A group of West Windsor professionals, realtors, and property owners have formed an organization called JAW that is looking to form a public-private partnership with the township for the redevelopment of downtown Princeton Junction and the construction of a transit village at the train station.##M:[more]##
The group — Junction Area Works, or Junction at West Windsor (the name has not been finalized) — is hoping that officials will work with the property owners in the creation of its redevelopment plan, says Jeremiah Ford, an architect representing the Washington Park office complex.
“We’re trying to demonstrate that it’s much better to develop a set of plans with the landowners rather than letting some nebulous bureaucracy decide what we’re doing,” says Ford.
In addition to Washington Park, Ford says other members of the group include architect Robert Hillier of the Hiller Group, Aubrey Haines of Mercer Oak Realty, and officials from the Sarnoff Corporation. Ford in the principal of Ford 3 Architects on Nassau Street in Princeton.
Earlier this year, New Jersey Transit (NJT) released a concept plan, called a vision study, proposing a transit village on the west side of the train station that would include offices, retail, and housing. The plan will be discussed by the township as part of its ongoing drive for redevelopment of downtown Princeton Junction.
“One of problems with the NJT plan was that it lacked an awful lot of planning things that would make it successful,” says Ford. “It didn’t pay very good attention to the needs of commuters. Nor did it look at the idea of the project paying for itself.”
“We are strong believers in the transit village concept,” he adds. “We think that West Windsor has a unique opportunity to develop a center of activity for the town that it totally lacks right now. West Windsor has been a suburban rural township that relies on other centers around it like Trenton, or Princeton, or Hightstown. This transit village gives us an opportunity to do something spectacular.”
Ford warns that the next step in the process is where the danger lies. “There are two ways that things can go. The town can develop plans themselves, which is pretty dangerous because they are going to spend a lot of money chasing every little wish and trying include them in the plans.
“The other option is to put out a request for proposal (RFP) for someone to come in and develop it. That’s risky because an outside developer does not have best interests of town.”
“We’re working on putting together a process where the land owners take control,” Ford says.
He explains that the group is not looking to come up with specific plans at this point. They want to look at the individual properties and come up with a “matrix” of possible uses that would work on the properties and then work with the landowners and township for approval of a program.
“It is our intent that the property owners be the developers,” said Ford in a letter submitted to the township dated November 2. “Our cooperation is based on the premise that the property owners generate, at their own expense, the master plan for the development of the transit village.”
In the letter, Ford quotes Hiller as telling the Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce that “the present (transit village) plan is not ambitious enough. We agree, because we calculate that the present plan lacks sufficient density to fund the parking lots and other amenities.
“We ask the planning board and township council to refrain from proposing unrealistic economic constraints such as low density and building massing until we have had a chance to develop our plans accompanied by a description of the economics.”
