The West Windsor Township Council has approved submitting a joint proposal to New Jersey Transit that would designate the West Windsor Parking Authority as the developer of a new parking garage at the train station.
The resolution was approved by a 3-1 vote, with Councilman Charles Morgan absent and Councilwoman Diane Ciccone voting against it, on March 22. The proposal now heads to NJ Transit.
If approved by the state, the move would allow the township to have a higher level of control over the project. Although developing the projected 2,200-space garage would give the township a greater ability to oversee the project, West Windsor cannot reserve any parking spaces specifically for township residents in the garage.
“I want to move on and get to the next step,” said Hsueh. “This is the begining of the process. It’s long overdue. The taxpayers deserve to benefit from the train station, which is considered number 8 in the whole nation in terms of numbers of passengers.”
Hsueh said he sent a letter to NJ Transit officials with conceptual proposals. The next step, he said, is for the township to sit down with the Parking Authority and NJ Transit to go over the genreal concept. “Then we’ll take it from there as to what our role will be in terms of future response to the RFP,” Hsueh said. The meeting will give township officials an idea of what NJT is thinking. “Definitely we want to make it very clear we want to work with them.”
The resolution states that the township and parking authority believe they can develop project by “constructing, operating, and maintaining it in a significantly more financially advantageous manner than any private proposal.”
Further, it states that if the joint proposal is accepted by NJT, “the Parking Authority, acting as the agent of the township, will take responsibility for identifying a developer for the Transit Parking Project, negotiating the terms of a contract for the development of the Transit Parking Project, and submitting such development contract to the township for approval and designation by the township.”
The resolution also states that the township would be responsible for only 25 percent of the costs of the redevelopment attorney fees, with the parking authority paying the other 75 percent. This is a compromise reached after Councilwoman Linda Geevers asked during a previous meeting whether the parking authority would cover 100 percent of the attorney fees, especially given the economic impact to the township’s budget this year.
