A majority of Township Council members have given their stamp of approval to the township’s request to be considered for Transit Village designation under the state Department of Transportation.
What the township administration admitted it thought was a non-controversial issue, however, faced criticism from Councilman Charles Morgan, who voted against it because he felt the administration provided insufficient information.
The resolution, approved 4-1 on June 14, asks the DOT to designate the township as a Transit Village and affirms the township’s willingness to “accept meaningful growth in terms of jobs, housing, and population within the transit village development district.” The resolution also states the township’s commitment to implementation of the “compact, mixed-used, transit-supportive vision” called for in the criteria for designation. Landscape architect Dan Dobromilsky has been appointed as the township’s primary contact person for the initiative.
If designated, the township would be eligible to receive special funding for smart growth initiatives once it meets a majority of the criteria established by the program.
The program, called the Transit Village Initiative, was created by the DOT and sets up a “Transit Village Task Force,” with members consisting of 11 state agencies: the New Jersey Transit; the Department of Community Affairs; the Department of Environmental Protection; the Redevelopment Authority; Council on the Arts; Main Street New Jersey; the Economic Development Authority; the Office of Smart Growth; and the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.
The goal is to increase transit ridership, reduce automobile congestion, and improve air quality in New Jersey, the township’s resolution states. Once designated, the township would be provided with a contact person in each of the 11 state agencies; technical assistance from each; up-to-date information on grants, loans, programs, and other opportunities; priority funding where feasible; and access to special information meetings, educational programs, and research information.
Morgan, however, questioned the designation’s impact on the ongoing InterCap litigation and questioned what the designation of a “transit village” could mean in terms of development near the train station. “Some would say it’s urbanization of the train station,” he said. “Some people would say it’s implicitly blessing higher buildings.”
“This is a really big deal,” he added. “I can’t make an informed decision on it.”
Township Attorney Michael Herbert said the designation “will have absolutely no impact on the InterCap litigation.”
“Let’s try to stop all of these rumors,” said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh in response to Morgan’s comments. “All of this will have to comply with our redevelopment plan.”
In March, 2009, the council adopted a redevelopment plan for the 350-acre Princeton Junction train station area. The plan calls for a total base number of 483 housing units consisting of 311 market-priced units and 172 affordable housing units. As for non-residential development, the plan proposes 207,910 square feet of retail with the potential option to increase retail floor area in District 1 — which encompasses the 25 acres off Washington Road owned by InterCap Holdings — by an additional 67,500 square feet along with 7,500 square feet of added office space.
If the option for 75,000 square feet of additional commercial space is implemented, it would add an obligation for nine more affordable housing units. This would bring the total redevelopment area residential unit count to 496, with 311 market units and 185 affordable units.
Referring to the funding incentives, Councilwoman Linda Geevers said she did not “see a downside” to asking for designation. “It’s going to be very competitive to get any grant money.”
Morgan asked the council to postpone the vote until the next business meeting so more information could be gathered. “I’m wondering what the urgency is,” he said.
Also, the township has never used the term “transit village” to describe redevelopment, he said. “The contract with Hillier did not call for them to develop a transit village; it called for them to do a redevelopment plan,” he said.
The mayor and business administrator Robert Hary said the municipalities designated under the program received funding last year just for being designated and that the automatic funding would probably not be available in future years.
When pushed for more clarification, Hsueh said he believed the township could apply for as much as $110,000 in grants under the program this year. Beginning in the new fiscal year on July 1, however, the funding will probably be no longer available, he said. “That money can be used for any issue related to development around the train station,” Hsueh said.
Council President George Borek said that the simple possibility of getting a grant should move the process forward. “The question is: do you move forward and hope to get a grant, or whether you don’t move forward and then you lose an opportunity.”
However, “the question is what opportunity are we losing?” Morgan replied, recalling a procedure supported by the council that requires the administration to bring details of contracts to council 30 days before it is expected to approve them. He said these types of requests should be subject to the same procedure. “I’m not opposed to this,” he said. “I’m the first one to say, ‘Let’s get grant money if we can get grant money.’ I’ve approved every grant money request that has ever come before us,” he said. “But we have a sky is falling statement with nothing substantive to it. There are no specific statements about specific grant application deadlines.”
Morgan, who earlier questioned items on the list of bills and claims approved during the meeting, said the lack of specific information about the urgency for approval and benefits to the township was another example of how his requests to the administration for more information on a variety of subjects continued to be ignored.
Hsueh said the administration “did not see this as controversial” and therefore did not prepare a packet of information on the subject prior to the meeting.
Earlier in the meeting, during discussions on bills and claims, Hsueh accused Morgan of asking “nonsense questions” in his requests to Hary about various bills and claims and other requests. Morgan had been questioning the township’s purchases of bottled water for employees and a food reimbursement for $84.69 to a senior center employee that did not include a clear description of the event for which she was being reimbursed for providing food.
Morgan said the township should not be paying for employees’ bottled water. “I’m concerned that we continue to allow it to be an expense of the township.”
He also asked why the township was providing meal reimbursements to 10 employees to attend professional development. Hary said the employees were construction code officials attending a seminar to bring them up-to-date with township code. He did not know specifically the details behind the $84 meal reimbursement to the senior center employee, but said the employee usually uses her own credit card to purchase food for certain events and is later reimbursed by the township.
When Hsueh told Morgan he should have sent an E-mail to Hary before the meeting to ask clarification, Morgan said he had grown frustrated with Hary, who has ignored his requests on numerous items.
Hsueh said Morgan’s requests usually created legal implications, and the administration has to run the requests by counsel before responding. But the current request for more information “has no legal implications. This one is very straightforward.”
Councilwoman Diane Ciccone asked whether the administration could provide information ahead of time when relevant items are on the agenda. Background information could have avoided 20 minutes of discussion, she said.
Responded Hary: “You could argue the same point about every resolution on there. We did not see this one as being controversial.” Rather, he characterized the resolution as “boiler plate.”
Still, Morgan requested that as a condition of approval, the council require the administration to divulge specific information about the possible grants.
Township attorney Michael Herbert said it was not necessary to include the request as a condition, and Hsueh and Hary said they would provide information to council members in the days after the meeting.
Morgan voted against approval “for procedural reasons, not substantive reasons,” he said.
