For a total of nine hours in one week, members of the West Windsor Township Council gathered in the municipal building’s meeting room C as they pulled out maps, used tracing paper and pencils to draw out their ideas, and discussed everything from flower baskets on “Main Street” to possibly encouraging a transfer of development rights from Sarnoff to provide for a hotel conference center closer to the train station in the 350-acre redevelopment area.##M:[more]##
In a series of workshop meetings on October 28 and 31, council spent hours sifting line-by-line through the 78-page draft redevelopment plan submitted by RMJM Hillier last month and developed a slew of their own tentative suggestions. Council members stressed, though, that no formal decisions have been made, and that all of their suggestions are subject to change, since they are awaiting feedback from township professionals.
The discussion was scheduled to continue on Friday, November 7, beginning at 9:30 a.m. during another workshop session, with township professionals on hand around 11 a.m. to further review council’s ideas. Council members say that the work done so far is a big step toward having a final redevelopment plan for the area by the end of the year.
While the original timeline under the agreement with Hillier called for the draft of the plan to be completed by the end of August, with its first presentation to council in September, followed by a presentation at the Planning Board in October, and a final presentation back at council in November, officials are still working with state and county representatives and waiting for data that will help answer many of the remaining traffic circulation questions.
Brian Meneghin, a senior associate at RMJM Hillier, attended the October 31 meeting to answer any questions. Council sent their list of ideas and concerns back with him to share with his colleagues, who Meneghin said were scheduled to meet on November 3 to further discuss their own work on the plan. Pat Ward, the township’s director for the department of community development was present during the workshop meetings, and Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh attended the October 31 meeting. The mayor says he finds council’s suggestions for the plan to be “very positive.”
“I’m hopeful this will bring this plan somewhere,” he said. “I want to continue moving this in a positive direction, and hopefully, we’ll be able to come up with something to move to the next step. At least it will give me a framework to start negotiations with the state or even private sectors.”
District Merging/Housing. Council began its discussion by analyzing the proposed districts for land uses in the Hillier plan, and a key suggestion has been to merge some of the zones set forth in the draft.
The first suggestion that came out of the workshops is the proposal to eliminate District 3 — the area located south of the Dinky, primarily on New Jersey Transit and township-owned properties, where the affordable housing would be located — and merge it with District 1.
Hillier’s plan stated that “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 plan called for up to 60 possible dwelling units at a density of 15 dwelling units per acre with 1.5 off-street parking spaces per unit.
However, council members recalled the township’s longstanding policy that affordable units be integrated within market-rate units, and also that they wanted to see the housing in the redevelopment area be consistent throughout the entire zone.
District 1 is the only portion of the redevelopment area, according to Hillier’s plan, that is capable of carrying a heavy portion of the residential units. Located on the west side of the rail line at the center, or “core,” of the redevelopment area and including InterCap Holding’s 25 acres on Washington Road, District 1 was proposed to have two phases of residential development — the first phase called 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. The second phase in this district called for 200 market-rate residential units to be built, with 50 affordable units. The plan also stated 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.”
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman, who appeared to take the lead in the discussions, suggested the elimination of District 3 to combine it with District 1, saying she felt that she wanted to see “the same character that’s being built in one is in three.” She said she wanted to feel like “I have a continuous Main Street with window shopping on the bottom floor, and residential on top.”
“I don’t want District 1 to feel like an enclave” built by one developer, she added.
The retail proposed for District 1 — the Hillier draft called for 72,”500 square feet of retail goods and services in District 1, as well as the development of office and civic uses, including the public gathering place — should be continued into the area outlined in District 3, so it has the retail with residential units on top, council suggested.
Council said it wanted the building heights restricted to three stories as-of-right, but said the buildings could be increased to five stories with conditions negotiated with the Planning Board, which could include set-back requirements for the fourth and fifth stories. Council also suggested that the plan be written to include some percentage — yet to be determined — of retail that would be limited to 1,”000 square feet (a tentative number) or less to accommodate boutique shops, a possible West Windsor municipal satellite office, and possible subsidized artists’ space.
For example, Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman said she had no problems with stores like The Gap coming in along Route 571, but that she wanted to see a variety of retail, other than chain stores, be able to survive downtown.
But with the decision to combine the two districts into one, council was still left with trying to figure out how many units to allow all together, and what to do with the phasing of those units. Council members came to a consensus that they would like to eliminate the two phases as suggested by Hillier and add language that would instead place the responsibility for the phasing in the newly proposed District 1 on the Planning Board. The board would then determine the phasing pursuant to a developer’s agreement with the board, and the phasing would be subject to certain conditions, they suggested.
Those conditions included that the build out of housing units needs to be timed in order to preclude the necessity of the West Windsor Plainsboro School District to build new schools; that the assumptions with respect to the number of school children generated by the housing units be determined in consultation with the school board; and that commencement of construction with respect to the second and subsequent phases to be conditioned on safeguards calculated to achieve the school impact objectives of the school district.
Discussion also turned to the actual number of residential units, with council members recalling the comments made by InterCap CEO Steve Goldin, who said the phasing called for in the Hillier plan would render the project economically unviable. Goldin, in a letter to the council last month, stated that if at least 400 market-rate units are not developed in Phase 1 of redevelopment, his firm will not develop its property, causing what he said would be a loss to the township of $38 million of bonding capacity that the township could have used to fund improvements like the parking deck, West Windsor’s share of Vaughn Drive, and other traffic improvements. Later, frustrated by what he perceived to be a lack of movement on redevelopment, Goldin withdrew his own plans for redevelopment and submitted a plan to the Planning Board that would instead bring 1,”440 condos and a higher density of development to his company’s property. The letter accompanying these plans cited affordable housing-related court decisions and suggested possible litigation against the township.
The Hillier draft had stated that an average of two bedrooms would be required for residential market units. The bedroom mix for non age-restricted affordable housing units would be 20 percent one bedroom, 6- percent two-bedroom, and 20 percent three-bedroom, the plan states. Goldin also found fault with the fact that only 65 percent of those units in the first 200 to be built for evaluation were non age-restricted. Goldin had said that most people, even singles, did not want to live in a one-bedroom unit because they want to have the extra room for a study or gym room, and that his firm has always said there needed to be a minimum of 400 market-rate units in the first phase.
After much discussion, council ultimately proposed that the new District 1, which combines District 3, include 528 market-rate residences and 132 affordable residences (including 28 market units generated by the 7 retail growth share affordable units, assuming a gross-up to maintain the 4:1 ration of market to affordable units). The mix of the housing — including the number of age-restricted units — is proposed to be negotiated with township staff and the planning board. Council members cited the concern that other development projects in town occurring at the same time as the redevelopment would add an increased burden on the school population, but also said they wanted the project to be economically feasible to fund amenities on site.
“We’re giving them the market-rate housing, and we’re doing that to create a funding source to build the affordable housing, but we may want to use the Project Freedom approach, as well as the state money, and other mechanisms on that site,” said Kleinman.
Added Morgan: “We have integrated Districts 1 and 3, and we have just applied a number that applies to both of them. If Project Freedom comes in and builds something in what we used to call District 3, those units could go on Goldin’s site. It gives him a lot of incentive to help us get Project Freedom there, if that’s where we want to put it.”
Currently, the Planning Board is looking at a plan for Project Freedom on the Maneely tract off Old Bear Brook Road. Project Freedom is a non-profit organization that develops and operates barrier-free housing to enable individuals with disabilities to live independently.
Traffic. With regard to the traffic circulation pattern depicted in the plan, Kleinman spent considerable time explaining to other members of council why she felt the scheme drawn up by traffic consultant Gary Davies and planning consultant John Madden and used by Hillier in the draft — which included the crisscross X-pattern created by the two roadways, Vaughn Drive and “Road B” traversing the site — made sense.
The plan 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.
Kleinman, said that if the two roads were instead designed in another way, such as parallel to each other, traffic would constantly be interrupted by drivers making their way between the two parallel roads in various directions. Instead, “they’ve made this X, and everybody gets to come into this intersection and decide where they want to go,” she said.
Council President Charlie Morgan said he was concerned that if the circulation plan included too many traffic lights and traffic controls, it would slow the flow through the area. He also raised concern about the configuration of the parking garages, and the traffic flow in and out of the garages, in addition to the access roadways for those garages. Kleinman said she felt that the four parking garages depicted in the plan seemed to be “as convenient as you can get.”
Councilman George Borek pointed out that having one larger garage with more levels, like the one that was built at the Hamilton train station, would cause a “nightmare” because it might take 25 minutes for commuters to exit the garage after everyone tries to leave at the same time.
All council members, and Ward, agreed that they needed Hillier to identify the Kiss and Ride area on the map, just to depict how it is configured. They also said they needed to see the western-most road traversing the site renamed as Vaughn Drive. In an original sketch by traffic consultant Gary Davies, the two roads traversing the site crisscross each other at their intersection, but in the Hillier plan, the roadways are named to show Vaughn Drive carrying 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. They said they also wanted to move the buildings east of the road, to make Vaughn Drive more of a connector road, as opposed to encouraging pedestrians on it.
Other than those minor tweaks, Kleinman said, “I feel that it works, and I feel if we endorse the road structure, we could then work on the blocks.”
Replied Morgan: “We are at a point where we’re accepting the layout of the circulation plan with the only possible tweak being worrying about access to these garages here.”
Sarnoff. One of the other major developments that came out of the discussions was council’s idea to allow for a transfer of development rights into the redevelopment area to save more open space on the Sarnoff property, where a hotel has already been approved. The idea was first suggested by Kleinman. “I wouldn’t mind encouraging a transfer of development rights from Sarnoff to these zones over here if I could move that hotel,” she said, adding that she was not interested in moving the offices also already approved at Sarnoff. She said she recently attended an event at the Hyatt in Jersey City, and saw that it was located right off the train station.
“The idea of having a hotel conference center at a train station makes so much sense to me,” she said. “I think that’s a really great tax ratable, and I think it makes sense right next to the station, but I’m doing that to save whatever we can. I realize in the Sarnoff plan, there is a lot of land that’s dedicated to the Millstone (River), but we could get more land.”
“I know that we have water problems here, and the more development we have, the less options we have,” she added. “I feel like this is the moment in the zoning to say something about it.”
Kleinman said she wanted to write something that is reasonable for the redevelopment site, but gives the township some leeway in allowing for transfer of development rights from Sarnoff onto this property. Council suggested that the density and height of the hotel would be reviewed and addressed by professionals.
Other Discussions. Among its other decisions, Council also discussed merging District 7 — located to the west of that area and proposed by Hillier to be strictly for office — with District 6, also located on the west side of the track and south toward Alexander Road, which was proposed for commuter parking with office and service retail.
It also suggested leaving District 5, which consists of 15.74 acres of public park, strictly as such, deleting the alternative uses for a 100+ room hotel, a restaurant, associated affordable housing, off-street parking, and retail uses.
Among its other decisions, council also drafted language that would place public civic space to be used for the farmer’s market or other public events in District 5, and allow for basic services like electrical, water, restrooms, and storage space. This echoed the concerns of some residents that wanted to see more specific discussion of those amenities in the plan. Also added into the new District 6 was language that would permit the possible location for a hotel previously shown in the public park area in Hillier’s plan, and an emergency services substation — for services like fire, police, and first aid.
In District 9 and 10, council laid out additional suggestions, including that sidewalks be installed along Wallace Road between Route 571 and Circle Drive, that the visual impacts of the power station be mitigated, that pedestrian paths through the Crawford/Acme Woods site be encouraged to provide access to Berrien City and Circle Drive from Sherbrooke Estates and The Gables, and that retail uses be included that serve commuters.
The second workshop session on October 31 primarily focused on language changes throughout the document, and council members also came to a consensus that they would like to see Hillier include in the plan a table of affordable housing generated by the area’s different uses. Morgan said the chart would also describe the Council on Affordable Housing rules as officials currently know them.
Another issue raised was the number of parking spaces allowed for office use, which is set in the Hillier plan at 1 space per 1,”000 square feet of parking. Kleinman said she thought the minimum should be raised to two. “I just think it’s totally unrealistic that three out of four people will take the train,” she said.
Borek, however, said he felt the township should be limiting the number of cars coming into the site. “I don’t think we should be going up,” he said. “I think we should be more proactive in limiting” the traffic, he added.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers also said she was “interested in mandating the quality of materials used” in the buildings in the redevelopment area so that there would be consistency between the west side and Main Street, but Morgan and Kleinman said they did not want to be restrictive, and suggested the Planning Board make the determination when developers come before the board with their site plans.
Council also decided to eliminate the “security grill housing” allowed for in the Hillier plan, which would allow bars to be placed over windows of the buildings in the redevelopment area, similar to what is seen in more urban areas. Ward suggested council include wording that states that “security will not be visible on the exterior of the building.”
Considerable time was also spent wording that would add site furnishings, including benches, planters, and trash receptacles to Main Street, and that would encourage covered walkways. Many of the ideas were compared with what could be seen along Nassau Street in Princeton.
