and a board member gave the count as 404, according to a Citizen Portal summary of that meeting. The board agreed to keep pushing outreach.

With roughly 400 survey responses as of late August and three May sessions behind it, the record that goes into draft recommendations is still being built. TAPinto's June report said the topical workshops come before draft recommendations are developed. The township's project page at morristwp.com/visionmorristwp is the official place to follow the process.

A winter market at Convent Station, starting in December

One request shows up three times in the May 30 notes. It is listed first as a gap ("Lack of permanent farmers market"), then as part of the vision, and finally as "Farmers market year-round (indoors)." This winter will bring something close to it, outdoors. TAPinto Morristown reported on October 27 that Grow It Green Morristown's weekly winter farmer and artisan market will run in the Convent Station train station parking lot in Morris Township. It is scheduled for Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., December 6 through April 25, skipping Easter Sunday, with more than 45 vendors. The next scheduled workshop on economic development, where a request for a year-round market could come up again, is Saturday, November 21, at 10 a.m. at Normandy Park School.

Jill has spent more than three decades helping families buy and sell across Morris County. If you'd like to talk through what the 2027 Master Plan process could mean for your street or your plans, Jillayne Southren is glad to sit down with you. You can get your free home valuation or schedule a personal consultation.