At the April 5, 2022 Mayor and Council meeting, Council Member Matt Hale made a statement explaining the Borough’s failure to close N.4th and S.3rd Avenues on April 1, 2022, after it announced that it would close those streets.

Please note, there are petitions on both sides of this issue.

This petition against the closures:
https://www.change.org/p/stop-highland-park-street-closures

And the one in favor of the street closures:
https://www.change.org/p/make-the-highland-park-town-tables-permanent?redirect=false

The video of the meeting can be viewed from this URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UOuWeMTk1s

Matt Hale’s statement runs from 34:18 to 36:25.

"... as most of you are aware, the Borough's "Town Tables" were not reinstalled on S.3 and N.4 as we had previously announced.  In the weeks leading up to the announcement closure we believed that we had a pathway to temporarily close these streets from April 1 to November 30th while we worked with the NJDOT on our major access permit, which would allow us to permanently close those streets.

On Friday of last week, the same day that we wanted to install the closures, we learned that the NJDOT would not approve the interim or /temporary closures that we had expected and hoped for.  So instead, we are going to continue to move ahead with a renewed sense of urgency on securing our major access permit for closing these streets from the DOT.  Among the next steps in that process is an introduction of a town ordinance on the street closure which will include a public hearing on that process and in addition and on a parallel track, we will continue with the needed engineering work already underway in support of that application.

So while this news is disappointing, and it is disappointing, the Borough is going to continue to do our best to make what we have as the best that we can make it.  The Borough will be partnering MSHP and the local businesses to expand and bring much needed improvements to the existing outdoor seating areas on S.3 and N.4 as well as Welkovits Pavilion on Raritan Avenue.

These upgrade and additions will be rolled out over the next coming weeks, so please stay tuned for future announcements.  In addition, we do have the authority to periodically close the streets for 48 hr periods and again, will be working with MS to identify a number of those 48 hr periods where closing the streets can help support existing and ongoing main street activities.  I just wanted to apologize for the false start, we realize how import the town tables are to the health, the well being, and economic vitality of downtown. We are working to make them a realty in a legal and safe way as soon as possible."