The seemingly endless procession of meetings continue, and the money is drying up, but West Windsor is no closer to having a redevelopment plan for downtown Princeton Junction than when it started the process almost a year ago — or a more than a decade ago, for that matter.##M:[more]##
Since the 1980s, West Windsor officials have made several attempts at enacting a plan to clean up the Princeton Junction business district and the area around the train station. In at least two instances, plans were finalized and then promptly left to collect dust on the shelves of the West Windsor planning offices, victims of changes in elected leadership.
The latest plan, a concept that depends on the construction of a transit village at the Princeton Junction train station as its linchpin, may be destined for the same fate.
On September 19 the West Windsor Council and Planning Board met in a joint session in an attempt to get the project back on track. And while all present agreed that the session was a step in the right direction, it seemed to raise more questions than it answered.
Council is expected to continue its discussion on Monday, September 24. The group must determine whether to authorize additional funding for redevelopment, the size and scope of the project, and whether it wants to send the plan immediately to the planning board for review, or hold several educational meetings on traffic and finance first.
The number one issue at hand revolves around the scope of the project. On this, two factions became clear during the joint meeting. The first, which includes the council majority of Will Anklowitz, George Borek, and Charles Morgan, is arguing for a scaled down project.
The second faction, including Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner, argues that the entire 350-acre redevelopment zone should be studied and a comprehensive plan should be crafted.
Many also pointed out during the meeting that whatever the decision, the Council and Planning Board need to work closely together to ensure that the final plan is one which council, the entity with the final say on the project, will approve.
“It was suggested to me the other day by someone,” said Gardner, “that council is throwing this (the redevelopment plan) at us because they’re trying to get rid of a hot potato.”
He reinforced his statement with a final comment at the end of the meeting before immediately adjourning: “Council is not going to get away with not working with us on this. We will share in the glory or share in the blame. I’m not going to get hung out to dry.”
Last December RMJM Hillier, the West Windsor based planning and architectural firm, was hired for $330,”000 to create a master plan for the redevelopment of a 350-acre area that includes the train station and the Route 571 business district. Earlier that year, council voted to designate the zone as an area in need of redevelopment.
Between January and April, Robert Hillier, the principal of RMJM Hillier, and his professionals conducted several meetings with the public to gather their input on the plan, which depicted a transit village at the Princeton Junction train station.
Community sentiment turned against the project when Hillier introduced a residential element to the transit village that called for the construction of 1,”000 units of housing, including state-mandated affordable units.
The election of three transit village opponents — Morgan, and his running mates Anklowitz, and Borek — to the council in May’s municipal election killed all momentum that had been building on the project. The three fully publicized their opposition to the 1,”000 housing units to catapult them to victory.
Since then, their stance has not changed.
During the September 19 meeting, Anklowitz, Morgan, and Borek said that the redevelopment should be limited to a review of current zoning in the redevelopment area, a parking garage for township residents, a main street on Route 571, and a financial analysis of those issues. Any other ideas, including a transit village, can be studied in the future, they said.
Before the meeting, both Anklowitz and Morgan indicated they are not in favor of acting on the Hillier-designed plan.
When asked by the News whether he believes any piece of the Hillier plan can be salvaged, Morgan answered, “I don’t think so. Maybe to the extent that the plan identifies some parking locations and infrastructure issues. But that’s about it.”
“Why would you want to see a mini-city in the middle of a suburb,” said Anklowitz on the transit village. “We’ve been spending too much time focusing on the redevelopment zone and not on other things. Roads and road safety, that’s an area that needs attention, and is the main concern among township residents.”
“I don’t think people want a transit village,” said Morgan. “I think we got badly distracted in the process. Nowhere in the instructions that we gave to Hillier did we say that we wanted a transit village. So now we have to go back to square one. We have to go back to what the community wants.
“From my perspective, the election was a referendum on the redevelopment plan,” Morgan adds. “On the morning of the election we handed out 1,”500 copies of the New York Times at the train station that had a sticker with ‘1,”000 homes’ in a red circle with a line through it. Next to it, we had a green circle with ‘main street’ in it.”
During the meeting, Morgan, who also sits on the planning board, says council should send a clear message to the planning board so it can focus its efforts on a plan that council will approve.
“Council and the Planning Board have had a lot of confusion as to what the scope and scale of the plan should be,” Morgan said. “We need to give them a little clarity as to what might not be acceptable. We owe them the opportunity to work on areas that will be well-received when the plan comes to council.”
Anklowitz, Borek, and Morgan said the focus should be on the areas where there is community support and that consideration of more intense redevelopment can happen in the future. “It may be that we are not even sitting here when that happens,” said Morgan.
“I’d like to be sitting anywhere when this is finished,” responded Gardner, who is in his 70s. “I’d just like to still be upright.”
Hsueh has argued, meanwhile, that if township doesn’t pursue the transit village, New Jersey Transit, which owns the majority of the lots around the station, will throw up multi-level garages to accommodate the increased demand for parking at the station.
He also said that building a transit village would provide incentive to the state to fund the construction of the Vaughn Drive connector, an extension of Vaughn Drive proposed by the state that would connect Alexander Road to Route 571.
According to the Hsueh, the state has budgeted some $19 million over the next few years for the construction of the road. That money could dry up and the project put on the back burner if there is no transit village.
Such a project would also help speed up funding from the county for Route 571 improvements in downtown Princeton Junction, said the mayor.
Both Hsueh and Gardner said that lacking a comprehensive redevelopment plan, it will be difficult to fund items like infrastructure improvements and parking garages.
Without the type of incentives a redevelopment plan can provide for developers, and without county and state funding, the township would have to find other means to pay for infrastructure improvements, they argue.
“We should not be held hostage by the possibility of state funding to determine what we want for our people in this township,” Morgan said.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers argued in favor of a plan for the entire 350-acre zone.
“We have already budgeted hundreds of thousands of dollars for this redevelopment plan,” Geevers said. “We owe it to the public to see it through. This is our opportunity to look at the entire area. We shouldn’t just be looking at the vacuum of just a parking garage and Route 571.”
Borek said the review should be limited and then broadened in the future. “Let’s start with the basics, and then expand on the basics.”
Borek adds that while out on the campaign trail, many people said their primary concern was Route 571 improvements. “If we focus on those improvements and people see that we are meeting their concerns, they may be more apt to support a bigger project.”
The mayor has said the time has come to move the process forward. “I gave them (council) the summer to figure things out and now I want to get more involved. Council, administration, and the Planning Board need to be on the same page. If we all cannot come together and also have a clear understanding of township, state, and county roles, we’re not going to get anywhere.”
“I have been waiting for the council to tell me what they wanted to do,” Hsueh said. “There have been misunderstandings over the housing units, and the new council members have said they have reservations about moving ahead. Charles Morgan has told me the process must be stopped, but it seems to me that he has been changing his position every week. Every day, sometimes.”
In addition to the scope redevelopment, another issue to be addressed is a shortage of funds.
Under the timeline established last year for the creation of the redevelopment plan, the town should be at a point to give clear direction for the creation of a draft redevelopment master plan to Hillier.
The original agreement with Hillier outlined a three phase process. The first phase called for Hillier to conduct three planning workshops (charettes) with the public. That phase finished in March.
Phase two began on June 4 with a presentation by Hillier to the Township Council and Planning Board of the findings and conceptual proposals from phase one. The original timeline called for officials to discuss issues and concerns and then give Hillier a clear direction to create a draft redevelopment plan.
The third phase would have been for the Planning Board to review the final draft, hold three public meetings, and make recommendations to Council on the draft plan.
But phase two was derailed. Based on the election results and criticism by redevelopment opponents of the way his firm handled the phase one process, Hillier offered to step down from the project during the June 4 meeting. The Council was to meet again on June 18 on the project, but instead cancelled the discussion.
Since then, the only decisions that have been made were to hold more meetings, appoint new committees, and even publish an educational document for residents. Worse, all these items were not included in the original scheme, and could come at a significant additional cost — money the township doesn’t have. (see story below).
Last month, Hillier and the redevelopment steering committee — a group comprised of council, administration, and planning board officials — decided to hold three educational meetings, starting in October to promote understanding of the process. Hillier has also proposed the creation of a document outlining frequently asked questions on the areas being studied to give to residents..
Meanwhile, the council has approved the creation of two new committees — the Redevelopment Finance Committee, and the Infrastructure/Traffic Committee — to further investigate redevelopment issues and provide information for the educational meetings.
Whether the meetings will take place, or the committees formed for that matter, was another question raised at the September 19 meeting.
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman told the board that the council during its September 17 meeting contemplated handing the redevelopment over to the planning board to begin its review now, rather than holding the educational meetings.
“We talked about sending this to the planning board with some directive of priorities,” she said. “That way the board can start grappling with the issues.”
Only a handful of residents attended the joint meeting. During public comment, Alison Miller , a former member of council, suggested that the township look at two plans. “One plan that outlines what we can afford (the township to fund), and the other on what we can do if others help us finance the project. That way we can say to them, ‘If you want us to build this (larger plan), then you have to give us something. Otherwise, we’ll just build what we can afford.’”
Courtney Drive resident Richard Eland said his group, the West Windsor Neighborhoods Association, supports a plan with a larger scope. “The way it’s going, I see this process stretching on for years, and years, and years. We’re missing out on chances to get something done comprehensively for the community.”
Windsor Drive Bob Akens said that township residents need to be better informed about redevelopment. “There is a grave need to get the public educated far more than Hillier did.”
Following the meeting Gardner said the the next step for the planning board is to meet in the near future. “We need to determine how we’re going to address the issues raised (on September 19). We have to determine what vehicle we’re going to use in terms of what I believe should be a concept plan or guideline for Hillier to follow for developing an action plan.”
“We need to give Hillier direction jointly, he adds. “The Planning Board and Council need to determine what we’d like to see in a concept plan so we’re all on board on what we’d like to see developed at the future.
