This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Belle Mead Residents: Backyards Are Residential

Re-zoning ordinance tabled that would consider some yards as a Highway Service district.

Every day Richard Murphy lives the tale of two towns.

His Belle Mead property straddles the Montgomery-Hillsborough border. His house is in Montgomery, while his backyard, garden and septic system are in Hillsborough.

That property split-personality usually does not create problems—until now.

Find out what's happening in Hillsboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Murphy and about a dozen neighbors came to last week's Township Committee meeting to oppose a zoning change in the Hillsborough part of their neighborhood behind the .

In Murphy’s case, his house in Montgomery would remain in a residential zone, while his backyard in Hillsborough would be switched from an agricultural zone to the Highway Service zone.

Find out what's happening in Hillsboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I’m trying to find out why,” Murphy told the Township Committee, which was holding a public hearing on the zoning change and scheduled to take a final vote last Tuesday. “It just raises some questions.”

Murphy said his property should be zoned residential.

“It’s not vacant land,” he said. “It’s my backyard.”

The land to be rezoned is a crescent-shaped area that starts along Route 206 and extends westward along the township border. Most of the lots along the Montgomery border are small and border on open space, which is already in the Highway Service zone, with three or four of the properties split between the townships.

Township Planner Robert Ringelheim said the Highway Service zone was created to encourage the development of Hillsborough’s “southern gateway” along Route 206.

The 2008 ordinance creating the zone states: “The essence of this district is to create offices and other compatible uses of a modest employment nature along portions of Route 206 and to provide planned mixed-use development and for home occupations. Strip retail and uses with extensive lighting, signage and traffic requirements are not intended in this district.”

Ringelheim said the rezoning would avoid “spot zoning” issues and provide more consistency in the planning of the area. Because the Hillsborough sections of the lots are so small, Ringelheim said, they would be non-conforming “whatever district we create.”

The planner also said there were no current plans to develop in the zone. The properties now in the zone are mostly vacant. 

Thomas Schweitzer, another Bellemont Road resident whose property straddles the border, asked the Township Committee to table the re-zoning and investigate the issue.

Murphy and Schweitzer were joined by other neighbors opposing the re-zoning because they feared it would affect the nature of the neighborhood and increase the intensity of the use of the property north of their homes.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” said Bedle Street resident Barbara Puleio, adding that she chose to live on a dead-end street because of the lack of traffic.

The residents’ arguments made an impression on the Township Committee.

“It doesn’t make much sense to me,” Committeeman Bob Wagner said. 

The Township Committee then voted unanimously to table the re-zoning and send it back to the Planning Board.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?