SUMMARY: In 2023, resident Maurine Taylor-Ford brought complaints about speeding and congestion on Branch Street to the Township. She received repeated Township laments of “it’s a county road” but discovered this was an excuse that obscured the real influence which the Township has with the County Engineer [see “We’ll Get Back To You”, Feb 2024]. Her 2024 inquiries showed a year-long lapse by the Township to follow-up on their own May 2023 request for a traffic study. To pressure the Township for more timely action, a petition drive was undertaken which demonstrated serious and widespread resident traffic safety concerns. To provide better context for this article, the Mount Holly Reporter reviewed a September 2024 Mount Holly Masterplan “Re-evaluation Report”. That report indicates regional development has caused Branch Street traffic volume to be “nearing its capacity”. Technical questions by The Mount Holly Reporter to the author of the Re-evaluation Report regarding its findings did not receive a meaningful answer.
BELATED FOLLOW-UP EMAIL LEADS TO PETITION
Ms. Taylor-Ford of Branch street [AKA Route 537] obtained a copy of an email from Township Manager Josh Brown to the Burlington County Engineer. That email, written in July of 2024 was a follow-up to Brown’s May 2023 request for a traffic study on Route 537. Mr. Brown wrote, “I believe we requested the warrant analysis”…“can you provide an update if one is available?” The Manager went on to say that Ms. Taylor-Ford’s inquiry about the Route 537 traffic was an “individual request” and
“The Township has not received any requests from other residents”
Troubled that Brown’s email indicated her concerns were not shared by neighbors, she circulated a petition on Branch street, Garden street and nearby roads.
NOTE: Question sent to Brown about his email was not answered.
PETITION REVEALS ACCIDENTS AND WIDESPREAD CONCERN
The petition circulated by Ms. Taylor-Ford asked Mount Holly residents about traffic problems and many offered testimony that speeding and accidents are a serious problem posing safety concerns. Others complained that the frequent passage of large trucks on residential streets shake homes and pose danger. These concerns were well known to Mayor Chris Banks.
He acknowledged them when he stated at the November 2023 council meeting that “there’s a lot of speeding all throughout town”. He indicated that Council considered the problem serious enough to evaluate construction of speed humps throughout town but decided against that solution.
Note: Inquiries with emergency service providers indicate speed humps interfere with delivery of emergency services.
Over sixty [60] signatures were collected asking the Manager and Council to solve problems of speeding and to get a truck ordinance effective so “pass through” trucks would be diverted to Route 38. While circulating the petition, some residents shared their stories:
Grey Green: There are frequent accidents at Garden and Mt Holly Avenue.
Jazzmin Gentile: Her father was killed in 2019 by a driver on Mill Street.
Lisa Burnham: An industrial tow truck ripped the power line off her home.
Mohammad Asani: Walking school kids are at risk at Garden & Mt. Holly Ave.
The Reporter happened to be present on Branch Street just after a power line was ripped off a house by a passing truck. The violence of the event was evident in the photo which shows siding torn off and the electric meter laying on the grass. Luckily no one was injured in the mishap.
The Reporter also came upon the scene of another accident on Mill Street near its intersection with Cherry. Neighbors at that location stated that a van crashed into a porch on Mill, destroying its brick façade which still lay strewn about. The accident apparently occurred during September, 2024.
According to Grey Green of Garden street, accident frequency near his home varies like “Some days you have two accidents at Garden and Mt. Holly Ave and other times its one per month”. But in general, there are a surprisingly high number of accidents at that location. One accident destroyed the stoop of a home at that corner. These traffic problems prompted the installation of two stop signs on Mt. Holly Ave at its intersection with Garden.
On the morning of September 30, 2024, an accident occurred at the intersection of Garden St and Mt. Holly Ave. Based on photos available online and an inspection of the front of 219 Garden street, a car struck the staircase and wall of the building, causing the car to flip. As a result, both 217 and 219 Garden were declared “unsafe” by Mount Holly Township.
WELL KNOWN TRAFFIC VOLUME AND ROAD CAPACITY PROBLEMS
Mount Holly’s “Master Plan” is the main planning guide for all township concerns, including roads and traffic. A 2024 Master Plan Reexamination Report was commissioned by Mt. Holly and recently considered by the Planning Board.
It called out 2 roads which the County identified as “nearing its capacity” such that future “intervention may be needed” to ensure the volume of vehicles using it can continue to do so.
These roads have been measured to have traffic “Volume to Capacity” [V/C] of 85% which is expressed as a “V/C of 0.85” or greater. The streets which had this designation are: Pine Street and Washington Street west of King St.
The Re-evaluation Report acknowledged that any need to make improvements to these roads is “because of fairly substantial development occurring in the region”.
Note: An example of the regional development mentioned above occurred in 2019 at former open space in Eastampton. That development is called “Smithville Greene”.
But what was not discussed in the Re-evaluation Report is that data used to assess “Volume to Capacity” ratios was greater than 10 years old. And it showed that as far back as 2013, large sections of Route 537 were at 80% capacity. [see image below]
In light of the old data, the new housing bringing more vehicles and the measurement showing Route 537 has little capacity left ten years ago, The Mount Holly Reporter questioned the author of the Re-evaluation Report.
The Re-evaluation report author did not respond to technical questions raised by The Reporter. They said “I will forward your comments and concerns to both the Township Manager and the Planning Board Secretary.”
POSSIBILE SOLUTIONS NOT MENTIONED BY THE RE-EVALUATION
Pine street is a single lane road regularly congested by parents trying to pick up their children from Brainerd school.
Could the Township use Payment in Lieu of Taxes [PILOT] money to pay for buses as a means to relieve the traffic?
Branch, Mill and Washington and Garden streets all experience high traffic volume and passage of large trucks that shake homes. Ordinance 2022-10 banned large trucks that are not making a delivery in town from using our streets as a pass-through. The ordinance has not taken effect because it is not valid until neighboring municipalities approve of it in writing.
What has Mt. Holly done to get agreement with neighboring towns like Eastampton?
Garden Street at its intersection with Mount Holly Avenue has a high rate of accidents and a speed limit of 30 MPH.
Could the speed limit be reduced to 25 MPH, a stop sign be placed on Garden Steet and an enforcement program put in place including a radar enabled flashing light showing speed such as was done on High Street?
WHAT YOU CAN DO
If you have traffic concerns or suggestions, let Mount Holly government know!
