After months of no activity, the Howard Hughes Corporation is once again talking about development — this time, by contacting West Windsor individuals and groups to ascertain the public’s opinions about plans for the former American Cyanamid site, now owned by the Hughes Corporation.
“There is a new contact person in charge of the project,” said West Windsor Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner. “Howard John Simon, senior vice president for strategic planning. He is apparently considering new options and is reaching out to the community for input.”
John Simon has been busy doing just that. After having to cancel one scheduled in-person interview due to weather-related travel issues, the Hughes executive was reached by E-mail for a discussion of how the company plans to elicit suggestions from the community and utilize that information.
“The Howard Hughes site in West Windsor is a very complex piece of land to try to develop,” said Simon. “It is approximately 660 acres, divided by a road, with 47 dilapidated buildings and a sewage treatment plant that is no longer being used. We spent almost all of last year [2013] just focusing on all of the physical issues involved with the site: sewer, water, electricity, traffic, wetlands, and environmental concerns.
“We held a town hall meeting to introduce ourselves to the community, and then spent the rest of the year figuring out what we have and how to develop it given all of these physical complexities.
“Now we are shifting our focus to obtaining feedback from the community on what development they would like to see at the space. Starting last month, we began interviewing anybody and everybody who would talk to us: individuals, especially those with strong opinions about development, citizens’ groups, environmental groups, and people involved in the arts, the educational system, or local businesses, and others,” Simon said.
“We are looking to talk to a cross-section of the community, and to talk to people with different viewpoints. We are asking about their views of the community, the pluses and minuses found here, and whether there is anything missing that they would like to see at the site. This is very important. We do not have any sort of development plan yet. We are going to shape our plan in response to the needs of the people we speak with.”
This is a very important part of the development process, Simon said. “I strongly believe in meeting with the members of the community directly, rather than hiring consultants to do it. We want to get this right the first time around, and develop something that meets the needs of the community.”
Simon estimates that he and Chuck McMahon have interviewed 15 to 20 groups or individuals a week for the past few weeks. Right now the company is still gathering information. The Hughes group hopes to come to some general conclusions by mid-April or so.
Simultaneously, they are assessing the real estate, retail, business and other markets in the area. “Our intent is to move some ideas forward this calendar year. It is important to realize that the site is so large, and so complex, that it will not all be developed simultaneously. It will be done in phases, over a period of years. So we want to make sure we identify what would be the top development priorities, what should be included in the second phase, and what is longer term. And we need as much input as possible from the community to make sure we get this right,” said Simon.
Gardner, speaking before the interview above with Simon, noted that “it may be that Hughes decides to come to the Planning Board with a ‘concept plan.’ This is an informal process that allows a developer to get a sense of what the Planning Board, residents, and township consultants think of any development concept. There is significant input from the public during this process, which takes place over a period of time, not just at one or two meetings. Changes and adjustments can be made, and then discussed. This is a lengthy process.”
Gardner also said that under this process, the developer also deposits money into an escrow account which is used to pay township consultants, so that there would be no additional cost to taxpayers for this process.
“We have been given no indication of what their development plans may be at this point; whether they are going to just build office space, which they can do without any zoning changes, or try and build mixed-use space,” said Gardner.
“Or they may decide to do nothing. But even if they only build office space, they will likely still be required to build some affordable housing units. The number of affordable housing units that must be built in a town is determined by the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). We are in what is known as the third wave of the COAH requirements, and they haven’t yet finalized what those requirements are going to be. They were supposed to have been done by February, but it is likely they will need additional time. Until those numbers are released, we do not know what our affordable housing obligations will be, and this is completely outside of the Planning Board’s control,” he said
“What we do know is that Hughes Corporation is not going to decide on anything until they have completed their current community outreach efforts,” said Gardner.
