While the West Windsor Planning Board may not have redevelopment on its own agenda for a while, it seems it will be plenty busy with other work this year, including re-examining its Master Plan and beginning the Office of Smart Growth’s Plan Endorsement process.##M:[more]##
Those were among a list of 10 priorities Township Division of Land Use Manager Sam Surtees presented during the board’s January 16 meeting. Those tasks would be in addition to any applications coming before the board this year. Master Plan re-examination was at the top of the list. Surtees and Township Planner John Madden will begin their work in February, and hopefully “have something to the board by April to review,” Surtees said.
The next item on the list is a staff report as it relates to the proposed Council on Affordable Housing regulations. A presentation to the Township Council has already been scheduled for Monday, February 11. Following those two items is a proposed rezoning of Berrien City called for in the 2002 Master Plan. Surtees said he and Madden began drafting an ordinance in November while working with some of the residents who live there. Surtees said he hopes to get the ordinance to council by August for its review.
Following these items on the list of priorities are changes to the housing element and fair share plan of the Master Plan as a result of those COAH regulations and any other changes that come as a result of the re-examination report.
The proposed Jewish Community Campus also has a request pending before the board for a Master Plan change and a rezoning to allow some housing units for retirees on site, Surtees said, and work on that will begin in February.
The Princeton Theological Seminary is in the process of redeveloping the portion of its site off Wheeler Way, near the Princeton Country Club. “Most of the dorms there were built in the early 1960s,” he told the board. “They have just done a review of those structures and have decided that it would be more cost effective basically to bulldoze everything down.”
Surtees said they will be talking to the board with regard to Master Plan changes to allow mixed use and for housing for the seminary’s students. Surtees said discussions in March.
The remaining items on the list also included plan endorsement and implementing township-wide rezoning of the various properties around West Windsor to make them conforming with township code, as called for in the 2002 Master Plan. That was the topic of discussion at the board’s January 23 meeting (see story above).
Surtees said that in order to initiate the “smart growth” plan endorsement process by the end of the year, planning officials have asked for $75,”000 in their department’s budget this year, which has to be approved by council.
In other business during the January 16 meeting, the board began discussions on a township-wide impervious coverage ordinance. Impervious coverage refers to pieces of land that are covered by buildings or pavement and not by open space.
“We’re looking perhaps to make it more stringent and consistent. We’re also looking at parking ordinances to determine, in effect, if we are being too lenient in granting waivers to applicants who come before us who indicate they require additional parking,” Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner said. “As you add parking spaces, you’re increasing coverage of land, thereby reducing the ability for water runoff.”
A more detailed discussion is scheduled on Wednesday, January 30.
