West Amwell Township Meetings This Week

By Mike Spille

Editor's Note: Updated 9/15/2026 to highlight the reduced open public meeting speaking times

We have a tri-fecta of meetings of Township government this week, including:

1. Land Use Board Meeting - Tuesday, Sept 15th @7pm

2. Board of Health Meeting - Wednesday, Sept 16th @7pm

3. Township Committee Meeting - Wednesday, Sept 16th, Following BoH Meeting

Of interest to most residents will be the Land Use Board meeting and Township Commitee Meetings. Agendas with highlights shown below

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Land Use Board Meeting, Tuesday Sept 15th @7pm

The LUB agenda is shown below, with areas of interest highlighted. Residents may take interest in the pause in new cannabis use applications, discussion of the draft master plan re-examination report, and final site approval for The Quarry House project on Route 29/Old River Road.

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Township Committee Meeting, Tuesday Sept 15th (Approx 7:20pm, after BoH Meeting)

Nearly the entire meeting appears to be dedicated to a presentation by the owner of 25 Hewitt's Road lawyer and engineering firm.

Also of note is that John Dupuis is being appointed to the Environmental Commission, a Corrective Action Plan for the CY 2025 audit will have a resolution, and Approval for Redevelopment and Financial Plans for Route 31N Urban Renewal will also be up for approval.

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A major change in the agenda that we missed with the original article was the changes int he open to public speaking periods. The one open to the public section is highlighted from the end of the agenda below.

This is a MAJOR change to the open to the public policy of the Townhip Committee. Here is the progression over the past year:

1. For many years, there were two free-form open to the public sections in the agenda, near the beginning and the end. There were no formal speaking time limits.

2. Beginning in 2026, Mayor Deal introduced a 5 minute limit per speaker. This was originally couched as a "suggestion", and was changed to mandatory, but not with any vote of the main governing body. But we still had two open to the public sections.

3. The Sept 16, 2026 agenda has now cut down the two periods into one, and has cut individual speaking time down to 3 minuets, with a total of 15 maximum minutes. This implies only 5 people could speak for 3 minutes at maximum.

This is frankly part of an autocratic playbook. Taking away people's rights all at once is too jarring, too abrupt, so instead the autocrat takes the approach of boiling the frog - slowly make changes so that they are not obvious, but before you know it you are suddenly in hot water.

This is how democracy dies: one little step at a time.