The many residents who said they were not given enough time to talk about the proposed “Little Move” plan unveiled by Hillier at the third and final public redevelopment workshop will get one more chance on Monday, May 21.##M:[more]##
That is the tentative date set for a joint meeting between Township Council and the Planning Board. Heidi Kleinman, a member of both entities, said she would like to hear citizens’ questions before the plan is presented to the township on Monday, June 4, at Grover Middle School.
Council will decide on a format for the joint session at its meeting on Monday, April 30. The date may be changed at the request of Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, who will be out of town at the end of May.
The plan unveiled by Hillier at the third and final public redevelopment workshop includes a little move and a big bowl. While the voice of opposition still rang out from the audience, for the first time, it was drowned out by cheers of support.
The plan includes two seven story office buildings and 1,”000 housing units on the west side of the train station. Those would be separated by “”Windsor Walk,”” a linear park shown to be 100 feet wide and nearly 1,”000 feet long. It would be lined with retail, and at one end would be a public building that architect Bob Hillier called “”The Athenaeum.”” An athenaeum, he said, is the term for a building that is increasingly popular on college campuses — part library and part student center. In West Windsor’s case it could include a performing arts venue.
At the other end of Windsor Walk is “”The Bowl.”” This concept would create a new pedestrian crossing beneath the train tracks 80 feet wide with a 12-foot high ceiling. It takes its name from the gradual slope that would be created on both sides leading into the crossing. On the east side of the tracks, the bowl would lead to a town green created in the current site of Schlumberger and PNC bank. Hillier said the plan could go forth even if neither entity were willing to move to another location.
The plan includes building a new train station to the north of the current one, closer to the Route 571 bridge and the power substation. Hillier said it would be possible for the new station to be built while the old one remains operational. The power substation would be wrapped with a parking deck to its north, along Route 571, and with mixed-use buildings to the south and to the east. At its southern corner, Hillier imagines an “”iconic campanile,”” or tall free-standing bell tower.
In what became one of the more controversial aspects of the presentation, the plan included connecting Alexander Road with Sherbrooke Drive, at the current site of the Acme parking lot, creating two blocks on which townhouses would be built. Acme would be moved further north.
The plan would create 5,”700 parking spaces in as many as 10 parking garages. According to Hillier, 950 spaces would be designated for West Windsor residents exclusively.
Hillier addressed most of the concerns residents have expressed in past workshops and letters to the editor in his presentation. Before the presentation began, he called attention to a list of questions distributed by opponents of the project to attendees on their way into the workshop. The yellow sheet used the project’s “”All Aboard”” logo to look like an authorized part of the workshop, and listed 10 yes/no questions, including “”Are you aware the mayor and the town lawyer have said ‘it may be too late to stop this process,’ however three years ago the opposition was told it was premature to oppose the project before they saw the proposals?””
Another question on the sheet: “”Do you feel adding a transit village by the West Windsor station may attract a higher level of gangs and crime, especially with 1,”000 units of affordable housing?”” In fact, the plan calls for 1,”000 units of housing, but only a fraction would be affordable housing.
“”I understand this was put out by the tobacco lobby,”” said Hillier. apparently referring to Farrell Delman, president of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association and an outspoken opponent of parts of the plan, including 1,”000 housing units in the plan. “”You’re welcome to roll it up and smoke it,”” continued the architect, drawing laughter and applause.
“”I have been in India for the past 10 days working and in France for several days before that,”” wrote Delman in an e-mail the next day. “”I have not been in West Windsor since early April. I had nothing to do with a document that I have yet to even see. Bob is fed up with my letters and my questions and this is the way he deals with First Amendment rights.””
Michael Rosenberg, who was among those distributing the flyers, said he wrote the flyer that afternoon, and that Delman was not involved.
“”I think it’s bad Hillier made an assumption like that,”” said Rosenberg, who lives in Princeton View. “”I’m not telling people what to think, but I believe this is a community that is not into big-scale projects. I think 1,”000 units is a lot for people to be happy with. It will bring too much traffic and development to the area, the kind of development we have been fighting for years.””
Continuing with his introductory remarks, Hillier said that West Windsor has “”not been the easiest client. Some people ranted obscenities at us, and said, ‘leave it the way it is,’”” said Hillier, whose comment was followed by scattered applause.
“”Others cheered us on,”” he said, drawing louder applause. Hillier said the entire project would create an annual tax surplus of $7 million, a surplus that would support a bond issue. Those revenues, plus developer fees and money already committed by the state, would pay for all the improvements, which Hillier estimated would cost about $160 million.
Hillier’s economic analysis was based on the following cost breakdown: $21 million for the West Windsor parking garage; a $14 million athenaeum; “”The Bowl,”” priced at $10 million; a $5 million pedestrian overpass at the south end of the platform; $35 million in private property acquisitions, and various traffic reconfigurations, including extending Vaughn Drive to connect Washington road with Alexander Road.
Many questioned the figures during the public comment session. “”We can’t accept these numbers at face value,”” said councilman Charles Morgan, who was there as an observer. “”It’s all in the assumptions.””
Ben Sigman and Shuprotim Bhaumik of Economics Research Associates, the consulting firm hired to conduct a market study for the project, said the tax and cost projections were not made by their firm. They did, however, examine the economic impact of the residential, retail, and office space proposed in the plan as well as analyzing the demand for all of those elements.
Sigman and Bhaumik projected that the retail space would fetch a premium $40 per square foot in rent, and that a 1,”000 square foot housing unit would sell for $350,”000 and lease for $2,”500 per month. The projections are in 2007 value, and are expected to rise over the five to ten years it will take to build the units.
West Windsor resident Dianne Brake, president of the Regional Planning partnership, spoke at the start of the meeting, and said building a town center would be an improvement over “”the current pattern of separate, low-density developments.””
Said Brake: “”The new pattern of development is far more functional in terms of traffic, fiscal efficiency, environmental protection and in the increase in housing and transportation options. It reduces the loss of open space and increases water protection significantly, something especially important to a state like New Jersey, which is so close to being built-out.””
Brake said “”The Department of Transportation already has some of the infrastructure proposed for West Windsor’s center in their budget, like the Vaughn Drive connection.””
NJ DOT is currently projecting that the Vaughn Drive extension will cost approximately $34 million. According to Hillier architect Bradley Walters, state and federal sources will pay for half, or $17MM. “”The private funds generated by the proposed plan pay for the other half, or $17MM. There is no cost to West Windsor Township,”” says Walters.
Hillier said the plan is expected to generate 303 new students for the school district, a projection supported by Stan Katz.
Katz said while that number of students would not necessitate building a new school, it could still have a negative effect on the WW-P school district. “”It would push the schools we do have to capacity. It would strain our current facilities. How much strain are you willing to put on the system?”” said Katz. “”The cost of the education here would not suffer, but the quality of the education could.””
Read the Public Comments made at the workshop.
Read the Mayor’s response to questions raised following the workshop.
