Discussion over two remaining ordinances that would rezone more than 5,”000 residential lots in West Windsor will continue at the Planning Board on Wednesday, March 12, at 7 p.m. at the West Windsor Municipal Building.##M:[more]##
The meeting was originally scheduled to continue at Grover Middle School, but officials changed the location to the municipal building because of a scheduling conflict.
The meeting was carried over from January, after more than 125 concerned residents gathered at the Grover Middle School auditorium for the hearing on a total of four ordinances.
Because of a township-wide rezoning in the 1990s, about 80 percent of residential lots in the township became nonconforming with township code. The 2002 Master Plan calls for zoning changes to be reflective of actual “lotting” patterns, officials said.
Two of the four ordinances on the agenda that night were passed by the Planning Board. The first extended the educational district to allow lots owned by the Mercer County Community College and Mercer County Votech to become part of the district. The second expanded the R-2 single-family residential zone to include six lots along Village Road West near the intersection with Quakerbridge Road to make those lots conforming.
However, the remaining two ordinances drew two hours of public comment by residents heavily opposed to the changes. The third ordinance, a proposed rezoning of the R-20 zone, located in the center of the township, garnered the most attention. The ordinance would affect 3,”040 residential lots, many of which are currently a half-acre each. Currently, the area is zoned for 1 2/3 acre lots, and the rezoning would change it to half-acre zoning to make them conforming.
Officials said the changes would also ease the case load of variance requests going to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, and ease the expenses of residents who have to come before the board and have to pay fees and suffer delays.
The last ordinance would rezone the R-32 zone to make it 3/4 acre zoning, which will affect 2,”029 township lots. The zoning on the lots is currently for 1 2/3 acre zoning, but the lots are typically all 3/4 acres in size.
At the meeting in January, Planning Board chairman Marvin Gardner asked the township’s professionals to “give due consideration to the comments that were made by the public and make appropriate revisions to the proposals.”
Says Gardner: “I need to see what they’re coming up with in terms of that and other revisions. Certainly, there will be some kind of presentation (at the March 12 meeting) that will be different than what was presented at the time.”
And the public will be given and opportunity to speak, he added. “Even though it involves a lot of homeowners and people have varying opinions, we’re going to have to make some kind of decision,” he said.
