Take Five: Madison Council Candidate Rachel Ehrlich

MADISON, NJ - There are seats opening up on the Madison governing body and Patch caught up with the candidates ahead of the general election this November.

Questionnaires were sent out out to all candidates registered with the County Clerk's Office in the 2019 general election using the email addresses they went on file with. The responses will be posted on the site by those who submitted in the order in which they were received. They will also be included in an election preview wrap.

This Take Five features Rachel Ehrlich. Her responses to the questions are below and unedited.

1. Why are you running for office?

Young families like mine choose Madison because we value the same thing as older generations of Madison residents: a strong community that cherishes neighborliness, service, and the connection of people and place that is the foundation of community life. It’s this quality of life that motivated my family to move here five years ago. It’s this quality of life that inspires me today to run for Madison Borough Council.

As an architect with fifteen years of experience, I’ve trained to plan and prepare for the future. I
became an architect as a professional way to serve people, to help communities, and to do good by improving lives. I am ready to translate my professional experience and passion for service into success for Madison.

2. What is the biggest challenge you see facing your community and how will you address it?

Our largest public space asset is our streets. Madison's streets are for every resident, and they
should be safe for all who use them-- including pedestrians and cyclists, our children and seniors, and people who walk or bike to work. We will improve street safety with a three-
pronged approach: by improving and expanding our network of sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and safety signage; by encouraging increased traffic enforcement to deter dangerous behavior such as speeding and unsafe parking; and by educating all community members to raise awareness and change unsafe habits-- for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists.

3. What makes you the right person to vote for as opposed to the other candidate(s)?

As a member of the Madison Planning Board, I'm focused on land use, open space, circulation,
and access. As the parent of a kindergartner who walks to school, I'm focused on safe and
equitable streets. And as a climate activist, I'm focused on decarbonizing our economy so we
have a fighting chance at a just and peaceful future.

Architects are natural consensus builders. We bring together a diverse group of stakeholders
who have their own goals and priorities. Together, we work to find common ground, draw up
plans, and turn a shared vision for our community into reality.

4. What will you do to facilitate communication with the community?

Through my work on the Master Plan subcommittee, I've learned firsthand that our borough
needs a relevant and up-to-date Master Plan to deal effectively with development and planning
issues of the 21st century. Our town has experienced major changes since the 1992 Master Plan was adopted. For example, the enormous amount of building that has occurred on our borders has significantly impacted traffic circulation in our area. Critically, we must also stake out a vision for adopting new energy infrastructure that will help mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis, such as electric vehicle charging stations and onsite renewable energy generation and storage.

I anticipate that the new Master Plan process will be undertaken in 2020. I will champion a
process based on public engagement to ensure our new Master Plan represents our shared
values. Public input is vital to the development of a community vision and the establishment of
goals and objectives for our future.

As a member of the Borough Council, I will work with the Planning Board and our planning
professionals to seek direct input from the Madison community through public workshops, online
and in-person surveys, and discussion roundtables. Families, business owners, seniors, and our
university neighbors will be involved from the onset to represent diverse community interests.
I will participate with community members in workshops organized around key issues such as
Downtown, Residential Neighborhoods, Historic Preservation, Circulation/Mobility, and Parks &
Open Space. Issue-focused roundtables will engage stakeholders in small groups for open-
ended discussion. This approach will help identify challenges facing the Borough and gather
community feedback on potentially competing priorities or approaches.

A sustainable, comprehensive Master Plan is community-driven, and Madison’s planning
process will engage the community throughout to ensure that it reflects the values of our
community.

5. What inspires you?

I'm inspired by the dedicated volunteers in Madison who spend countless hours enriching our
borough with their time, talents, and hard work. Working together across boards and
commissions, arts and athletic organizations, school organizations, service groups, and
charitable institutions, volunteers imbue our town with a community spirit that surely contributes to Madison being the number one town in New Jersey.

This shows that when we come together and join forces for good, we are greater than the sum
of our individual talents and actions. A movement of people working together in good faith have
the collective power to improve our community and change our world.

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