While West Windsor officials are slowly tackling the issues needed to restart redevelopment there, Plainsboro’s own redevelopment project has already advanced to the next step. In a 40-minute meeting on December 3, the Plainsboro Planning Board reviewed and unanimously approved a redevelopment plan for the FMC site, and voted to send it to the Township Committee, which is expected to introduce it in January.##M:[more]##
Following the designation of the FMC site as an area in need of redevelopment on September 10, the Planning Board appointed a redevelopment subcommittee, which met five times in the past few months, along with planning consultant Richard Preiss to create a redevelopment plan for the 160-acre area proposed by the University Medical Center at Princeton for a new hospital at the site.
The Millstone River lies to the south of the FMC property on Route 1, just south of Scudders Mill Road.
The land use section of the redevelopment plan, according to Preiss, calls for five sub-districts. The first one is known as the hospital-medical office component, where the hospital and medical offices and support facilities will be developed. That portion of the site is just off Plainsboro Road and just to the east of Route 1. Also off Plainsboro Road will be the second sub-district — a continuing care retirement community, Preiss said.
The third sub-district is a skilled nursing facility to be located in the middle of the site. A general office and research complex will be located below Plainsboro Road, and then, south of Plainsboro Road, along the Millstone River, there will be a 32-acre public passive park. That portion of the site, which lies in the 100-year flood plain, contains 19 existing buildings that will be removed.
The circulation and open space portion of the plan calls for Entry Drive, Campus Boulevard, and Hospital Drive, which will separate the hospital office complex from the continued care retirement community.
Preiss explained that the plan does not set out a comprehensive road system, but rather a skeleton around which the redevelopment is to occur. Elements like sidewalks, parking, and open space are mandatory, but as each component of the site is built — for example the hospital and office component — the redeveloper will have flexibility to determine where those elements are developed.
The circulation plan calls for a retention basin that will be a “water feature,” Preiss said, which will make Entry Drive appear as if it is a bridge that is “coming over this particular water feature.”
As Entry Drive continues into the site, it will be developed into the boulevard, with a median separating one lane of travel in each direction. Bike paths and sidewalks will be developed along the boulevard, and will be a mandatory component the redeveloper must build. At the center of the boulevard, there will be a transit stop, so if the Bus Rapid Transit proposal along Route 1 is developed, there is a location where a stop will take place.
Other elements include a 32-acre park, which will also have a walkway throughout and will provide access to the Millstone River. Bike paths and walkways will also connect the park to the Continued Care Retirement Community and Skilled Nursing Facilities, and will also connect the site to the Village Center.
The redevelopment will take place in phases, Preiss said. During the first phase, most of the hospital, including its medical offices, fitness center, and educational components, and the skilled nursing facility will be constructed. During the second phase, the continued care retirement community and the general office research complex will be developed. The final phase will consist of constructing any additional floors at the hospital or additional office development to take place.
The total anticipated floor area of the site when it is built to maximum is 2.4 million square feet.
Preiss pointed out that even though the focus on redeveloping the FMC site occurred in the past six months, the planning board’s master plan subcommittee actually has been eying its redevelopment since October, 2003, when it was reviewing its Master Plan. At that time the township realized that FMC was scaling back several of its operations and that the campus was “significantly underutilized given its location along Route 1,” and that there was “really a potential to generate substantially more economic activity on this particular property for the township’s wellbeing,” Preiss said.
The township staff began working with FMC with the help of outside consultants to look at various redevelopment options. During the Master Plan discussions, the approach was to designate the property in terms of two tiers — one that would retain the current zoning to allow the FMC to continue its operation as a conforming use, or to provide some mixed use development, primarily focused on office development and to allow for uses like hotels or child care facilities. Many principles of the second option — including retaining open space below Plainsboro Road, encouraging the use of transit and alternative forms of transportation, and creating a comprehensive plan with regard to deign and signage — were developed into the Master Plan and have carried forth now in the redevelopment plan, Preiss said.
However, “the focus of the master plan subcommittee, in terms of achieving those ends, changed to a large extent when Princeton Healthcare System began to focus on the FMC Corporation site as a place to relocate a hospital,” he added.
“This redevelopment plan is not entirely consistent with the master plan in the fact that it contemplates a hospital and residential healthcare uses,” he explained. “Nevertheless, I think the concept in the Master Plan that is similar in this redevelopment plan is that it’s really necessary to redevelop the site to obtain a greater level of economic activity given the site’s strategic location on the Route 1 corridor.”
The redevelopment plan itself is similar to a zoning ordinance in that it sets forth the land uses that are permitted as well as the bulk regulations — heights, setback, floor areas. However, unlike zoning ordinances, “the redevelopment plan does give the community the opportunity to get into specifics” with regard to design requirements, building materials, utilities, and with regard to improvements that should take place in the redevelopment area on private property and also within the public realm — on roadways, public parks, walkways, and byways, Preiss said.##M:[more]##
Like a zoning ordinance, the redevelopment plan is introduced as an ordinance and a public hearing and adoption is held thereafter. But redevelopment law allows the Township Committee to set the framework and facilitate the redevelopment, Preiss said. Once the township committee adopts the plan, there will be a negotiation between the designated redeveloper and the committee, including the determination of which public improvements should take place on behalf of the redeveloper and how much affordable housing the redeveloper builds. This will be set forth in the redevelopment agreement.
