New year could offer new start on train plans

In a year when incumbents were ousted in bunches, the breakup of Matawan’s all-Republican government was perhaps the most surprising local election result. Looking back, there seems no doubt that the issue of redevelopment around Aberdeen-Matawan train station played a role in the Democratic sweep of the mayoral and three Borough Council seats.

Aberdeen and Matawan’s diverging plans for this mutually important area fell under heavy scrutiny in recent months. Although the governments of both towns once worked together well, relations soured after Matawan backed out of an interlocal agreement and went with their own plan for the borough’s side of the station.

Over the summer, those relations were strained further when Aberdeen Township Manager Mark Coren joined local Democrats in suggesting Matawan’s pullout was a decision bought and paid for by the developer’s campaign contributions to Republican Sen. Joseph Kyrillos. Once the political damage was done, Aberdeen Mayor David Sobel called for a truce between the towns’ leaders, but kept the lines of communication open with Matawan’s Democratic council hopefuls on the station issue before and after the election.

The election showed that the voters of Matawan wanted change, and the newly elected Democratic majority have earned the chance to provide it. It goes without saying that the Matawan council should make no more moves on this issue until the new members are installed.

There’s plenty of room for improvement around the train station, but both the Aberdeen-endorsed Silver Oaks plan, labeled by some as Monmouth Mall meets Metro Park, and the Matawan-preferred Columbia Group plan, described by others as a watered-down transit village, strike us as overkill individually, and incompatible as a pair. The infrastructure in that area would be hard pressed to support the hotels, millions of square feet of commercial space, multilevel parking garages and thousands of homes proposed there.

Leaders in both towns should ask themselves if the Silver Oaks and Columbia Group plans proposed a few years ago were ideal, or just the best two submitted at the time. With a new year and new leaders involved, there may be no better time to scrap both existing plans and start over.