Franklin Lakes May 25, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 11 Franklin Square owner sues borough over access by Frank J. McMahon The owner of Franklin Square, a shopping center on Franklin Avenue in Franklin Lakes, has filed a lawsuit in Superior Court seeking to nullify a “no left turn” ordinance adopted by the council in March. The owner claims that restriction will devalue his property. Attorney Matthew S. Rogers filed the lawsuit on May 5 on behalf of property owner Robert Decker. The case has been assigned to Superior Court Judge Menelaos W. Toskos. In the lawsuit, Decker wants the court to declare the ordinance “improper, invalid, unlawful, arbitrary, capricious, null and void, and of no force and effect” and to enjoin the borough from enforcing it. He is also asking the court to award him attorney fees and the costs of the lawsuit. Decker asserts that he was not contacted about the reasons the borough wanted to restrict the left turns from his site and that the ordinance unilaterally amended the site plan approval he received from the planning board in 1994. He says that the ordinance would limit the use of his property, and would be a partial “taking” of his property, and would reduce the property’s market value by decreasing his ability to rent it to retailers and restaurateurs. Decker also asserts that the restrictions are not rationally related to any traffic mishaps or accidents at the location of the exit from his property over the past five years; that the borough failed to satisfy state law by not notifying the Bergen County Planning Board of the no left turn prohibition; and that the action of the council violates the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution in that the action was taken without just compensation being paid to the property owner. 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The property has an entrance on the westerly side and an exit on the easterly side which has two designated lanes for leaving the site, one to turn left and one to turn right, both onto Franklin Avenue. The borough ordinance prohibits left turns out of the property from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., the times that children and other pedestrians are crossing Franklin Avenue to go to or from the Franklin Avenue Middle School. The ordinance also includes a prohibition of left turns from the intersection of McCoy Road onto Colonial Road at the southwestern end of McCoy Road at all times. That was the location of a fatal accident that occurred on Dec. 24, 2010 when a motorist who was making a left turn from McCoy Road onto Colonial Road was struck by a vehicle that was traveling south on Colonial Road. Decker’s attorney asked the council to table the ordinance before it was adopted to allow time to address his concerns about the left turn prohibition from his property with borough officials. But the ordinance was unanimously adopted when Borough Attorney Richard Lustgarten advised that the two locations in the ordinance could not be separated. Mayor Frank Bivona said he wanted to adopt the ordinance immediately because he felt the left turn prohibition at the McCoy Road intersection was very important, and he wanted to start enforcing it as soon as possible. Bivona acknowledged that the borough’s traffic reports indicated that any previous accidents at that shopping center site have been outside the hours listed in the ordinance, and it would be worthwhile to consider the suggestion of rerouting the parking in the shopping center’s lot. 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