Old Bridge follows suit on permit-only parking
Mayor hopes Nike site can eventually be used for commuter parking
BY BRIAN DONAHUE
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE - A month after Sayreville voted to ban commuters from parking on residential streets near Ernston Road, township officials have done the same.

The Township Council last week adopted an ordinance that requires permits for those who park on Rutgers and Georgetown roads and limits those permits to the residents who live there. The roads connect to Ernston Road, just south of Bordentown Avenue.

In October, Sayreville instituted permit-only parking on numerous streets near an Ernston Road bus stop on the other side of Bordentown Avenue after residents complained that commuters were creating problems by parking along the roads.

Though the Sayreville Borough Council's five Democrats supported the permit parking, Republicans including Mayor Kennedy O'Brien said he felt the ordinance would only force commuters to park on other streets.

And that is exactly what Old Bridge officials foresaw when crafting their own ordinance.

"On the Sayreville side, they did the resident-only permit parking, and we just want to make sure it doesn't get to be a problem on our side," Old Bridge Council President Patrick Gillespie said. "Whether these are Sayreville or Old Bridge commuters, we don't want them parking where they shouldn't be."

Gillespie said the greater problem exists on the streets over the border in Sayreville, but with those streets becoming off-limits, he thinks the commuters will start parking on the nearby streets in Old Bridge.

"We're acting before it becomes a real problem," he said.

Officials in both towns said they have received complaints from residents that commuters take up the parking in front of their homes, and the fear is that emergency vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances would not be able to safely navigate the residential roads during those times.

Like Sayreville officials, who have told distressed commuters that a new lot is on the way and other alternatives are being looked at, Old Bridge hopes to offer more commuter lots in the future.

Mayor Jim Phillips said the township has seen a sharp increase in the demand for commuter parking, noting that the lot at Inverness Drive and Route 9 was half-full just a couple years ago, and now fills up quickly.

He said local officials are working with NJ Transit to find suitable parking for commuters, and one answer may be in the vicinity of the existing NJ Transit lot at Ernston Road. Excess parking from nearby stores may be used to satisfy some of the parking demand.

Also, part of the former Nike Missile Base at Route 9 and Jake Brown Road could eventually be turned into a commuter parking lot. The township has been pursuing a portion of the tract that is still owned by the federal government, and Phillips said environmental testing on that section has found only minimal contamination.

Abandoned houses on the property have asbestos, and there are septic tanks and one underground fuel tank, but the contamination that was found was expected and is "nothing out of the realm of ordinary," he said. The Old Bridge Board of Education is conducting studies on its own portion of the land, which housed its transportation fleet until last year.

Phillips' advice to commuters: "Hang on, better days are coming.

"One of the roles of government is to find ways to provide parking for people who need it, and that's what we're doing," he said. "But to invade residential streets is not the answer."