It was standing room only at the May 7 West Windsor Planning Board meeting as Toll Bros. developers presented a concept plan for its proposed development at the 45.8-acre Maneely site. As expected, Planning Board members, township staff, and residents all had questions and comments on the proposed development during the four-hour meeting.
The property, located between Alexander, Old Bear Brook, and Bear Brook roads, is zoned “Planned Mixed Neighborhood.” The proposed development would include 188 corporate suites, 51 townhomes, and roughly 20,000 square feet of retail space with 40 apartments above, eight of which would be affordable housing units. A “Main Street” would connect the project elements into an integrated neighborhood design, with recreational amenities dispersed throughout. The main access will be via a new roundabout at the current intersection of Bear Brook and Old Bear Brook roads. The proposal also calls for 752 parking spaces.
In addition, the property anticipates the development of a 10-acre municipally sponsored affordable housing subdivision, which is not part of the Toll Bros. concept plan.
The purpose of the concept plan, said Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner, was for Toll Bros. to seek input and “demonstrate their current thinking about how the property will be developed.” The plan can be relatively generic and is non binding, and the Planning Board cannot take any official action on it. “That being said,” he noted, “we can certainly make strong recommendations that we hope they will follow when they come forward with their official site plan.”
In addition to residents and township officials, “several township staff members and consultants were on hand to provide testimony or give feedback during the discussions,” Gardner said. “The proceedings were recorded for anyone who missed the meeting and wants to hear what was said.”
Those in attendance included land use manager Sam Surtees, landscape architect Dan Dobromilsky, planning consultant John Madden, traffic engineer Jim Kochenour, and environmental consultant Chris Jepson, as well as council members Bryan Maher and Linda Geevers and Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh. Hsueh and Geevers are also on the Planning Board.
Surtees explained that the staff was there primarily to answer questions and to ensure that the concept plan complies with township requirements, such as uses for the property, density, setbacks from roadways, and that the design conforms with the intent of the master plan.
“Many of the residents had similar concerns,” said Hsueh, “such as the impact on the schools in the district, effects on taxes, and the height of the corporate suites, which will be up to 50 feet. In addition, residents were concerned about tree preservation. However, the township staff made it clear that the majority of the trees at the site are environmentally preserved and will not be touched. The only area where trees will need to be removed will be the affordable housing site, because that is a wooded lot.”
“Residents were also concerned about the density of the property. The plan fits well within the zoning guidelines. Windsor Haven, which is across the street, has a three-times greater density ratio. There will be a great deal of open space in this Toll Bros. development,” he said.
The residents of the adjoining neighborhoods — Windsor Haven, the Estates at Princeton Junction, and Old Bear Brook Road — each had concerns.
“The Windsor Havens residents are concerned primarily about how this new development will affect their water drainage and run-off, because they experienced flooding during the storm we had in April,” Gardner said. “This is a legitimate concern, but presumably the stormwater management study will be able to address this (see story, page 1). But we will be reviewing this carefully when the site plan comes in.”
“The residents from the Estates are more concerned about Toll Bros. generally, as developers. From what I understand, they have filed a lawsuit against Toll Bros. relating to the maintenance and upkeep of the Estates and other issues, and several residents spoke disparagingly about the company in general.”
“Finally, several of the residents who live along Old Bear Brook Road expressed individual concerns,” Gardner said. “Their roadway is going to be closed off to through traffic, and will become a cul-de-sac, and a roundabout comprising the main entrance to the development will be located on Old Bear Brook Road. They will be impacted, certainly. However, this plan has been in place since 2009, when we amended the master plan by ordinance, and at that time we attempted to remediate some of the expected concerns.”
“For example,” said Gardner, “we specifically addressed the lot on which the Scurato family resides, because they live directly across from where the main entrance will be.” Toll Bros., he said, will need to adhere to those protections put in place then — significant landscaping and berming to mitigate the effect on the property.
In addition to the main entrance at the roundabout, there will be three additional entrances/exits into the site. The roundabout entrance will lead to the “Main Street,” with retail establishments and the apartments above them.
Toll Bros. wanted 240 corporate suites, but the Planning Board reduced that number to 188. Toll Bros. will operate the corporate suites and has created a separate division to manage these and future suites. The development will be the company’s first experience managing corporate suites.
“Toll Bros. representatives agreed to every recommendation made by township staff, so the Planning Board didn’t really have too many issues or concerns at this point,” Gardner said. “However, this point does concern us, because what will be the impact on the town if they are unsuccessful? Will the suites then be converted into homes? And how will that affect our schools and other services?”
Toll Bros. responded have the necessary resources and dedication for this venture. In addition, Toll Bros. stated that “due to economic reasons,” units at the Estates were converted into corporate suites and “tested” for economic viability. Toll Bros. believed that this experiment was successful and that West Windsor was an ideal location for such suites.
Given the advantages West Windsor offers to businesses, Gardner is cautiously optimistic. “The corporate suites could become a successful venture despite Toll Bros.’ lack of experience in this area,” he said. “This will be a revenue generator for them, so they have every incentive to make it succeed.”
To make the corporate suites more enticing, one of the larger buildings will contain a fitness center and swimming pool, which will be free to residents of the suites and the apartments. Townhouse residents will pay a fee to use the facilities.
The plan also calls for retail establishments that will primarily benefit the owners and occupants of the development, such as a restaurant, dry cleaner, and coffee/breakfast shop. There will also be an integrated pedestrian walkway throughout the development to encourage pedestrians and cyclists.
Gardner, however, noted the trade-off between open space and space for parking. “We will be looking at this issue quite closely when the final plans come before us. Toll Bros. wants to increase the number of parking spaces [from the 2009 plan], and we would prefer not to have parking decks, which are aesthetically unappealing.
“However, they are estimating that the development will contain approximately 5,000 square feet of public areas, including recreation and passive sitting areas, so presumably we will be able to strike a balance,” Gardner said.
According to Surtees, Toll Bros.’ next steps will be to meet with township officials at least once more, then to prepare a fully engineered site plan and subdivision plan for the Site Plan Review Advisory Board. Toll Bros. will then return to the Planning Board for approval as early as this summer.
Other Planning Board News
At its May 14 meeting, the West Windsor Planning Board considered an application to amend the general development plan for the “Phase C” area of Carnegie Center along Route 1 and Carnegie Center Boulevard. One building, used by Princeton University, has been built on this site, and plans for another, the NRG building, are expected to come before the Planning Board this summer. A total of seven new buildings is anticipated.
The developer, Boston Properties, sought several variances, explained Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner. “Boston Properties is looking to lessen the setback requirements from Route 1, amend the parking requirements to allow for fewer parking spaces than originally called for, and to increase the amount of allowed time to develop the entire parcel, from 12 years to 20 years, before needing to appear again before the Planning Board.”
The Planning Board granted the requested waivers and variances, with conditions.
“One of the Canal Pointe residents was concerned about the lighting in the parking lot, especially at night. The lights surrounding the Princeton University building are currently 30 feet high and create some light pollution,” Gardner said. “The developer agreed to reduce new lighting to 25 feet, with a commitment that if they could reduce the height even lower, to 20 feet, they would do so.”
“In addition, we granted their request to provide fewer parking spaces,” Gardner said. There will be two surface lots and one deck with one level higher than ground level and underground levels.
Gardner said that the development would include open space, with a central courtyard connecting all of the buildings and pathways and benches for tenants. There will be landscaping in the parking areas, as well as berms and a green perimeter surrounding the site.
The plan presented at the meeting called for the buildings to all be four stories high, while the original concept was to have the buildings vary from three to five stories. “The Planning Board thought that having seven buildings at exactly the same height would be monotonous along Route 1, and so Boston Properties agreed to vary the height of the buildings as originally anticipated,” Gardner said.
The board also imposed some environmental conditions. “The NRG building is going to be a model ‘green’ building, but the developer could make no assurances that the remaining six buildings would be constructed in that manner,” Gardner said. “The Planning Board will put together a checklist of sustainability requirements that the remaining buildings must have before being approved in the future.”
