If the future site of the University Medical Center at Princeton is designated an area in need of redevelopment, Plainsboro will have more leverage in the creating the site plan for and negotiating financial aspects of the relocation of the hospital to Route 1.##M:[more]##
The Plainsboro Township Committee has taken the first step toward giving the FMC site on Route 1 that designation. It voted unanimously on June 13 to authorize the planning board to investigate whether the site constitutes an area in need of redevelopment.
“The redevelopment may hold some advantages to Plainsboro,” said Mayor Peter Cantu. “It could provide us greater flexibility in protecting the Plainsboro taxpayers from a fiscal impact point of view and could represent an opportunity for dealing with the tax exempt portion of the property.”
If a hospital were to be built on the site, it would not pay taxes to the township. The medical offices and other facilities proposed for the site could be ratables. The redevelopment approach would allow the township to enter a payment in lieu of taxes agreement with the developer of the site.
“In a payment in lieu of taxes agreement, the property taxes we get from the site will go to the township, not to the school district,” says township business administrator Robert Sheehan. “Starting in 2009, the school district is being funded on a per-pupil basis. This will allow us to cordon off the taxes from this site and use them solely for municipal purposes.”
Sheehan said the planning board is likely to take until January or February before the investigation is complete. If the planning board determines the site to qualify as an area in need of redevelopment, it would make a recommendation to the township committee, which would formally vote to designate the site as “in need of redevelopment.”
According to Sheehan, the state may need to make a final approval to make the designation official. He said the township anticipates no problem with getting the state’s approval. “We are in good standing with the state. We are a model community with regard to our planning practices.”
The planning board would then be asked to prepare a redevelopment plan, and determine the framework for the planning and public review of the proposal. “The redevelopment approach will not reduce the public’s opportunity to participate in the planning process,” said a statement released by the township.
UMCP submitted the plans to the township in December 2006. The plans include at 636,”000 square foot hospital with the potential for 324,”000 square feet of expansion. The medical offices would be 120,”000 square feet, with a possible expansion of 120,”000 square feet. A long-term care facility would be 120,”000 square feet. The proposal includes a continuing care retirement community that would include up to 400 units of age-restricted housing.
“Our responsibility to meet the affordable housing obligations that this project drives may be better addressed through a redevelopment process,” said Cantu.
Sheehan said the township currently meets its affordable housing obligation, and that there is no possibility that the site would include another housing development.
