Plainsboro’s Development Review Committee spent about two hours April 15 going over preliminary plans submitted by Princeton Healthcare System for the proposed hospital on the 160-acre FMC site with hospital officials and their team of professionals.##M:[more]##
Architect J. Robert Hillier, who designed the building and is acting as the lead consultant for the hospital, told DRC members that because the hospital is a nonprofit organization, fundraising is extremely important, and until more of that is completed, hospital officials were only able to present preliminary plans for the hospital itself. Other components of the campus would be discussed as more information becomes available.
Hillier, who appeared with the hospital’s attorney, Mark Solomon of Pepper Hamilton, said most of the FMC buildings on site are proposed to be torn down over a span of five years. A good portion are located in the area slated for the proposed 32-acre park on the campus. He said economically the project was going to mean a boom in business for the town.
The hospital building itself, he said, “will never be threatened in terms of a flood hazard,” despite the fact that the campus up toward Plainsboro Road lies along the 100-year floodplain of the Millstone River because of the proposed location of the hospital building on the northeast portion of the campus near Route 1.
Hospital officials are proposing to keep one of the FMC buildings, known as Building Two, which will house the hospital’s fitness center and other “non-hospital, but hospital-related” facilities.
The hospital site itself lies on 48 acres, and negotiations are still ongoing regarding the other portions of the site, including the continuing care retirement community and the research area, he said. The hospital component includes a two-story building, housed in the former FMC building where the diagnosis and treatment area will be located. Hillier explained that the area will be designed in a way to allow patients to come in and be directed to the various treatment areas as pertaining to their conditions. For example, a patient receiving treatment for cancer would come to that area and be directed right to the correct area of the building set up for treatment for that specific condition. The same goes for patients like those, who for example, need treatment for women’s issues or cardiac care. All of these departments would be located along the concourse on the first floor.
The hospital will also feature four levels of patient rooms, uniquely consisting of all single rooms set up identically. Hillier said that it strays from the traditional set-up involving two patients in each room, which Hillier said allows nurses and doctors to know exactly where to find each patient and provide the appropriate treatment, as opposed to having to first determine which patient is in each bed. Patient rooms will provide views of the open space surrounding the campus, he said. There is the possibility, depending on funding, that officials could propose an additional two floors for the hospital.
The medical office building will be wedged in between the two buildings. This adds to the “wonderful synergy that happens by putting the doctors in their offices in the center.”
Officials are proposing two main entries to the campus, a right-in, right-out entrance coming from the south on Route 1 North to Plainsboro Road, where a jughandle with a traffic signal would direct visitors onto the campus. The Plainsboro Road entrance leads into a connector road that takes people into the visitor parking lot.
The second entrance is coming from the north on Route 1 South to Scudders Mill Road, which will also require a traffic signal and roadway improvements. The hospital campus will also contain signage that would easily direct visitors to various portions of the site.
Hospital officials also heard from Charles Holt, a traffic consultant with TRC solutions out of Hawthorne, NY, who provided an explanation of a two-year traffic analysis for the site and surrounding areas, although the traffic analysis has not yet been finalized.
Holt said that more than half of the traffic to the site would be coming from Route 1, and that hospital officials would implement improvements to various roadways and intersections around the site, including the traffic signal and jug handle on Plainsboro Road, a traffic signal on Scudders Mill Road where it intersects with the connector road on campus. That road would also need to be widened and re-striped, he said, including one additional eastbound through lane on Scudders Mill Road. Additional striping is also proposed at the intersection of Schalks Crossing Road and Plainsboro Road, and an additional westbound, right-turn dedicated lane is proposed at the intersection of Scudders Mill and Schalks Crossing roads.
Other “fair share” improvements — those in which the hospital would pay for its fair share of the costs — were also discussed for other intersections. Township Committeeman and DRC member Ed Yates asked whether improvements proposed at the Scudders Mill and Dey Road intersection take into account the improvements already taking place at the intersection, and Holt told him the improvements there would be in addition to that. Holt was also asked whether officials considered the proposed Route 92 extension in the study, and he said they did not.
DRC members asked whether the plans were consistent with the redevelopment plan adopted by the Township Committee. Township planning consultant Richard Preiss said that there was general consistency and there were areas for which township professionals were still seeking reports, including a full traffic impact report and a housing report. Some issues, he said, haven’t been provided in full detail, and there are minor inconsistencies in certain portions of the plans, but those issues were “not going to require re-orientation of the buildings,” he said. “Overall goals and direction and execution of the plan, to the level we’ve seen it so far,” he said, has been consistent.
Director of Planning and Zoning Les Varga said hospital officials will now have to respond to memos submitted by the township engineer and the consultant that prepared the redevelopment plan. The township also has written comments from the police and construction code official, and an idea of the concerns of fire officials.
The next step, he said, depends on the level of completeness in the responses, which could either mean the plans head back to the DRC, or head to the Planning Board right away.
Incumbents File
There are two seats open this year on the Plainsboro Township Committee, and only two incumbents have filed in time for the June 3 primaries.
Mayor Peter Cantu, who is seeking his 12th consecutive term on the committee, will be running for a three-year term, as his expires this year. Township Committeeman Nuran Nabi, who was appointed by the Township Committee to fill the seat vacated by Ginger Gold Schnitzer in October, will be seeking election to run for the rest of the term until December 31, 2009, said Township Clerk Carol Torres.
No other candidates have filed for township committee seats, Torres said.
Township Opposes Ag Elimination
Officials in Plainsboro have expressed their opposition to Governor Corzine’s proposal to eliminate the state Department of Agriculture, and also to his proposed 2008 budget.
The Township Committee passed two separate resolutions expressing such opposition during its meeting on April 9. During the meeting, Mayor Peter Cantu said that the committee was specifically opposing the reduction in state aid to municipalities, especially those with populations under 10,”000. He said that while Plainsboro was impacted — it saw its annual state aid reduced by $218,”679 and it didn’t receive the $150,”000 extraordinary aid revenue that it had last year, for a total shortfall of $368,”679, equivalent to one cent on the tax rate — some of the smaller communities were especially hit hard.
The resolution reiterates that in the governor’s proposed budget, last year’s $32 million in Municipal Homeland Security Funding is gone, Special Municipal Aid funding is cut from $153 million to $145.4 million, extraordinary aid funding is reduced by $1.7 million, and the $8 million Regional Efficiency Aid Program will not be funded. The governor’s proposed budget also slashes municipal property tax relief by $189.6 million and eliminates all funding for municipalities with populations less than 5,”000, and by 50 percent for those between 5,”000 and 10,”000.
As a result of “these draconian measures,” the resolution states, “our property taxpayers will once again be asked for patience, and they will be asked to shoulder more than their fair share of the funding burden.”
With regard to the proposal to eliminate the Department of Agriculture, Cantu said that the department serves a vital function to the agriculture community throughout the state, especially when it comes to farmland preservation. About 50 percent of the land in Plainsboro is preserved.
Corzine announced his plan last month to abolish the department and spread its duties and responsibilities to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Alaska and Rhode Island are the only other states without agriculture departments. Corzine says the move would save about $4 million a year.
Cantu said that in his experience serving on Middlesex County’s Agricultural Development Board for many years he found that the department was “one of the most efficiently run agencies in the state of New Jersey.”
He said he also didn’t see the need to eliminate the department when it will have “very minimal or no savings attached to it.” The resolution itself states that the elimination of the department would result “in a reduction of services to the farms, farmers, and citizens of New Jersey.” The department, the resolution states, “supports the farming profession with essential services for plant inspection and trade, animal health and transport, inspection, and promotion of ‘Jersey Fresh’ produce and organic certification.”
“Preserving farmland is important, buy you can’t do that without preserving farmers,” Cantu said.
Committeeman Ed Yates also said that while the committee is opposed to the proposal, he wanted to emphasize it didn’t mean officials were opposed to all types of governmental downsizing.
In other news during the meeting, Plainsboro resident Emily Ford, a fourth grader at Millstone River School, received the Shining Star Award from the committee. When Emily had a birthday party recently, instead of accepting gifts, she asked her friends and family to make contributions to the township’s food pantry. “Sometimes they run low, and they really benefited from your donations,” Cantu told Emily as he presented her with the award.
Emily was able to collect $300 in food and donations for the pantry.
Plainsboro Tightens Teen Drinking Law
The Plainsboro Township Committee unanimously passed an ordinance on April 9 giving Plainsboro Police the authority to enforce underage drinking laws on private property.
The township joins neighboring municipalities, including West Windsor, who have similar underage drinking ordinances already in place. Previous laws only permitted police to enforce underage drinking on public property, like schools.
Officials, including Police Chief Elizabeth Bondurant, said the new law exempts minors from being charged if they are consuming the alcohol “in connection with a religious observance, ceremony, or rite, or possession or consuming an alcoholic beverage in the presence of, or with the written permission of such person’s parent, guardian or relative who has attained the legal age to purchase or consume alcoholic beverages.” It also exempts those who possess the alcohol in connection with preparing food while enrolled in a culinary arts or hotel management program or with employment.
Under the proposed township ordinance dealing with private property, violations would not show up on a minor’s criminal history. And the penalties for underage drinking charge vary. The first offense is a $250 fine and rises to $350 for subsequent offenses. Bondurant says, though, that the municipal judge also has authority to potentially issue a six-month license suspension.
Township Attorney Mike Herbert said that in speaking with officials in other towns, they’ve told him that since the law in their towns have passed, “there’s been no complaints of abuse, and it’s curtailed underage drinking.”
Award
The Plainsboro Village Center has been honored by New Jersey Future, a statewide research and policy group that advocates smart growth approaches, which awarded the township and Sharbell Development Corporation one of its seven 2008 Smart Growth Awards.
The project was recognized in the category for New Town Center Development for setting a modern example of how a suburbanized community can successfully do smart growth, said Teri Jover, the managing director at New Jersey Future.
The organization started issuing smart growth awards seven years ago, and this is the sixth year for juried awards. In the fall, municipalities and developers call for nominations for their built or planned and approved projects that has come to fruition over the last few years. A jury — consisting of developers, planners, environmentalists, and the organization’s board members, as well as those with architectural backgrounds — is brought together and is sent out to the fields.
The jury goes out and rates each applicant using a scorecard that examines a range of categories, including the project’s range of housing options, whether it protects open space, farmland, and critical environmental areas, whether it’s walkable, and whether it is respectful of the community character and design.
Jover said that what was really compelling about Plainsboro’s Village Center is that between 1980 and 2003, the population increased by 275 percent, and that in that 23-year period, the township also experienced job growth by 587 percent. Along with this, the local government, Jover said, “figured out how we can make this a place where people will want to come and make a destination in their own community,” versus leaving to go to other areas like Princeton, she said.
“The jury was very impressed with the progress, to see how it’s really functioning and how you can almost retrofit and area, or create a new village, where there wasn’t one before. That’s the kind of model we like to see.”
In addition, Jover pointed to Plainsboro’s open space preservation efforts, which offers a “really nice balance,” she said. “We want to create growth, but we want it to be in the right places, where it’s really sustainable, and that is what is really attractive about this project.”
While the township was the applicant to the award, NJ Future usually honors partnerships, and Sharbell, the developer of the project, will also be recognized at an awards celebration held on Thursday, June 5, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Newark Club in Newark.
