Despite the announcement from the Borough that N.4th and S.3rd Avenues would be closed on April 1, 2022, the roads are still open, and there has been no further announcement from the Borough about it. The only authority the Borough had to close the roads for on-street dining in the first place, was Governor Murphy’s Executive Order #150 when the pandemic started. But that expired on January 21, 2022. Unless something else has been issued from the Governor or Legislature, there seems to be no other legal authorization to close roads for outdoor dining.
(This appears to be separate from the Borough’s application with the NJDOT to permanently close the roads.)
There is a Mayor and Council meeting scheduled for tonight starting at 7pm, You can watch and participate remotely using these links:
https://local.nixle.com/alert/9340542/?sub_id=0
https://www.hpboro.com/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/3378/19
The agenda can be downloaded from this link:
https://www.hpboro.com/home/showpublisheddocument/4055/637844106402700000
The issue of the road closures is not on the agenda. However, nothing will prevent the M&C from making an announcement about it, and the M&C allow for discussion of non-agenda items towards the latter part of the meeting. (Item # 17 on the agenda). So it is possible that this will come up for discussion then.
There is now a petition from the people who support the permanent closures of the roads, and it can be viewed here. https://www.change.org/p/make-the-highland-park-town-tables-permanent?redirect=false
There is no concern about the adverse impacts that come along with the road closures, and based on some of the comments, it makes one wonder how they managed to survive prior to the road closures. There is no reason why the sidewalk seating cannot be continued while leaving the roads open. That is a win-win situation. And there are many other places in the Borough where community public space already exists and can be utilized, again without the adverse impacts associated with the road closures.