The West Windsor Council voted 4-0 to pass a resolution supporting Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh’s efforts to try to recover $19 million in funding from the state Department of Transportation for the Vaughn Drive connector project.##M:[more]##
The measure, approved February 25, came just two weeks after Hsueh told the council that the state had dropped the funding — which would cover half of the $38 million estimated cost — because “they didn’t see we were moving redevelopment along,” Hsueh said then.
The project would entail the extension of Vaughn Drive in a northerly direction to connect with Washington Road (Route 571). The vision plan created by township officials along with New Jersey Transit and the state Office of Smart Growth concluded in June, 2005, that “any future development of this area must include as its linchpin, the extension of Vaughn Drive,” the resolution states.
Further, “the absence of this financing will jeopardize any possible redevelopment of the West Windsor/Princeton Junction area and the improvement of the most valuable mass transit facility in the entire region,” the resolution states.
Council President Will Anklowitz drafted the resolution after the February 11 meeting during which Hsueh announced the funding was dropped. Hsueh had praised Anklowitz’s efforts, saying that the council and the mayor must show solidarity and show that redevelopment was moving along and that it would happen.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers said that she thought the state should pay the full 100 percent of the cost, not just the $19 million because it is a regional train station. “It’s not West Windsor’s train station,” she said. “It’s really a state asset, but the state’s in dire financial need. At the very least, that money should be reinstated. It’s critical to the redevelopment project.”
Anklowitz echoed the sentiment. “I’d like to see the state pay for the whole thing, but at the very least, keep the half in there that they proposed,” he said. “We can always try to go back and argue for the other half at a later time.”
Further, “one of the principles of Smart Growth is to take advantage of the existing infrastructure,” he said. “We already have the train station. We need to get the traffic flowing in and out of it better than it flows now.”
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman said she was worried about language in the proposed resolution that didn’t address that construction costs change over time, and that the $19 million “doesn’t tie to anything over time,” she said.
Anklowitz and Herbert said it did, but Kleinman said she would like a reference to that idea in the resolution. “We are assuming that $19 million is 50 percent based on the documents that the state has projected.” She said she wanted the resolution to state “that $19 million is tied to some assumption that it’s 50 percent.”
