Best to proceed slowly on Route 33 journey

It was once a completely rural stretch called the Manalapan Turnpike, but Route 33 is starting to go the way of other state highways in Monmouth and Middlesex counties, with property owners optioning off their now-pricey acreage for development. It’s been a landscape in transformation for years, with senior housing and commercial plazas popping up and vehicular traffic picking up.

With this in mind, officials in Monroe Township are looking to get a grip on the situation and try to shape the future a bit, in part to avoid seeing Route 33 turn into a Route 9. With water and sewer connections coming to Monroe’s stretch of the highway, the township is hoping to keep some of the stretch rural and bring in development that residents can appreciate, such as tax-generating retail uses and attractions such as a minor league ballpark.

Mayor Richard Pucci has charged a task force with working on an all-encompassing plan for Route 33 so its development is not done haphazardly. Task force Chairman Joe Montanti said the township wants to see development that has “some theme and some integration, and that will generate a lot of tax revenue.”

The group has been working behind the scenes over the past several months to negotiate with developers for a large-scale package of construction that would include the ballpark as the centerpiece of more than a mile of related development and amenities. Officials are discussing an amphitheater, parks and interconnecting roadways along with residential, commercial and open-space components.

The job at hand for task force members and township officials is immense; its outcome will have a vast and permanent effect on residents of the township and beyond. For that reason, it’s good to see the group pause for a moment while several impact studies are completed. It makes sense to create a unified plan for a prominent stretch of space, but many questions do remain. If the town can first get an idea of what to expect in terms of taxes, traffic and other issues, it can then work toward the best plan.