It looks like Plainsboro will have a redevelopment project of its own. If history is any indication, this redevelopment will be a lot less complicated than the one that has snarled West Windsor’s municipal government.##M:[more]##
For one thing, Plainsboro’s redevelopment will apply to only one property: The current FMC site, which appears to be the future home of the University Medical Center at Princeton.
Plainsboro commissioned Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates of New York to report on whether it would benefit the township to pursue redevelopment designation for the site. On August 13, the planning board heard the firm’s presentation of the report. Based on that report, The planning board is expected to recommend that the township committee proceed.
According to the report, “much of the FMC facility meets one or more of the ‘area in need of redevelopment’ criteria.”
One advantage for Plainsboro in attaining the redevelopment status is gaining more control over the direction of the hospital project.
“It would increase Plainsboro’s ability to negotiate as a partner in the process,” said Township Administrator Robert Sheehan. “It would empower us to negotiate a developer’s agreement.”
At the outset of the process, Mayor Peter Cantu said there could be other advantages as well. “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,” he said.
“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.
Hillier Architecture, the company hired to plan West Windsor’s redevelopment, designed the plans for the new UMCP. In what was perhaps a reference to West Windsor’s complicated and currently stalled redevelopment process, Cantu said Plainsboro expects that its redevelopment will be a positive and productive process.
“This should not be a contentious situation,” Cantu says. “We are only looking at this single site. Clearly a lot of the issues that have troubled other redevelopment projects do not exist here.”
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.”
If the state grants its approval, 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.
The latest site plan calls for several of the existing FMC buildings, including the main structure, to be demolished. Three existing FMC buildings would remain and be incorporated into the medical center. As proposed, the main hospital building would be glass and brick.
UMCP submitted its site plan 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.
The FMC tract is bounded by the Millstone River, Route 1, Scudders Mill Road, and the connector road between Scudders Mill and Plainsboro roads.
