A possible conversation between two long time Princeton Junction residents.
WW: What’s been happening on the mayor’s transit village?
PJ: InterCap just won a court ruling possibly negating the entire plan.
WW: That is terrific news for our town. What happens now, does the mayor just get out of the way and let our parking authority and NJ Transit sort out parking for our residents and we keep the rest of the area pretty much as is?
PJ: Unfortunately, no. From what I can figure out, it sounds like what InterCap didn’t like about the plan was that they could “only” build 500 condos instead of 1,440 in a set of high rise buildings.
WW: You’ve got to be kidding. 500 condos would hurt us some. It would probably send our local taxes up $1,500/year. 1,500 new condos, that’ll decimate our town. Taxes will be up $4,000 to $7,000/year, traffic will be a disaster, home values will plummet.
PJ: What could InterCap do without the redevelopment plan?
WW: Pretty much nothing. The land was zoned low density commercial. The reason InterCap could file a lawsuit to get more condos is that the redevelopment plan re-zoned the area.
PJ: So what you’re saying is that the mayor’s transit village plan is what opened us up to this lawsuit and exposed us to these bone crushing impacts?
WW: Yup.
PJ: What about the mayor’s campaign pledge that his transit village wouldn’t cost us anything and that he wouldn’t sign anything that would cause our taxes to increase because of it?
WW: This entire thing has me greatly concerned. Municipal taxes have gone up an average of 10 percent/year under the mayor’s leadership. And the initial mayor/ Hiller plan had 1,000 condos.
PJ: I hear ya. This situation has the stench that some back room deal will be cut to “split the difference” and build 1,000 condos. And, then we’ll get some self-congratulating township mail stating that through negotiations a lawsuit was settled out of court.
WW: How about instead of buckling under to InterCap, we look them in the eyes and say “it’s 500 condos or nothing. It’s fine if you don’t like that, we’ll be happy to change the zoning back to low density commercial and you can keep your buildings as now.”
PJ: That’s exactly the kind of steel-eyed leadership we need at a time like this. And, this would let us focus on our work to eliminate the ‘Plywood Junction’ moniker.
WW: Sounds like a terrific plan. One that we can all embrace. What’s the mayor’s number; I’ll give him a call now.
