Members of the West Windsor Planning Board spent more than three hours on April 16 sifting through a Master Plan re-examination report prepared by consultant John Madden as they begin the process of reviewing land use policies and determining whether or not to make changes. And discussions on the report are scheduled to pick up again on Wednesday, June 11.##M:[more]##
Some of the suggestions in the report include the consideration of transfer of development rights and a mandatory residential cluster ordinance as a tool to preserve open space, various residential and affordable housing policies, and zoning changes at the mixed-use planned village at Southfield Road and Route 571.
The township’s Master Plan was adopted in 2002. The Municipal Land Use Law requires municipalities to review their Master Plans every six years to determine any changes that might need to be made reflecting the major problems and objectives relating to land development. While municipalities are able to adopt ordinances and make changes to their Master Plans in between each six-year examination, the re-examination allows the township to make the changes without sending notices specifically to each district that is affected, Madden said. Rather, all of the changes that come out of the re-examination report fall under the umbrella of re-examination.
And “if you don’t have one or adopt one,” Madden said referring to the re-examination report, “the assumption is that development regulations (set forth in the township’s Master Plan) are no longer reasonable,” and a developer could challenge them.
Madden went through the process with the board, explaining that the re-examination report is broken down into five sections. The first is to identify the major problems and objectives existing at the time of the last Master Plan adoption or re-examination. Next, the board will have to determine whether those have been reduced or have increased since that time. That is followed by identifying the extent to which there has been significant changes in the assumptions and policies that formed the Master Plan and development regulations, in areas including density and distribution of the population and land uses, housing conditions, circulation, and conservation of natural resources.
The board will then determine whether to recommend specific changes to these policies and objectives. Finally, the board will determine whether there should be any additional areas designated as areas in need of redevelopment, and changes associated with that.
During the meeting on April 16, the board focused on the first area, going through the report with Madden that highlights specific goals and policies. Under balancing land use, the report stated some of the goals were to preserve open space and farmland preservation, encourage planned office research and research parks on Route 1, add retail opportunities in the southeastern portion of the township, promote economic development opportunities in the Old Trenton Road and Route 571 area, and create pedestrian linkages and community focal points.
Since 2002, the township’s number of preserved acres grew to a total of 1,”610 acres; the Princeton Arms Shopping Center expansion had been approved; the Nassau Pavilion was expanded; the Square at West Windsor was built; the board drafted an ordinance upgrading signage controls; a bicycle and pedestrian pathway had been designed and constructed on the PSE&G powerline right-of-way; and a bridge link to Community Park over Big Bear Brook had been constructed.
Under the goal to provide for a range of housing densities and housing types in the last report, the board listed it wanted to encourage a life cycle housing balance, locate higher density residential areas near access and service, base zoning on established residential characteristics, support planned residential development and clustering, and create senior housing as well as non-family housing opportunities.
Madden pointed out that all multi-family zones have been adopted and all inclusionary developments have been built except for the Akselrad property. He also pointed out that while no specific zoning had been adopted that was designed to create housing for non-family households (single, young, married people without children, or empty nesters), the Princeton Junction train station redevelopment area had the potential to create that type of housing for the township.
Other goals included meeting affordable housing obligations, continuing to maintain high quality housing stock and existing residential character, protecting the greenbelt, and keeping up with the township’s efforts to acquire key open space or agricultural parcels.
Madden described the residential land use policies, which included maintaining an appropriate scale of building, using non-inclusionary housing solutions to meet affordable housing obligations, creating appropriate zoning standards for Berrien City, and creating high density residential zones and senior housing. He said that township officials had been working with Maneely to create mixed use zoning and find a site for Project Freedom. Zoning ordinances have been drafted for Berrien City and for the 80 percent of the residential zones that are currently nonconforming, but have not yet been adopted, he said.
With regard to non-inclusionary housing solutions, Madden said the value of doing an all-affordable housing development would limit the number of COAH units the township would have to provide, because there would be no market-rate units along with it. “People in this town are opposed to this idea,” Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner said. “They want the affordable units to be dispersed around town.”
Madden also listed various zoning districts proposed in the previous Master Plan report and whether or not those district had yet been adopted.
Madden said the township will have to revise its Fair Share Housing Plan and adopt it by September 30. In addition, it should consider the use of transfer of development rights and a mandatory residential cluster ordinance to preserve more open space. He also suggested that proposals from the Sustainable West Windsor Plan be implemented as part of the Master Plan policies.
Other recommendations were to incorporate specific pedestrian and bicycle design policies in the Master Plan and ordinances, and to prepare a build-out analysis to plan for remaining vacant land in detail.
“The township is approaching full development, so the question is how should we use our remaining land?” Madden asked.
He also suggested looking at the traffic calming measures proposed for Clarksville Road by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, and see if those measures would have any traffic capacity consequences of their own.
“Traffic calming on Clarksville Road could be positive in that it will slow traffic, but it could halt it and create congestion,” Madden said.
He also said that “we need specific bicycle and pedestrian design policies.” A separate suggestion in the report was to incorporate a pedestrian bridge on Clarksville Road over the railroad in the circulation plan to allow access from the Jewish Community Center and West Windsor Gardens on Clarksville Road to the east side of the railroad.
Throughout the meeting, board members commented that the report featured a lot of repetition, that it was hard to follow, that it could be concentrated, and that in certain areas, more details were needed.
“We basically responded to most of the recommendation that appear in the Master Plan,” Planning Board chairman Marvin Gardner said. “In some instances, we rejected the philosophy or the thinking, and either chose to eliminate it or amend the Master Plan, consistent with the present needs of the township.”
Gardner pointed out that since 2002, there has been a great deal of activity on part of the Planning Board with respect to carrying out the initiatives set forth in the Master Plan, including “an extraordinary number of ordinances passed by the Planning Board consistent with the Master Plan.”
The board has set the date for June 11 to continue discussions, and “we’ve asked that the town planner, now for the purposes of enlightenment for the public that he insert a one sentence explanation of the action that was taken by the Planning Board for each and every item that was enumerated in the report. That hopefully will clarify the action taken or the reason why the action was taken.”
