Faced with a drastic number of affordable housing units coming to the redevelopment area under today’s zoning, some West Windsor council members are saying that planning for an estimated 935 residential units in the 350-acre Princeton Junction train station area may be the best solution.##M:[more]##
And help may come from Steve Goldin, whose firm, InterCap Holdings, owns 25 acres of critical land off Washington Road in the redevelopment area. For the first time in the redevelopment process, Goldin sat at the table on November 7 with council members to explain his proposal in which he would take care of the estimated 60 affordable housing units the township would be obligated to provide as a result of development of the New Jersey Transit properties, at no cost to the township taxpayers, he says.
Goldin’s proposal includes two phases. In Phase I, 528 market units would be built, along with 132 affordable housing units — which take care of his own obligation — for a total of 660 units. In Phase II, 172 market rate units would be built, along with his own 43 affordable unit obligation and the township’s 60 affordable unit obligation generated as a result of office and retail development on New Jersey Transit property.
Under the proposal, 4 percent of the units would be one bedroom, and 3 percent would be three bedrooms, with the rest being two-bedroom units. Goldin has also proposed building heights of four stories, with five stories for the buildings fronting the public green when there is retail at ground level.
In exchange for building the township’s affordable units, Goldin is proposing that the 2.5 percent fee the township would collect from the development on the New Jersey Transit properties to be used toward the 60-unit COAH obligation be paid to InterCap to defray the cost of the 60 NJT COAH units built on its site. And he is proposing that the cost of the structured parking that is needed for the 60 units be funded through tax increment financing, “provided that there is enough incremental tax revenue from District 1 to support the TIF.”
According to Goldin’s figures, building the structured parking would cost $25,”000 per space, multiplied by the 1.5 spaces for each unit, which equivocates to $2.5 million that would be covered through a tax increment financing bond for that amount.
Still, council members are saying these are simply ideas that are discussing, and that no deal has been made with Goldin. The council planned to continue its work on November 20 at a fifth workshop meeting, during which members will review the draft plan incorporating all the changes suggested by council members Charles Morgan, Heidi Kleinman, and Linda Geevers, as well as township professionals over the past four meetings.
In addition to discussing Goldin’s proposal, the council continues to work through the 75-page-plus redevelopment plan drafted by Hillier with its professionals to make decisions and craft the language to ensure the plan conforms to their goals for the redevelopment area.
Kleinman began the discussion on November 7 by recapping the COAH issue, deemed the “big elephant in the room,” and the ways in which the council could get landowners to build the 60 units. She said some ideas were kicked around, including asking InterCap if they would consider buying District 3 — the area located south of the Dinky, primarily on New Jersey Transit and township-owned properties, where the affordable housing was originally projected to be located — so that it was one big project. That suggestion was not embraced, she said.
She highlighted the details of Goldin’s proposal, and said that “in order to architecturally fit that in the site, we would allow four-story buildings, except on the promenade, which is the main public street, where there is retail on the first floor. On that street only, we would allow five stories.”
“This is our obligation,” Kleinman said. “If we choose to say this is a reasonable deal, we could offer this deal to another landowner. It’s still about how we get the 60 units built without having West Windsor taxpayers foot the bill.”
Said Goldin to the council: “We’ve read the papers and observed at meetings council’s concerns, and today I would like to propose a compromise solution that together, I think will meet residents’ desires, council’s concerns, and our investor’s requirements.”
He said that his proposal’s benefits to the township include that the 60 COAH units would be built on site, that it would save the township the acquisition costs for District 3 properties, it saves the township from having to potentially exercise eminent domain, and it saves the township demolition costs. From a planning standpoint, it integrates the units fully into a larger residential component, he added.
And in the township’s use of a TIF bond, “you’re not subsidizing our costs for our market units; you’re not subsidizing our costs for our constitutional obligation to build the affordables,” he added. “It’s only to subsidize the cost of the township’s 60 units.”
Goldin also said that he is so confident that his proposal would generate “nowhere near” the 28 kids per 100 units estimated by former school board member Stan Katz to be brought in by redevelopment that “we’ll say after Phase 1 — the first 660 units — if the project is .28 or below, we have an automatic right to go on to Phase 2, and if the project is .28 or above, we have the automatic right to proceed with all active adult,” or come back to council to discuss whether the project is still revenue positive, meaning he could proceed with the market units anyway.
Morgan said he wanted to ensure that the school capacity assumptions continued to be revisited to check for accuracy. But, “I can certainly live with an automatic trigger if your assumptions prove to be true,” he said.
Goldin said that because of the state of the economy, his experts are anticipating that the market will bottom out in 2009. By 2011, the market will start to bounce back up. “We would anticipate demolition and opening of sales and start of construction in 2011 with the first homes delivered in 2012.” He said that by that time, there will be excess capacity for students in the district.
However, the news that 935 units could possibly make their way into the redevelopment plan caused some residents to criticize the council, in particular by pointing out that three members of council were elected in May, 2007, based on their campaign against the 1,”000 residential units proposed in the original Hillier plans. Council President Will Anklowitz, who has not attended the workshop meetings, still says he will not be voting for a plan that includes as many as 935 units. During the council’s regular meeting on November 10, Anklowitz, who was on vacation during the workshop meetings, said he wanted to see improvements on Main Street, which he said would only generate 1 COAH unit for every 100,”000 square feet of retail space. “I don’t want to pay the taxes; I don’t want to drive through the traffic. I just want to go to the stores.”
Resident Bob Akens compared the proposal to “arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” With regard to the plan as a whole, he said he suspects there are “an awful lot of unknowns, which scares the daylights out of me.” He said he feels Goldin just wants to make money on the project and that the council’s goal, rather, should “be for the benefit of West Windsor people first.”
“I just don’t know how this development has gotten so out of proportion,” said Fisher Place resident Guy Pierson. “I’m losing faith in not only the people sitting around this table, but this township. I just think it’s an abomination what we’re doing to this township.”
Morgan says he does not yet know how he will vote on the redevelopment plan simply because all the work is not done yet, but he says the criticism that he reneged on his campaign promises do not take into account the fact that conditions have changed.
“That was then,” Morgan said. “We didn’t have the COAH rules yet. Do they want me to stand by a position that was sound at the time but today would be foolish? Of course not. Their reactions are based on incomplete information.”
“It would be irresponsible of me to ignore changes in assumptions from when I made that campaign promise,” Morgan added. “I would not serve the public if I ignore the damage to them if I unthinkingly stuck to my position then that’s not so smart today.”
According to Morgan, about 1.7 to 2.2 million square feet of commercial office space could be built in the redevelopment area under current zoning. Under the most recent COAH regulations, every 5,”412 square feet generates 1 affordable housing unit obligation. So the as-of-right COAH obligation under current zoning ranges from 314 and 407 affordable housing units, he calculated.
“The mean obligation in that range is 360 affordable housing units,” Morgan said. “Right now, if we do nothing, if we do no redevelopment plan, and if we assume the median obligation for planning purposes, the current zoning that is on our books today generates 360 affordable housing units that you and I, as taxpayers, are obligated under COAH rules to build.”
And because long-standing township policy states that affordable housing units must not be put into one development by themselves — but rather that they be mixed in with market-rate units with a target ratio of 20 percent affordable housing — those 360 units would require 1,”441 market rate units in the redevelopment area for a total of 1,”801 homes.
This drastic number of units would have to be built either in the redevelopment area or elsewhere in the township, and the question then becomes how it is financed and where these units would go, Morgan says.
And because the redevelopment law allows the township to get an additional 1/3 credit for every affordable housing unit it builds in a redevelopment area, the 1/3 credit allows the township to reduce its affordable housing obligation to 2/3 of 360, or around 240. Goldin is proposing 235 COAH units, including the township’s 60, in his total 935.
Geevers echoed Morgan’s sentiments. “I think it makes sense to put those affordable housing obligation units in District 1, which is the InterCap property,” she said. “It’s more sustainable because you have the train station there, eventually you will have the BRT routes going there, and you have the retail there. People are living there to support that. You don’t want it to fail. You want it to work. COAH has to be built one way or another, so it’s just more efficient to do it this way.”
Morgan has also printed out tables that he says he will be using to guide his decision-making on the redevelopment plan. The tables depict red, yellow, and green stop lights, for various criteria and objectives for each of the surrounding neighborhoods. For example, one goal would be to remediate traffic congestion in the area. Each criteria is given a red, yellow, or green light for the effectiveness to which the plan would resolve that issue. Morgan says the charts will be drivers for his decision-making. “If they were all red lights, my answer is I’m not voting for the plan,” he explained.
