While many have speculated on what the proposed transit village and redevelopment should and will include, the team leaders at the Hillier Group, recently selected as planners for the project, say they have no preconceived notions for the draft plan.
Anish Kumar, Hillier’s director of urban design, says he will take his direction from the township during the charette process. Kumar expects that the first of three charettes will take place in the spring. “One of the first things we’ll do with the township is create the schedule. We want to do it at a time when we’ll get maximum public participation, so our speculation is that the best time will be the spring, after the holidays and bad weather that might keep people from attending.”
Kumar says his firm will hold the meetings approximately a month apart, to allow its specialists time to absorb the public’s input. As Bob Hillier stated in his public presentation, it is expected that the firm will take about nine months to create the plan. Hillier also said he believed the plan could be executed in five to six years.
After three public meetings, the Hillier Group will give two public presentations. The first will be of their draft for the plan, and the next will be the unveiling of the final plan. The township is expected to create a “steering” committee to give input to the planners between the first and second public presentations of the plan.
The redevelopment plan, according to Kumar, will consist of “conceptual guidelines. We’re not designing the buildings that will be here, all the work that we’ll do is going to be a guide for the developers who will come later.”
“We’re not designing the way we would design a building, we’re going to be creating the DNA, the pattern, the structural framework that will support the design that will happen later in the process,” says Bradley Walter, a Hillier associate and a member of the West Windsor planning board.
Walter says the matters he sees as most pressing for the township concerning the redevelopment are “the traffic pattern, the fiscal issues involved. We have to look into creating housing that won’t bring too many more children to the area. Everyone is concerned with the impact this will have on the school enrollment. We all know the school district is a draw for people from all over, and that’s going to be a factor.”
Kumar and Walter say it is unknown at this point what part of the project will be completed first, and how long it will take before construction begins.
Kumar specializes in the land development and redevelopment process, including strategic planning/programming, site feasibility study, master planning and design of mixed-use buildings. Kumar attended University of Pennsylvania, and is a professor at Drexel University.
In addition to his work on the planning board, Walter has worked for Hillier for seven years. His design work and writings have been published in professional journals in China, India, Canada, and the U.S. He is currently working on the expansion of the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the Peddie School in Hightstown, and a project in the United Arab Emirates.
