The recent flooding of Washington Road near InterCap’s proposed train station redevelopment site — and the prospect of more flooding thanks to Hurricane Irene — have not gone unnoticed by critics of InterCap. In letters to the editor in this week’s News (page 4) and in online postings, critics of the proposed 800 residential units have raised concerns about placing more development in the sometimes flooded area.
West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh explained that the new development will improve the management of storm water on the site.
“There’s still a possibility that the redevelopment plan could be challenged, but once we get the approval from the judge the township will have the authority over the whole 357 acres. Then we can start talking about storm water management — once we have that authority we have a regional storm water management plan to be implemented, and Steve Goldin and InterCap Holdings also have to chip in as part of this regional infrastructure improvement,” he said.
The mayor said West Windsor’s Maneely property of 46 acres off Old Bear Brook and Bear Brook roads is primed for the next environmental improvement. When a developer decides to invest in it they will have to put in retention basins or another form of storm water management.
Hsueh added that beaver dams, although a minor cause of flooding in West Windsor, will have to be knocked down eventually.
Hsueh said his 23 years of teaching hydrology at Rutgers included a focus on designing storm water management programs and conducting environmental impact studies.
“Because of my knowledge of hydrology issues, in my negotiations with Toll Brothers [for the Estates at Princeton Junction] they built two big retention basins and today the flooding is much less than it used to be,” he said. Hsueh added that 20 years ago Washington Road would have had to be closed due to flooding, but now it only happens when exceptionally large storms occur.
“A long time ago the roads used to be closed with the flooding. The number one reason is West Windsor has a development of 118 units right next to Bear Brook Road (Windsor Haven) that were built on wetlands. In those days, before 1987, the state and federal government didn’t have their current regulations in place and developers were allowed to build on wetlands,” Hsueh said.
But the mayor says that residents of Windsor Haven have told him flooding has been much less since the Toll Brothers finished construction of its nearby project, which included the retention basins.
Hsueh says another contributor to flooding issues is Carnegie Lake, which is owned by Princeton University. “The Carnegie Lake is an artificial body of water. They built a dam there and the Millstone River runs into it. Every time there’s a big storm you have water backflow to the Millstone and going into Bear Brook,” he said.
Hsueh knows it is impossible to ask Princeton to get rid of Carnegie Lake. He says the only option will be to push for storm water management controls when there is a planned redevelopment of the site. If InterCap proceeds with its plans, the Washington Road area will be next.
