Explainers
Articles
Longer pieces that take one question at a time and answer it from the record. Each one ends with the documents and meeting video it is built on, so you can check it.
-
Franklin's 2026 Budget and Your Tax Bill, Explained
Who sets each part of a Franklin tax bill; what the 2026 municipal budget raises and spends; how it passed, vote by vote; the Mayor's list of increases and cuts; surplus, audits and debt; the bond and open-space ordinances; the school budget and state aid; open tax appeals; where the records differ; and what residents can do.
-
Stormwater in Franklin, Explained: Ordinance 4419-23, the Appeal and the Watershed Plan
Why the courts held that Franklin's 2023 stormwater ordinance could not reach two warehouse applications already on file, what the regional Lower Millstone watershed plan is for, how the township handles private stormwater systems, and the drainage problems residents have raised.
-
Franklin's Fourth Round Housing Plan, Explained: 659, 268 and the Court Order
What Franklin's 2025–2035 affordable-housing numbers mean, which sites the plan uses, how the challenges were settled, what the court approved on February 9, 2026, and where The Haven at 260 Davidson Avenue stands, with the records' differing figures set side by side.
-
Franklin's Resolution on Immigration Enforcement, Explained
What Resolution 26-112 of February 24, 2026 bars and what it leaves in place; the December 2025 resolution supporting the Immigrant Trust Act; what residents and the Township Manager said; the votes; how immigration came up in the license-plate camera debate; and what is still not known.
-
Franklin's Flock License-Plate Cameras, Explained
What the Flock system is and what the township's portal says it records; how the $339,000 contract was approved and paid for; what officials said at the August 11, 2026 presentation; what residents asked for at four Council meetings; the state rules on the data; where the records disagree; and what is still not known.
-
Franklin's 2026 Master Plan Reexaminations, Explained
What a master plan reexamination is, the two Franklin adopted in 2026 (one for the B-I warehouse zone and one townwide), the ordinances that followed, and the items still on the Planning Board's list.
-
The NESE Pipeline and Compressor Station 206: What Franklin Has Done and What the Courts Decided
Transco's Northeast Supply Enhancement project needs a new gas compressor station in Franklin. The Council has opposed it since 2016. In 2026 a federal court let Transco condemn an access road across a farm whose development rights the township owns; the Council settled for $500,000 plus $100,000. The same day, the Third Circuit vacated NJDEP's water quality certificate for the project.
-
Open Space and Farmland in Franklin: What the Council Has Bought, Preserved and Built
Franklin's Open Space Trust Fund, raised by a dedicated tax, paid for five land purchases approved between October 2025 and July 2026, a share of a state farmland easement, and part of the new Catalpa Park. This page lists each one with its price, vote and source, and what the record does not yet show.
-
Redevelopment and PILOTs in Franklin, Explained: Franklin Boulevard, The Haven and Churchill-Millstone
How Franklin uses redevelopment areas and payments in lieu of taxes: the Franklin Boulevard condemnation area for senior affordable housing, the 4% PILOT for The Haven at 260 Davidson Avenue, the proposed 30-year PILOT for the last Churchill-Millstone phases, and the PILOTs already on the books.
-
Franklin's Roads, Paving and Traffic, Explained
Who owns which road; how the 2026 paving program is paid for and which streets it covers; the eleven resurfacing contracts and the 36% asphalt-cost report; the requests residents made for lights, crosswalks, speed humps and truck limits; Route 27 and Easton Avenue; the 2025–26 snow season; where the record's figures differ; and what residents can do.
-
The South Middlebush Road Application: Parking, Traffic and Stormwater Before the Zoning Board
Tawheed Dahwah Center wants to build a 19,350-square-foot place of worship at 630 South Middlebush Road under an approval first granted to an earlier applicant, with relief from two of its conditions: hours of operation and parking. This page sets out the relief sought, the hearings, the testimony on parking, traffic and stormwater, the objectors' filings and the Board's process, from the Board's minutes. The decision has not been posted.
-
Warehouses in Franklin, Explained: The B-I Ordinance, the Approvals and the B9 Case
How Franklin's Business and Industry zone drew dozens of warehouse applications, how a traffic study and master plan reexamination led to Ordinance 4507-26, what the boards have approved since 2025, and where the B9 Schoolhouse Road case and the other lawsuits stand.
-
Franklin's Water and Sewer, Explained
Who runs Franklin's drinking water and its sewers; where the water comes from; the 2026 rates, connection fees, bond and Water Utility budget; the water main and meter contracts; what the 2025 Water Quality Report says; the Sewerage Authority's rates and budget and the $100,000 the Council asked it for; where the records differ; and what residents can do.
Prefer the events in order?
The timeline puts every dated step on one page, with a citation on every entry.