Now that the dust from the municipal election season has settled, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh is taking his first steps toward moving forward with one of the largest projects in the township — the redevelopment of the 350-acre Princeton Junction train station area.
The mayor and council have scheduled a meeting specifically to talk about next steps for redevelopment and to build consensus on a number of priority items. The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Monday, June 8, prior to the council’s meeting at 7 p.m.
“I want all of the council members, including myself, to identify all of the issues we need to focus on, and we need to set the priorities so the administration can move all of this forward,” said Hsueh.
“The New Jersey Department of Transportation and NJ Transit already have consultants, and both want to work with us,” he added. “We’ve got to have some commitment from our traffic consultants to work together to get some of the issues resolved. In addition, we need to push to have funding come back to West Windsor for Vaughn Drive.”
Hsueh pointed to the loss of $159 million in state funding for Route 1 improvements and $19 million in state funding for Vaughn Drive last year, during which state officials cited the township’s lack of a plan for the train station area as a major reason they dropped the projects from their priority list.
Hsueh says he is also looking to get commitment from the county for Route 571 improvements. At the same time, he says, West Windsor officials need to start looking at the parking needs and try to get parking for West Windsor residents as soon as possible.
Another issue that might be discussed is hiring a redevelopment attorney. Council and the mayor have disagreed over how to go about hiring such an attorney for more than a year. Last time it was mentioned on a council agenda, the issue was adjourned.
During the Township Council’s meeting on May 18, council also mentioned a letter the township received from the West Windsor Parking Authority, which requested that the parking authority be designated as the redevelopment entity so that it could move forward with parking.
In that letter to the township (see page 2 for full content), WWPA Chairman Andy Lupo says that the parking authority understands that such a designation is consistent with state laws applying to parking authorities as well as to redevelopment activities, and that this designation would be a fairly common strategy.
“Such a designation will enable the authority — as an agent for the township — to enter into meaningful discussions with NJ Transit, which owns properties identified within the redevelopment plan, as preferred sites for structured parking,” Lupo wrote in the letter. “The requested designation will also allow the authority to take its work beyond the conceptual level in exploring any potential for public-private partnerships by which parking improvements would be pursued without encountering public debt. In this regard, even though the authority does not control the most critical parcels involved, we are committed to exploring every possible opportunity for arrangements that could yield advantages to township residents.”
Lupo also states that the parking authority understands that the township might not be able to make the designation yet since it does not yet have a redevelopment attorney. In this case, he asked that the council and administration instead provide written authorization for the parking authority to proceed as an agent for the township in dealings with NJ Transit or any potential private sector partners “in the pursuit of parking soluations and related access improvements consistent with the redevelopment plan.”
Lupo explained that the parking authority wants to be designated as a redevelopment entity just as it relates to planning and implementing parking improvements, which may include streets leading into such parking improvements.
“We don’t want to be designated as a redevelopment entity for the entire project — it’s just for the parking and access,” he said.
With regard to building a parking structure, the authority does not want to build on the Wallace side, and sees that the best opportunity for building a garage would be on what is considered to be NJ Transit property, “other than parcels we have, which would not be the ideal location for a new garage.”
“We believe putting a garage on Alexander would be the ideal location, but we certainly realize we’re looking to make recommendations,” Lupo said.
“We always wanted to move sooner than later,” Lupo added. “A big redevelopment like we have will certainly take longer to develop because you’re trying to do so many things — housing, retail, commercial, and parking. We want to focus on what we think is the direct easier objective, which is to satisfy the parking needs.”
Once the redevelopment ordinance was passed by council, it became apparent that the only agency that would be able to talk, negotiate, and have discussions with NJ Transit, though, would be those who are designated by council, Lupo said. “If we have redevelopment entity status, we could go in, negotiate, and discuss different scenarios” with NJ transit, “with the caveat that whatever we do, we would still come back to council. We would make recommendations as to what we believe should be the next course of action. They can tear it down, they can agree with it. They would still be in control.”
Lupo says the next step in the process is to start having these discussions. “Until someone does that, having a redevelopment zone doesn’t really mean anything,” although it does restrict what can be built. “We’re just trying to move forward,” he said.
When asked about the designation the parking authority is requesting, Hsueh said: “We have to look into all of this, and at what the implications are. The parking authority will be one of the players, but we need to define the roles.”
Other Business. The council awarded a $6.545 million contract to Star of the Sea Concrete Corporation of Old Bridge for phase one of the Meadow Road Extension and Duck Pond Run Interceptor project.
