After more than a year of waiting, West Windsor residents and officials now have a draft redevelopment plan from Hillier in their hands.##M:[more]##
But reaction to the plan is not much different than it was during the charrettes in June, 2007 — some residents are still wary of the number of possible housing units projected in the draft plan (the new draft projects 940 possible units to come in two phases, down only 60 from Hillier’s original plan) and the scale of the project itself, while some members of council and residents still have varying concerns over the proposed land uses and traffic patterns. And, like before, there are those who remain supportive of the plan and are hopeful that redevelopment can move forward.
But if there is one thing council members seem to agree on, it is that 940 is still too many, and that the plan needs more careful review before it is accepted. They also agree that Main Street and parking are the priorities, and that more information about financing the project’s amenities is needed.
These concerns were just some of the many expressed during the first formal public discussion the council has had on the draft redevelopment plan during a special three-hour meeting on October 21 at Grover Middle School, where more than 200 residents from both sides of the aisle showed up to voice their concerns. The meeting followed a first glimpse of the long-awaited new draft plan, which was available all day at the municipal building on October 17 for public review.
However, as council prepares to go through the plan “line-by-line” at a future meeting (date to be determined), to address their concerns, two other people are making different proposals. Council President Morgan is bringing to the table a resolution that would create a mini redevelopment plan just for a small area to erect a parking deck for West Windsor residents (see page 12).
The meeting on October 21 was filled with almost two hours of public comment, with residents and officials from some of the township’s other boards and committees commenting on a presentation of the Hillier draft plan by Eric Jaffe, of RMJM Hillier.
Housing and Land Use.Hillier’s draft plan proposes residential development in two phases to “permit West Windsor officials to monitor the impacts generated by residential development and allow for program adjustments to mitigate any perceived or actual adverse impacts, and to encourage beneficial redevelopment project activities.”
The plan sets out various districts in the redevelopment area, also including environmental constraints, and highlights what would be developed in each during each phase.
District 1 is located on the west side of the rail line at the center, or “core,” of the redevelopment area. Phase 1 for that district calls for a total of 625 units — 500 of which would be market-rate and 125 of which would be affordable — in addition to seven affordable units generated by retail. There would be 72,”500 square feet of retail goods and services allowed, and the development of office and civic uses, including the public gathering place.
In Phase 2, the draft plan calls for 200 market-rate residential units to be built, with 50 affordable units for District 1.
In both phases, the density in District 1 would be set at 35 dwelling units per acre with the building height set at 4 stories over retail or parking (5 stories max), and a floor area ratio of .07 for retail.
The maximum impervious coverage would be 95 percent, and 1.5 off-street parking spaces would be developed per condominium dwelling unit, and two off-street parking spaces would be developed per townhouse unit.
However, the plan also says that in Phase 1, the first 200 of those 500 market units “shall consist of a mix of 65 percent non-age restricted and 35 percent age-restricted units. Assessment of the first 200 units will be used to determine the age restricted unit makeup of the market residential development program.”
The plan also states that if the market priced units within the first 200 units generate .28 or fewer public school age children, then more market rate units could be built within the district cap, the draft states. The plan uses numbers agreed upon by the WW-P school district’s former board member and “de facto demographer,” Stan Katz, and Rutgers’ David Listokin. Officials say that number of children could be accommodated for in the current school district without causing the need for more schools to be built.
The draft plan also says that an average of two bedrooms will be required for residential market units. The bedroom mix for non age-restricted affordable housing units will be 20 percent one bedroom, 6 percent two-bedroom, and 20 percent three-bedroom, the plan states.
District 2, located on privately owned land between Station Drive and the railroad, consists of retail, office, and parking. In District 2, 1.59 acres on Station Drive would see 13,”850 square feet of retail goods and services or professional offices and commuter parking. This district would generate the need for two affordable units. The density would be 1.25 dwelling units per acre, with a floor area ration of .20 for retail and 5.0 for commuter paring. The maximum impervious coverage would be set at .80 for retail and 100 percent for commuter parking. The building height would be capped at five stories, and there would be one off-street parking space per 750 square feet of retail floor area.
District 3 is the area located south of the Dinky, primarily on New Jersey Transit and township-owned properties, where the affordable housing would be located, the plan shows. “The District 3 is appropriate for affordable housing because it would allow it to be integrated with the residential, retail, recreational, and civic core activities proposed in District 1,” the draft states. This area could generate 60 dwelling units at a density of 15 dwelling units per acre, the plan shows. The building height would be set at five stories, and there would be 1.5 off-street parking spaces per unit.
About 5.67 acres of land owned by NJ Transit makes up District 4, where the plan proposes 12,”000 square feet of retail goods and services and three affordable housing units. In this district, there would be one off-street parking space per 750 square feet of retail floor area, and the three affordable housing units generated by these uses can be provided on site “using non-residential Mount Laurel fee and State Affordable Housing Trust funds,” the plan states.
District 5 consists of 15.74 acres of public park and retail area, but the plan also proposes alternative uses for a 100+ room hotel, a restaurant, associated affordable housing, off-street parking, and retail uses.
The area south of the first five districts, also on the west side of the track and south toward Alexander Road, is proposed for commuter parking with office and service retail, while District 7 —located to the west of that area — is proposed strictly for office, and the plan states the township should “continue corporate and professional office uses in this district using ROM-2 development regulations.”
District 8 is the “Main Street” area, which the plan proposes “small scale, lot-by-lot incremental development.” The plan suggests the council amend the Princeton Junction Overlay ordinance to permit second story apartments, permit retail goods and services in the entire overlay area, increase the permitted floor-area ratio to .25, and increase the permitted maximum impervious coverage to .80.
Districts 9 and 10, which include the station itself and its associated parking areas, are proposed for station and surface parking.
“The land use place is really taken off all the plans we’ve seen in the past,” said Jaffe. “What all of them have told us is primarily the same thing, which is there is a great opportunity for mixed-use residential retail in this section. There’s a great opportunity to continue the office on Alexander Road.”
One other opportunity Hillier officials saw, he said, was the opportunity to increase Main Street and make it longer, extending it further east on Route 571. “It measures today a little over a quarter mile, which is actually small for a main street,” Jaffe said. “We think there’s opportunity to pull that up and across and connect it to Route 571, and make it a much more significant main street. That would be a mile long, which put in perspective, is from Palmer Square in Princeton to Harrison Street.”
With regard to the zoning on site for various land uses, he said he knew that growth was a big issue for residents, but he said he wanted to be clear that the two phases of development shown in the draft were more indicative that West Windsor could create as many phases as it finds necessary in order to monitor the growth and ensure it does not adversely impact the school system or other township services. “Remember this is a redevelopment plan that happens over the course of 25 to 40 years. This isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight.”
With the first phase, council has the opportunity to adjust the plan as it goes along. The squares in the pictures depicting the location of residential and retail uses and possible parking garages were only meant to show the possibilities, he said.
Road Network. The road network depicted in the Hillier plan is based upon a sketch drawn up by Gary Davies, the township’s traffic consultant, who presented it to council in September. It shows two roads, Vaughn Drive and another unnamed road, with two intersections each on Washington Road and Alexander Road — most likely in the vicinity of Old Bear Brook Road. This resulted, like Davies’ sketch, in an x-shaped arrangement for the two roads — which intersect each other at a roundabout — near the southern portion of the site. Jaffe said there a few possibilities for this intersection, including either a traffic light or a roundabout, or some other form of traffic regulation. Also like Davies’ sketch, there are two crossings over the Dinky.
Jaffe said that for safety reasons, there cannot be more than two crossings over the Dinky, and said that most likely, those crossings would be signaled.
He also showed the Bus Rapid Transit bus system coming in through Princeton along the Dinky, traveling around the station, and heading out through Washington Road. He also said the plan includes increasing the width of Alexander Road, which includes adding lanes, including the possibility of adding a left turn lane into the station.
The only difference between Davies’ sketch and Hillier’s is that in Hillier’s, the two roads traversing the site crisscross each other at their intersection. In this regard, Vaughn Drive carries the traffic through the center of the residential and retail portion of the site, while the other road is located to the northwest of that.
Madden/Davies Review of Plan. John Madden, the township’s planner, said he felt the plan builds upon a lot of the work that has been done in the past and is consistent with the vision of what should be done in the train station area.
He said he felt the revision is similar to Hillier’s 2007 plan as well as the InterCap plan, but it “really just building upon that,” especially with regard to the circulation plan, and in meeting the goals and policies set by the council in the past year.
“What we have with the redevelopment plan that they’ve presented is a street block organization which I think is very conducive to pedestrian activity,” he said. “The land uses and locations of land uses are consistent with many people, not just Hillier, who have talked bout this area and development opportunities.”
He said, however, that he felt the plan needed to get into much more detail about circulation, and that officials still needed to get more input from NJ Transit. “We have to have an understanding from NJ Transit what their development requirements are and what they are going to need in order to finance additional parking,” he said. “Quite frankly, I don’t think we’re going to get any answers out of them before we have a redevelopment plan. They’re waiting in a sense for us to move.”
He said he was also concerned with the affordable housing issue on site, because under new state rules, nonresidential developers no longer are responsible for building the affordable housing obligations generated by their building. Instead, they have to pay a 2.5 percent fee. “That will result in a significant shortfall,” Madden said. “Based upon how that area is zoned today, it’s about a $48 million shortfall. It’s a huge problem.” He said, however, that he liked Hillier’s suggestion in the plan that the state’s affordable housing trust fund should be used to make up the shortfall for any affordable housing that results from NJ Transit office development.
In general, Madden said, “obviously the plan needs additional information, but I think we have enough information now to make an intelligent decision about redevelopment.”
Davies said he, as well as members of the Parking Authority, are concerned with the various locations for the parking garages shown in the plan — in one sketch, there are four possible locations for parking garages mostly located on current surface parking areas. Davies said that in one sense, a plan should be created that lays out the general areas for these garages, but he said officials should also ensure that it is actually practical to put the parking in these locations.
Concerns. Florence Cohen, the chair of the township’s affordable housing committee said she was concerned that the affordable housing proposed for District 3 would go against a township ordinance that prohibits restricting affordable housing requirements to one section, and that the mandated ration of 4:1 for market-affordable units was not being met under the plan.
Zoning Board member Susan Abbey said she was surprised that the plan did not include anything that was already approved for the Sarnoff property. “That’s a big part of the redevelopment zone,” she said.
She was also concerned about wording in the plan that mentions three-bedroom apartments, with which township officials, especially at the zoning board, have had difficulty in grappling. Three bedrooms increase the likelihood of more school-aged children moving into the township, she said.
Beth Feehan, of the Farmers’ Market, said she wanted to know how big the civic space for community activities actually would be, and also requested that when a plan is created, that language be put in that calls for a structure to be put up to house the arts council, the bicycle and pedestrian alliance, the farmers’ market, and FOWWOS (Friends of West Windsor Open Space) because the organizations have outgrown the current shed.
Zoning Board Chairman John Roeder said he was concerned about the two main streets shown in the plan. “I do see the buildings along what I call the ‘Old Main Street’ are not the same as the buildings that are there now,” he said. He said officials should take a better look at those plans.
Alison Miller, who sits on the West Windsor Parking Authority, said the authority was concerned over whether the proposed locations of the parking garages were practical, and that the issue needs more study.
In addition, “we will have to look more carefully at the circulation to see whether the people who are going to these parking garages will have to add 15 minutes to their commuting time,” she added.
Curtis Hoberman said he failed to see the integration of the proposals in the plan with the surrounding areas of the township, and that he hopes the plan would “consider what’s beyond the boundaries of redevelopment and tie it in earnestly with the rest of the community.”
Residents who criticized the plan said the road network and project itself does little to help commuters, and most criticized the scale and scope of the project.
“I am 100 percent behind (the idea that) anyone in West Windsor who needs a parking space at the train station should be guaranteed a parking space — no ifs, ands, or buts,” said resident Mike Baxter. “But what I don’t understand is how the need for parking for West Windsor turned into that,” he added, pointing to the plan.
Some residents also criticized Goldin of InterCap for directing residents in favor of his plan to sit on one side of the auditorium, and asking those who were either uncommitted or against his proposal to sit on the other.
Others supported the plan. Rustom Bhopti, of Park Hill Terrace, said that many projects never have answers to 100 percent of the issues, but “that does not mean we should not do it. West Windsor is not a horse farming community anymore.”
Tamerra Moeller of Varsity Avenue said she is a psychologist who works with teenagers. “Where do they all go? Palmer Square,” she said. “I just think it would be really great if we had a place in West Windsor for teenagers to go.”
Council/Mayor Comments. Council members said there needed to be further review of the plan, and specifically that they each had a slew of questions they were putting together for Jaffe to review.
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman said she felt strongly that Main Street should be a mile long, and that the zoning needs to reinforce that the set-up should be retail on the first floor and residential above. And, she said she has always understood that the 1,”000 housing units from the original Hillier plans were needed to fund the amenities and infrastructure. But, since that time, the $30 million interchange between Washington and Vaughn Drive had been dropped, and council decided not to include the “bowl” and a large community building in the plans anymore. “As a community, we’ve scaled back from some of these amenities,” she said. “Obviously, there’s still road infrastructure, but I don’t understand how that tied into the 1,”000 houses. The amenities were driving the 1,”000 houses, so I do think we need some explanation on that.”
Councilman Will Anklowitz also said the plan still had “way too much housing and not enough focus on making main street a priority and fixing up main street from Alexander Road to Cranbury.”
Councilman George Borek said “we need to get this to the finish line, one way or another.”
