{"id":2704,"date":"2016-04-18T16:50:03","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T16:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/?p=2704"},"modified":"2016-04-18T16:50:03","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T16:50:03","slug":"penningtons-rising-taxes-and-a-cvs-inconvenience-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/2016\/04\/penningtons-rising-taxes-and-a-cvs-inconvenience-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennington\u2019s Rising Taxes and a CVS inconvenience store."},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennington\u2019s Rising Taxes and a CVS in<\/em>convenience store.
\nby Benjamin Zander<\/p>\n

Pennington NJ, a small town of just 2600 people, is known for having a close-knit community, family-owned shops and small local businesses. Like any town, however, the borough of Pennington faces some issues within the community.<\/p>\n

One such issue is the topic of rising property taxes.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jackson, a Pennington resident, has seen friends and family leave the town because of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have friends whose parents moved out because they just didn\u2019t want to pay the taxes,\u201d said Jackson, adding \u201cIt could be because of the school district.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I understand people who live in Jersey think taxes are high, so they want to move to Pennsylvania,\u201d said Mrs. Mass, Broker Associate at Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate in Pennington.<\/p>\n

\u201cPennington and Hopewell, they have great schools and that\u2019s a reason why taxes can be what they are,\u201d said Mass. \u201cIf you want the amenities, if you want the police, the firemen, the roads taken care of, that\u2019s what entail taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a relative who lives down the street, and she pays more for land taxes than she does for anything else,\u201d said Mr. Jefferson, Pennington resident and employee of the Pennington Stop & Shop.<\/p>\n

With all that said, some believe that there are even more pressing matters at hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cProperty taxes are extremely high,\u201d said Mr. James, cashier at Valley Wines and Spirits, \u201c\u2026but if there is any contemporary issue in Pennington right now, it\u2019s the fact that Al\u2019s Sunoco on [route] 31 is potentially thinking about selling to a CVS pharmacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

While other towns may welcome big business, James explained that Pennington is unlike other towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing in a corporate conglomerate of any kind is taboo for Pennington,\u201d explained James. \u201cWe like to use \u2018mom and pop\u2019 shops and CVS might bring in urban demographics. I\u2019m not trying to be pretentious, but Pennington is designed to be a small quiet town and those populations don\u2019t intrude because it doesn\u2019t have a lot of attraction there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennington\u2019s Public Safety Director William Meytrott had something to say about the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are concerned about the traffic and the changing character of the town when you have quote \u2018big bucks stores\u2019 moving onto your door steps,\u201d said the Director.<\/p>\n

Ms. Williams, resident of Brandon Farms in Pennington Proper, expressed disapproval of the drug store as well, and with good reason too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a small business in town, and it\u2019s very difficult to have a small business,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an arts and crafts studio. It closed because I couldn\u2019t make it through the recession.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to have a full-fledged 24\/7 CVS on a corner that\u2019s already ridiculously busy,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 arts and crafts studio was called \u2018Laugh Craft & Be Well.\u2019 It closed in September of 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be very, very different if we didn\u2019t have access to pharmaceuticals. But we have Robins Pharmacy nearby, our neighbor owns the one on main street – Pennington Apothecary, and we have a Rite Aid already, so what\u2019s the need?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As for the cooperation of CVS in this controversial issue, Williams hasn\u2019t heard good things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t able to attend the township meeting but I heard [CVS] was pretty brazen at thumbing their nose at the requirements that were established,\u201d said Williams, \u201cHaving opened a small business here, I know that not all of them are easy to stomach, but when it comes to big businesses, that\u2019s why they are there.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Williams, the requirements, which include signage and how close to the highway a business can be, are put in place in order to keep the small-town feel and look of Pennington.<\/p>\n

Williams had some information as to what the town is doing in response to the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are attending [township meetings] and are fighting [CVS] and I think that the zoning committee is listening, but I also think [CVS] will come back and wear them down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to a zoning meeting summary<\/a> found on Merceme.com, those who would like to express their voice on the issue, can attend the next zoning meeting, which is being held on Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 7:30pm at the Hopewell Township Municipal Building,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennington\u2019s Rising Taxes and a CVS inconvenience store. by Benjamin Zander Pennington NJ, a small town of just 2600 people, is known for having a close-knit community, family-owned shops and small local businesses. Like any town, however, the borough of Pennington faces some issues within the community. One such issue is the topic of rising property taxes. Mr. Jackson, a Pennington resident, has seen friends and family leave the town because of it. \u201cI have friends whose parents moved out because they just didn\u2019t want to pay the taxes,\u201d said Jackson, adding \u201cIt could be because of the school district.\u201d \u201cFrom what I understand people who live in Jersey think taxes are high, so they want to move to Pennsylvania,\u201d said Mrs. Mass, Broker Associate at Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate in Pennington. \u201cPennington and Hopewell, they have great schools and that\u2019s a reason why taxes can be what they are,\u201d said Mass. \u201cIf you want the amenities, if you want the police, the firemen, the roads taken care of, that\u2019s what entail taxes.\u201d \u201cI have a relative who lives down the street, and she pays more for land taxes than she does for anything else,\u201d said Mr. Jefferson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post-by-tcnjs-best-election-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2705,"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions\/2705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pearson.immtcnj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}