HAMMONTON BLOG

The Green Committee members work hard and are dedicated to making this community more sustainable.  It is just too bad HF mocks the Green Committees initiatives with what the Town ends up doing.  If you look at the Green Committee website (http://hammontongreen.com/Minutes.aspx), you can see a couple of things they are working on.

The first thing is the Community Management Forestry Plan for the Town.  I wonder if this would have helped when HF cut down all those trees at the lake.  Maybe HF considers cutting down trees to create a parking lot "managing" a forest.

The other thing of note was that one member of the Green Committee attended a Wind Symposium at Stockton at January.  There were many state and municipal officials there but not from Hammonton.  Remember HF promised in 2009 that they would promote wind and solar energy.  This can mean one of the following:  they forgot to attend, they know everything about wind energy or their platform and promises were an insincere response to the more elaborate platform of their opponents.

Another item that they are promoting is a sustainable community development video.  I wonder if the Town's biggest real estate developer, our Mayor, will view it.

Now, I am sure there is something the Green Committee is working on that HF will embrace: form-based coding downtown.  With Mainstreet Hammonton, they are trying to get downtown properties to  have certain facades.  Anybody want to bet that non-HF property owners will be complying with the facades of buildings owned by HF?  Do you think the Mayor will recuse himself from the planning board and council vote on this since his brother owns downtown property?  Doesn't one of HF's biggest contributors own property downtown?  If he does not need to comply, those investments in HF, sure paid off.

It looks like the Green Committee may have been turned into way for HF to make more green.