Michael Graves & Associates, the second of three firms chosen by West Windsor to give a public presentation in support of their selection for the job of planning the township’s upcoming redevelopment, spoke to the council, planning board and the public on Monday, September 25. The Princeton company teamed up with Duany, Plater and Zyberk for its proposal. The collaboration between these two companies has resulted in a movement known as “The New Urbanism.”
The new urbanist philosophy was apparent throughout the company’s proposal. “West Windsor has been building its suburbs for the last 200 years. Now it is going to build its city in the center of that,” said Andres Duany, a Florida resident and designer of multiple downtowns and transit village.
This meeting was better attended than the other two of its kind, which featured Street-Works, a White Plains, NY company, and Hillier, a West Windsor firm. The other presentations, both held on Wednesdays, drew 50 to 60 participants. The Graves presentation drew some 80 residents. many of those residents responded well to the Graves presentation, going so far as to applaud when Duany said, “What’s the good of living in a township if you don’t have a town?”
Duany said he “”strives to form a place of character and identity”” in his vision of the town center for West Windsor. In accordance with the new urbanist philosophy, the company envisions the redevelopment as resulting in a “walkable, compact, and diverse community.”
Duany stressed that the township should build dense housing around the train station that would allow and encourage residents to reduce their dependence on cars. He envisions a walkable downtown area designed for community and convenience. Says Duany, “This idea is the antidote to urban sprawl.”
He estimated that people will save $9,000 a year by eliminating the expense of one automobile from their household. His transit village concept will allow residents to “only use your car when you need it,” Duany said.
He imagined the $9,000 would instead be spent on housing and other things that will stimulate the economy of the township. Duany’s presentation was not anti-car, rather it highlighted the importance of automobiles, especially not in and around the town center. “In a town center, a car moving quickly is a problem. A car moving slowly is the vitality of a street,” said Duany.
Duany outlined the differences between commuter rail stations and community stations. Commuter stations are most in need of ample and convenient parking, and community stations are centered around retail, housing, and public services. West Windsor, he said, needs to build a station which is both.
“You’re sitting on one of the most valuable pieces of land in New Jersey,” said Gary Lapera, the lead architect at Michael Graves & Associates. “Of all the master plans we’ve seen, this is one of the few communities that really has committed to it and deserves to see it happen.”
The Michael Graves & Associates team includes other companies, each of which has a particular expertise. Van Note Harvey is in charge of brown fields, Wetlands, as well as civil engineering. BFJ Planning specializes in traffic planning. The Olin Partnership provides landscape architecture, and Economic Research Associates will handle the market studies, if the team is selected for the planning project.
Duany promised his team would provide the “most intense participation imaginable. We will be the last people standing in the public meetings.”
Duany discussed the importance of public input in his process, and says he’s done over 250 charrettes. A charette is the process by which a designer takes public opinion into account while creating a plan.
During the three-hour presentation, which included questions from the public and members of the council and planning board, Duany said, “This is the most intelligent, well-educated group of people we’ll ever have in a charette. You’re astounding.”
The guidelines for public questioning were set at the start of each meeting. Planning board chair Marvin Gardner, who ran the meetings, asked each member of the public to ask one question, to refrain from asking follow-up questions or from making comments on the presentation. To a fault, residents complied, and asked questions that were original, thought-provoking, and informed.
Some were specific to West Windsor’s development challenges, some asked about different methods of financing. Duany answered questions about communicating with the public by outlining the company’s process in working with residents. “We don’t avoid controversy during the charrettes,” said Duany. “We invite it.”
Duany said in his experience, using public input in creating a plan tends to work well. He said it is a complex way to go about developing a plan. He said his company specializes in “turning complexity into vitality and elegance.”
Some members of the public seemed put off by the idea of inviting urban development into a township which is currently 50 percent open space. Duany, whose presentation focused more on economic advantages of urbanization that preservation of land and open space, said: “Development creates wealth.”
