The Plainsboro Township Committee held off on approving the release of performance bonds to developer Centex Homes for work at the Windmere Grove residential development after the homeowners association president expressed concern about some of the improvements on site.##M:[more]##
Paul Komosinsky, who approached the committee during its December 10 meeting, asked the committee to hold off on releasing the bonds that were scheduled for approval that night. He said the homeowners association wanted time to have an engineer it had previously employed look over issues with regard to some of the grassy common areas in the back of the development and residents’ concerns about their driveway aprons.
Komosinsky said he wanted to ensure that the bonds were not released without first making sure that those issues pertaining to the residents’ concerns were not issues that would have been covered under those bonds.
Mayor Peter Cantu asked Les Varga, the township’s director of planning and zoning, whether the performance bonds would cover any of these concerns. Varga explained that there is still a maintenance bond that remains in place that is worth 15 percent of the total bond amount. That was not up for release, he said.
Cantu asked whether there was any reason why the committee could not hold off until township officials verify that there are no material issues that would be outstanding if the bond were released that would not be covered by the maintenance bond, and Varga said there was no reason.
“We would like to have some information quickly to us as to what those issues are so we can determine whether, in fact, these are items that would not be covered in the maintenance bond if the performance bond is released,” Cantu said. Cantu urged Komosinsky to quickly get in touch with township officials to discuss the concerns with township staff. “We do have a responsibility to be fair about this process,” he said.
However, Mark Pawlowski, of the law firm Giordano, Halleran, & Ciesla, also spoke during public comment, representing Centex. He requested that the performance bonds be released during the meeting. “Centex has a pretty large maintenance bond in place to cover any items which happen to be public improvements,” he said. He said the checklist of improvements required of Centex in order for the performance bonds to be released have been inspected by CME Associates, the township’s engineering firm, and have been approved.
Said Cantu: “I think the question here is whether it’s unreasonable to have a brief opportunity for us to hear the concerns, review those concerns and consider exactly your points. I’m not suggesting it’s going to be denied.”
Pawlowski said that Centex officials were hoping to have the performance bonds released by December 31 as they were preparing to do their year-end rollover.
The committee removed the items pertaining to the bonds from the list. If the concerns are addressed in time for the committee’s year-end meeting on Tuesday, December 30, they will be put on the agenda. Otherwise, they will be on the agenda in January.
This is not the first time that Komosinsky and the homeowners association have come before the committee regarding Centex’s work in the development. The Windmere Grove Homeowners Association sought the Plainsboro Township Committee’s help last spring in getting the developer to finish work on common ground areas around the neighborhood.
Centex Homes, which built the development of 55 single-family homes off Wyndhurst Drive, still had a few remaining final improvements to make, including landscaping and drainage work on common areas that surrounding the homes. Komosinsky had alleged the project was dragging on for a few years. Construction on the houses began in 2003, and by 2005 all of the houses had been built. Komosinsky said then that generally there were no problems with regard to any of the individual homes, but that the association just wants Centex to move along with the remaining work on the common ground areas.
As a result, the township sent a letter to Centex, and the township’s engineer has been working with Centex representatives ever since.
Appointments. In other business, the Township Committee unanimously approved the appointments of William Reininger and Robert Kasuba as alternate members to the Planning Board.
Reininger, a civil engineer, is already currently serving as an alternate member of the board. His new term will expire on December 31, 2010. Kasuba, a land use attorney with Sills, Cummis, and Gross, will serve until December 21, 2009. Kasuba recently represented David Zaidi — who owns the 28-acre Cox property, the site of a former junkyard, and the 22-acre Charydczak property, which is farther north on Penn Lyle Road, both in West Windsor — when the two properties were up for rezoning at West Windsor’s Planning Board.
