On The Issues

Submitted for TAP article 

Name: William Thilly  www.WilliamThilly.com

 

Tell us a bit about your family.  

My Mom is from West Virginia, Dad is from Staten Island, wife is from Daytona Beach, Florida. A lawyer, a scientist, and another lawyer! An adored sister in North Carolina. Two children I love very very much and tell them so.   

  

How long have you lived in Cranford?  

I first knew Cranford from Judo tournaments when I was 7 years old growing up in Massachusetts. I had several very nice friends (until they got on the mat) from the Cranford Judo & Karate Club which is famous as one of the best clubs in the country. One of my childhood friends lives in Cranford and we moved to town after visiting him in 2017.  

  

Where are your favorite places to go around town?  

I love that you can walk everywhere in Cranford, and that the downtown is not too sprawling. I also enjoy walking our wonderful parks, the trails, and tree-lined neighborhoods. The activities for kids, restaurants, and movie theater are wonderful.  

  

What is your educational/professional background?   

BA Economics University of Massachusetts Amherst 1999  

Founder/Owner Doppelgänger Genomics LLC. A research company using Whole Genome Sequencing to discover locations of genes related to personality and other phenotypes.  

  

Why are you running for office?   

I am running to stop and revise the current development agreement which forces residents to pay the property taxes and infrastructure costs for billionaire developers who wish to build out our town while overcrowding our streets and schools. 

 
In your opinion, what is the biggest issue facing Cranford today?  

The loss of trust that our Township Committee will respect our residents’ wishes particularly in regard to the overdevelopment of our town.   

  

What is your plan for tackling that issue? 

This is real and we need to stop it now! The Township Committee is preparing to allow for-profit developers to come in and build whatever they want and more, while making us pay for the billionaire developers' property taxes, infrastructure costs, and additional students. We say, "No Way", but we need people to know what is happening and vote it out, so please share the info below with every resident!! Let's keep Cranford a town! 

 
In a tentative agreement last year our Township Committee majority voted to allow the building of 400+ apartments in 6 new buildings. 4 buildings downtown, and 2 at 750 Walnut Ave. They also increased our zoning to allow for more development in the near future. The bigger issue however is that the for-profit developers were offered up to 30-year tax free exemptions paid for by us, while at the same time not being made to contribute to their own infrastructure costs. Infrastructure costs they want us to pay for on their behalf would include new sewer lines, flood mitigation projects, extra school space, 100+ new students at $20k/per year, extra police and fire, and additional traffic, etc.  

 
And now the mayor wishes to borrow an additional $14 million from us by issuing bonds to pay for the developers' flood mitigation projects at the site of their new proposed buildings at South, and Chestnut, and the existing Birchwood. The mitigation is really just to protect the developers' assets, and in reality ends up flooding everyone else in the neighborhood. But still we are asked essentially to pay to flood our own neighborhoods so the billionaire developers can save some more money. We say "No Way"!  

 
It has been said we must allow these developments due to our affordable housing requirements. Not true. What many residents are not aware of is the fact that we are only 18 units shy of our affordable housing quota due by 2025, which we can easily create tomorrow using currently existing homes and structures. This would avoid the need for any new construction at all, if we wish. The idea that we must allow for-profit developers to build over 400 luxury apartments to achieve 18 affordable units is patently false. And we definitely are not required to offer anyone 30-year tax exemptions! 

  

We will stop and revise the current agreement to drastically reduce the number of new apartments to the residents' approval and require that full taxes be paid by any developers. The current PILOT pay structure awarded to the for-profit developers for up to 30 years is speculative and results in the Township receiving at best only 15-20% of the income it would receive if the developments were taxed in full. We will require that all infrastructure and school related costs be paid for by the developers themselves, and we will restore our downtown and corridor zoning to prevent future over development.  

 
If you could change or implement one thing in Cranford, what would it be?   

Most important is the happiness of our residents which leads to good feelings, stronger community, trust and better communication. I hope to see our residents get to know each other better and make some new friends.  

  

If elected, what qualities or perspectives would you bring to the Township Committee?  

I care very deeply for all our residents equally and unconditionally no matter what they think or feel. I believe it is our job as elected officials to find out what the residents want and get it done for them. When residents' needs conflict we will work to find a compromise until all sides are satisfied. I believe in including all residents in decisions, as the town belongs to us all. I work hard, am relentless and tenacious until our goals are realized. 

  

Please tell us about your ideas on the following topics:  

 
Flood Mitigation 

The proposed 6 new developments are all planned for construction in high flood zones. This will surely exacerbate flooding in the adjacent neighborhoods and beyond. The developers want to protect their own investments with expensive mitigation projects which only serve to help the building itself while pushing all the displaced ground and flood water into the adjacent neighborhoods. To add insult to injury, the Township is trying to get the residents to pay for the mitigation projects through our taxes and by the mayors proposal to issue $14 million in bonds. Due in part to the flood mitigation failures at Birchwood we have lost confidence that developers will be able to prevent the flooding of our neighborhoods in the future. We will not allow new developments in flood prone areas, nor pay for their mitigation projects. Our focus will be turned toward the Rahway River. 

 
"I used to dredge the river every year in critical spots" ~ Gregory Sgoi town engineer 1973-1984. I think our administration is not fighting for what we all know we need to do to alleviate our flooding. We will begin dredging our river immediately and continually.

   

In addition: Tell Springfield to lower any over elevated dikes and install pervious floorings along route 22. Make Millburn cooperate. Get upstream retention basins. Demand that Westfield deny development on Williams Nursery since it will cause additional flooding in Cranford. Hold Birchwood developers legally responsible if necessary for costs of their non-functioning retention pond and flooding of Wadsworth and Casino. Install and open floodgates at the dam off Raritan rd. past Big Bend Pond. Effectively negotiate with the Army Corp of Engineers and our beloved neighboring hamlets. Have a flood warning system that works!  

 

Redevelopment:  

This is real and we need to stop it now! The Township Committee is preparing to allow for-profit developers to come in and build whatever they want and more, while making us pay for the billionaire developers' property taxes, infrastructure costs, and additional students. We say, "No Way", but we need people to know what is happening and vote it out, so please share the info below with every resident!! Let's keep Cranford a town! 

 
In a tentative agreement last year our Township Committee majority voted to allow the building of 400+ apartments in 6 new buildings. 4 buildings downtown, and 2 at 750 Walnut Ave. They also increased our zoning to allow for more development in the near future. The bigger issue however is that the for-profit developers were offered up to 30-year tax free exemptions paid for by us, while at the same time not being made to contribute to their own infrastructure costs. Infrastructure costs they want us to pay for on their behalf would include new sewer lines, flood mitigation projects, extra school space, 100+ new students at $20k/per year, extra police and fire, and additional traffic, etc.  

 
And now the mayor wishes to borrow an additional $14 million from us by issuing bonds to pay for the developers' flood mitigation projects at the site of their proposed new buildings at South, and Chestnut, and the existing Birchwood. The mitigation is really just to protect the developers' assets, and in reality ends up flooding everyone else in the neighborhood. But still we are asked essentially to pay to flood our own neighborhoods so the billionaire developers can save some more money. We say "No Way"!  

 
It has been said we must allow these developments due to our affordable housing requirements. Not true. What many residents are not aware of is the fact that we are only 18 units shy of our affordable housing quota due by 2025, which we can easily create tomorrow using currently existing homes and structures. This would avoid the need for any new construction at all, if we wish. The idea that we must allow for-profit developers to build over 400 luxury apartments to achieve 18 affordable units is patently false. And we definitely are not required to offer anyone 30-year tax exemptions! 

  

We will stop and revise the current agreement to drastically reduce the number of new apartments to the residents' approval and require that full taxes be paid by any developers. The current PILOT pay structure awarded to the for-profit developers for up to 30 years is speculative and results in the Township receiving at best only 15-20% of the income it would receive if the developments were taxed in full. We will require that all infrastructure and school related costs be paid for by the developers themselves, and we will restore our downtown and corridor zoning to prevent future over development.  

 

Roads:  

The planned developments if not blocked would lead to dramatic increases in overall traffic and congestion in town and at schools. That could mean more speeding, tractor trailers on the roads, traffic cutting through neighborhood streets where children play, less parking, and wear and tear on our roads etc. So our number one priority is to stop the over development plans immediately.  

 

Also we will get to work immediately on paving the roads that have been waiting for over 50 years! Installing traffic calming measures on Walnut. Leveling streets to avoid water pooling. Adding more storm drains. Managing traffic risks at schools caused by hectic pick up and drop off practices. Being consistent on who gets driveway aprons and curbs. Providing more police presence to deter speeding. Adding signals, STOP signs and bumps where requested. Keeping the Hartz development driveways away from the residential streets!  

  

Sewer Infrastructure:  

Our 100-year-old, and undersized sewer lines are not adequate to maintain the current Birchwood development let alone the planned 400+ apartments at 750 Walnut, North Ave, South Ave, and Chestnut St. Yet this did not prevent the Township Committee from allowing them to proceed, which is already causing big expensive problems. We realize our sewer system is not ready to handle the proposed developments and thus gives us one more reason to halt any new development.  

 
The RVSA (Rahway Valley Sewage Authority) did not detect a break in our main sewage line that allowed river water to pour in unabated for months while the Town was being billed for it. The RVSA was aware of the out-of-range increased sewage but did not notify the Township and as a result the Township incurred a increase in our sewage bill in addition to being disproportionally charged for infrastructure upgrades due to the added usage. We want to hold RSVA accountable, have our money returned, and find a new sewage authority.     

 
Regardless we will be working to upgrade and update our lines for the current residents and to improve our maintenance and leak detection moving forward. 

 
Taxes:  

How can we afford all this new development? We cannot, so our taxes will have to be raised dramatically to keep up. But there is a 3% cap on how high taxes can be raised per year with the only exception being for when the Township needs to pay off bonds. When a bond matures the Township can raise taxes as high as needed to pay off the loan. So when a Township begins issuing bonds it can be a red flag that they plan to raise taxes through the roof.  

 
And with the recent announcement that the mayor intends to issue $14 million in bonds to pay for the billionaire developers own flood mitigation projects, with our money no less, we said enough is enough! 

  

To halt our ever-increasing taxes, we will stop and revise the current development agreement to drastically reduce the number of new apartments while eliminating all 30-year tax and infrastructure exemptions for any developers. Either they pay their taxes and infrastructure costs or they do not build. We will not borrow to pay for the developers' flood mitigation projects. They must pay for those themselves. In the case of the Birchwood apartments, they must be held accountable for the damages caused on Wadsworth Ter. and beyond, and to make restitution and fix their flood retention system. 

 
We will negotiate with the County to lower our tax burden. We believe they are receiving too much for too little. 

 

www.WilliamThilly.com