West Windsor is now one of the few towns in the state with a sustainability element as part of its Master Plan — a tool officials hope to use to incorporate more environmentally-friendly initiatives into future township development.
The sustainability element, adopted by the Planning Board following a public hearing on October 14, offers goals, objectives, strategies, and targets to direct township operations toward more sustainable practices.
“Although West Windsor is ahead of the curve, it really is starting to become a major focus for a number of towns around the state,” said Board Member Marty Rosen, referring to the issue of sustainability.
Rosen, also a member of the Enviromental Commission, said the goal of the sustainability element is to connect environmental, economic, and social factors in order to “commit West Windsor Township to examine and implement action that will help make it a more sustainable community.”
The sustainability element helps define what is meant by “sustainable,” identifies specific strategies and actions, and enables the township to have the authority to implement the initiatives through ordinances. The plan also devises progress by using a tracking system, in order to monitor which initiatives the township undertakes as it moves along.
The plan also identifies “responsible parties” for each initiative that officials thought would be charged with studying and undertaking each of the individual initiatives.
Officials have been working on the plan for more than two years. The sustainability element comes as a direct result of the Sustainable West Windsor Plan that was developed by Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, in coordination with the Environmental Commission, in August, 2007. The township received funding for the work through the state Department of Community Affairs’ Office of Smart Growth’s Smart Future grant program.
Since that time, the state legislature passed a law — in August, 2008 — allowing local planning boards to include sustainability elements in their master plans, a move that was not allowed at the time the Sustainable West Windsor Plan was being drafted.
Dan Dobromilsky, the township’s landscape architect, who also serves on the Environmental Commission, pointed out that the sustainability element “is meant to be a guiding document,” adding that there will be some initiatives in the plan that the township will accomplish, and some that it will never do. “It can change over time, and it’s going to have things in there that may seem difficult or impossible, but may make sense in the future.”
The board will have to adopt ordinances based on the sustainability element in order to enforce the initiatives, and that the sustainability element, alone, is not law.
Planning board members touted the document as being thorough and as a significant resource to the township. Planning Board member Larry McGill said the sustainability element will serve as a “smorgasbord of ideas.” He asked about the process for adding more initiatives as time progresses.
Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner explained that the board would then amend the Master Plan, and then ordinance for particular items.
Rosen emphasized that the plan was “not the last word,” and that “there will be new ideas” that come up in the future. Planning Board members also emphasized the need to come up with a process for updating the sustainability plan.
“I think it’s very important to talk about how we will generate a progress report each year,” to highlight the sustainable initiatives the township has carried out and to add new ideas to the plan, said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, who serves on the Planning Board.
McGill and other members suggested including a “date implemented” column to the checklist for each initiative, in order to track the progress as well as show the township has made progress on the initiatives. Rosen agreed with the suggestion and also said that there is a “Sustainable Jersey” program — a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey that “want to go green, control costs, and save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term,” according to the program’s website.
Rosen explained that West Windsor can apply to receive certification through the program, an initiative of the state League of Municipalities’ Mayors’ Committee for a Green Future and other collegiate institutions. Receiving certification would enable the township to receive grants and other incentives.
Planning Board member Diane Ciccone said the sustainability element “will give us some teeth to say to developers, ‘This is our vision; this is what we want our town to be.’”
Michael Hornsby, the chairman of the Environmental Commission, said during public comment that the commission endorsed the document. “There’s an increasing sense of urgency about environmental issues, particularly climate change,” he said, pointing to media reports around the country.
Former Planning Board member and councilwoman Heidi Kleinman echoed the sentiment, urging the board to adopt the plan to make a statement showing that West Windsor continues to be a leader in sustainability.
Officials, including Gardner, emphasized the sustainable initiatives the township has already undertaken. Gardner pointed to the inclusion in various applications of bus pick-up and drop-off points and shelters in contemplation of a possible Bus Rapid Transit system.
He also mentioned the board’s encouragement of developers to meet some of the silver or gold certification standards by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
One resident, Guy Pierson, of Fisher Place, said he thought the document was important but questioned how much of a financial impact it would have on homeowners looking to remodel in the future.
Hsueh explained that he did not believe that officials would force individual homeowners to incorporate green designs into work on their homes. He said the board was targeting developers.
