Despite requests to the contrary, the West Windsor Township Council decided not to include the planning board in its Monday, May 21, “extended public comment session.” Council contends that inviting the planning board to participate would make redevelopment the meeting’s sole focus, and that residents should feel welcome to address any topic relating to the township.##M:[more]##
On April 30, council voted 5-0 not to include the planning board, which will be involved in the Hillier’s plan presentation on Monday, June 4.
Council member Charles Morgan said: “There are some adverse implications. If the planning board is there, it turns into an intrusion into the redevelopment process, and all we’re trying to do is an open mic.”
Despite its insistence that the “open mic” is not only for redevelopment, the entity would not change the date of the May 21 meeting because of its proximity to the June 4 joint meeting. Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh had asked for a different date since he will be out of town at that time.
Planning Board Attorney Gerald Muller asked council to allow the volunteer group to participate. Muller offered that the planning board could be involved in one part of the meeting designated for redevelopment questions, and would leave before other issues were discussed.
Heidi Kleinman, a member of both council and the planning board, said the extended public comment session is not, and was never, intended to be solely dedicated to the redevelopment. “I think if it is a joint meeting, it forces it to be about redevelopment,” said Kleinman at the four-hour plus council meeting. “We never have enough time for public comment at our regular meetings.”
Kleinman, an architect, is a key figure in the redevelopment process. As a member of both entities, she will have two votes in the plan’s approval process. She is also a member of the steering committee, a panel that has been instrumental in determining the process by which redevelopment decisions were made. “For six months, council has been talking about making an opportunity for additional public comment,” said Kleinman later. “For many reasons it has been put off. We did not want to conflict with the open public meetings.”
Kleinman said she hopes her fellow planning board members will be spectators at the meeting. She said they could have attended earlier council meetings when testimony regarding the redevelopment was given, but did not. Muller said the planning board had not been given adequate notice of those meetings.
Planning Board chairman Marvin Gardner said he will watch the session on television, just as he has watched previous meetings. “I can’t speculate on their motivation,” said Gardner of council’s decision to keep the planning board off the dais at the May 21 meeting.
“It would be beneficial for the planning board to be able to be part of the discussion,” said Gardner. “It would be beneficial to be able to ask the members of the public to elaborate if there were any problems of comprehension.”
Gardner, who is also a member of the steering committee, was quoted by the Trenton Times as saying: “This is pure politics. As volunteer members of the planning board, we don’t want to operate under the cloud that council, under a whim, will decide they don’t approve of planning board activities and will terminate its function.”
Some speculate that council’s straw vote is evidence of an ongoing power struggle between council and planning board over who owns the responsibility of being the primary decision-makers in the redevelopment process.
“The process provides for the council to make the ultimate decision on the plan,” said Gardner. “The planning board will be taking professional testimony with respect to the plan. We will only be making recommendations. The ultimate decision rests with the council and the mayor.”
While council has the final vote on the plan this fall, the planning board has three meetings scheduled for vetting the proposal with Hillier before it is ruled on by council. At the outset of the planning process, Morgan argued that council should be the entity that primarily met with the planner. A resolution giving that power to the planning board was approved on October 30 by a vote of 4-1. At the time, council included Morgan, Geevers, Kleinman, Franc Gambatese, and Barbara Pfeifer. Will Anklowitz replaced Pfeifer on council following the November 7 election.
Gambatese said he does not want the redevelopment to be the discussed at the May 21 meeting. “We should have this on non-redevelopment issues,” he said. “We should see what plan he presents and then hear the comments.”
Gambatese, in the midst of a campaign to keep his seat on council, said to Morgan: “Are you going to be surprised by any of the questions people bring up? No, you’re not going to be. I’m not going to be.”
