With virtually no money budgeted right now for redevelopment matters, and without an updated proposal from the preferred candidate for redevelopment attorney, there is little West Windsor can do to move redevelopment along.##M:[more]##
Following a meeting on June 8 between the mayor and Township Council, however, the council and mayor agreed to put both a capital improvement bond ordinance for $200,”000 and a refreshed proposal from redevelopment attorney candidate Ed McManimon on the agenda for the council’s meeting on Monday, June 22. Along with this, proposals from planner John Madden and traffic consultant Gary Davies, for continued redevelopment work, will be reviewed.
A plan for the 350-acre Princeton Junction train station redevelopment area was adopted in March. The plan calls for a total base number of 483 housing units consisting of 311 market-priced units and 172 affordable housing units. As for non-residential development, the plan proposes 207,”910 square feet of retail with the potential option to increase retail floor area in District 1 — which encompasses the 25 acres off Washington Road owned by InterCap Holdings — by an additional 67,”500 square feet along with 7,”500 square feet of added office space.
If the option for 75,”000 square feet of additional commercial space is implemented, it would add an obligation for 9 more affordable housing units. This would bring the total redevelopment area residential unit count to 496, with 311 market units and 185 affordable units.
However, “at the present time, the council has no budget for redevelopment,” Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh told the council, in opening up the discussion. The purpose of the meeting, Hsueh said, was to lay out what needed to be done to move the project to the next phase. In addition to the allocation of a budget and the hiring of a redevelopment attorney, Hsueh said other issues had to be resolved.
The first involves the Inter-Agency task force that began meeting a year ago over the summer to hash out the details of the traffic circulation pattern surrounding the train station, including the station core area. At the time of the plan’s adoption, officials said that the details for NJT properties and the station core area — including the Bus Rapid Transit system, kiss and ride, and other immediate train station features — could not be completed without the adoption, first, of a plan. Having the plan will allow township officials to work with state agencies, including New Jersey Transit and the state Department of Transportation, as well as the county and the West Windsor Parking Authority in hashing out funding and finishing designs for the station’s core are, they said.
Hsueh told the council that he plans to take Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman with him to an Inter Agency Task Force meeting to make a presentation so that state, county, and NJT officials will have a better grasp of the redevelopment plan and what the township is looking for.
“Without state and county commitment, we cannot do anything at this point,” Hsueh said, adding that both the state and county have already hired professionals to work with township staff, but Hsueh cannot send township professionals to work with them because there is no remaining budget for redevelopment with which the township can pay its professionals.
Another type of commitment needs to come in the form of funding, and Hsueh says township officials need to work with the mayors of the five neighboring towns — Plainsboro, Lawrence, Princeton Borough and Township, and South Brunswick — who joined with West Windsor in February to send a letter to state officials asking for allocation of the funding for Vaughn Drive Connector project to be put back into the state budget. The Vaughn Drive Connector project, estimated at $38.7 million, provides a road connecting Route 571 with Alexander Road through the train station area to facilitate east-west traffic from points east of Princeton Junction to Route 1.
The project received support from the other mayors because it would be a regional improvement that would help during the morning and evening rush hours. Hsueh said a big push is needed to convince state officials to put the money back into the state budget before June 30, when the budget is finalized.
West Windsor lost the $159 million in state funding for Route 1 improvements and $19 million in state funding for Vaughn Drive (the state said it would pay for half of the project’s cost) 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 did say that the township engineer has been working on a design for a parking lot at the compost site. “This piece of property will definitely be used as one of the possible options,” for parking solely for West Windsor residents, but there are also other properties that needed to be reviewed, he said, adding that he will report back to council in a month.
After receiving two state grants for remediation of the site, the township moved ahead with preliminary efforts to begin remediation to make way for more parking. Hsueh said that he is looking at surface parking instead of structured parking for the compost site because “as it is today, we cannot use it as structure parking because the soil is too soft. Maybe in five years when the soil is settled, we can look at the options.”
With regard to the issue of parking, Hsueh said he has contacted New Jersey Transit officials to set up meetings in which he will sit down with both them and the West Windsor Parking Authority, which had already expressed interest in being involved.
That issue raised separate questions during the meeting over whether West Windsor should honor the parking authority’s request to be designated a redevelopment entity in dealing with parking matters.
In the weeks prior to the meeting, the Parking Authority had sent a letter to the mayor and council, saying that such a designation would enable it, 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.
However, during the meeting, the mayor reported that he had since sat down with Township Attorney Mike Herbert, Parking Authority Chairman Andy Lupo, and the parking authority attorney to discuss the matters further, and both parties agreed that giving the parking authority the designation of redevelopment entity would not be the appropriate way to address the issue.
“They agree ‘entity’ was not the right word,” Hsueh said.
Herbert added: “The law does not provide that they be a redevelopment entity, but rather a developer,” which will work with NJT under the guidelines of the township. Hsueh explained that the parking authority would serve as contractors in dealing with the parking issues in the redevelopment area.
But Council President Charles Morgan said he wanted to send the Parking Authority an official council response, since the letter was addressed to both the council and the mayor — “something in writing from the council and the township to give written authority to act as an agent so they can get started.”
He said he wanted something to be put into a resolution, but he received little support from other council members and the mayor, who said he would be willing to submit a memo highlighting the details of the discussions and solution worked out during the meeting he and Herbert had with them. An official contract will have to come in the form of a redevelopment agreement, which cannot be reached until after a redevelopment attorney is hired to deal with the matter. He said he wanted the discussions to continue in the meantime.
Herbert suggested putting together a written memo from the mayor and presenting it to the council at the next meeting. Morgan said he still wanted something to be approved in writing from the council so that the Parking Authority could begin speaking on the township’s behalf.
Herbert said it was not necessary and that the understanding was that the parking authority and mayor would be “speaking together as a voice” in dealing with NJT.
Parking Authority Vice Chairman Lyle Girandola said during the meeting he felt that everyone was close to being on the same plan, and that the reason for the letter in the first place was to “build momentum to get the motion started.”
“What we’re looking for is something that gives us the authority to go down that crucial path of starting communication with NJT,” he said. “I think it would help us by giving us something memorialized,” he added.
Hsueh reiterated that the parking authority “will definitely be there speaking with New Jersey Transit and the township.”
Herbert also said that having a council resolution giving the authority was not necessary. “To have a council participating in an administrative function will put this government on its head,” he said, adding that negotiations of these kind are reserved for the mayor under the Faulkner Act form of government.
Morgan said that he was simply suggesting that the mayor and council work collaboratively together so that once progress in negotiations is made, the council’s lack of involvement in the process will not hinder it. He said, for example, there could be a case in which an issue or oversight comes before council at the 11th hour, and the council will have had little time to review it before needing to make a decision.
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman then suggested a simple resolution that would give the “council’s blessing,” in that it would simply state that the Mayor and Parking Authority should engage in negotiations with NJT.
Tom Calu, the Parking Authority’s adviser, then said he felt that the “parking Authority needs to have just that — an authority.” There is no one in the parking authority who has the authority to talk about the parking matters with the New Jersey Transit, and there needs to be something that “says the Parking Authority is OK doing this.” Not having that confirmation was acceptable before a redevelopment plan was adopted, but now that “conventions apply,” it is much harder, he said.
Herbert said the council could approve a resolution that would simply authorize the mayor to work with NJT and the Parking Authority to carry out the work in the plan, but he did not suggest something that would specifically specify a Parking Authority role.
Still, Geevers said: “I think Charlie’s giving greater authorities to the Parking Authority instead of the mayor.”
What the council ultimately decided was that the mayor would write a memo and copy it to council. Kleinman said that if the council and attorney felt that the letter will be strong enough to have the mayor and Parking Authority meet immediately, she would withdraw her motion for the resolution.
Before the discussion, resident Al Lerner had also urged officials not to give the parking authority the designation of redevelopment entity. “I believe that should be reserved for only elected officials,” he said. “They should have a power of attorney-like ability. Those powers (redevelopment entity) are just too broad.”
Other redevelopment issues that need to be addressed soon are the PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) programs, which can take effect once the township, serving as the redevelopment entity, enters contracts with redevelopers and financial agreements are adopted that would lay out the PILOT program.
However, that also depends upon hiring a redevelopment attorney, Hsueh said, adding that he recommended Ed McManimon as the attorney for the job about 18 months ago. McManimon has also worked as Plainsboro’s redevelopment attorney with regard to the new University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro that is currently being constructed off Route 1.
Hsueh said he will arrange for new council member Diane Ciccone and councilman-elect Kamal Khanna to meet with McManimon in the meantime. However, hiring an attorney also hinges upon having a budget with which to pay him.
“You have a framework with the redevelopment plan, but now the components have to be put into it,” and those come after negotiations with stakeholders, which needs to be done by the redevelopment attorney, Herbert added.
Morgan said, though, that there were still issues that needed to be addressed in the redevelopment plan, which he reiterated was a work in progress. One of the issues is the concerns of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association with regard to the preservation of Sarnoff Woods. He also asked how, if there was no redevelopment budget, the township was holding the meeting.
Township Administrator Chris Marion said he would provide council with an updated list of what has been spent since the last two bond ordinances for redevelopment were approved. He said that between $150,”000 and $200,”000 was available to be added to the capital budget for redevelopment-related services, so that the township can have “a clear idea of what funds will be needed for professional services.”
Hsueh said “you have to take care of first things first,” and without the traffic circulation part of the plan configured, nothing else can be done.
Marion suggested having proposals for three professionals contracts — with McManimon, Davies, and Madden — so that Madden and Davies can handle any outstanding issues with the plan and work with NJT, state, county, and local officials to finish the circulation aspect.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers asked whether the township could use money from a recent liquor license sale (over $600,”000) instead of approving another bond ordinance, so that work can begin right away. But Township Chief Financial Officer Joanne Louth said there would be “no benefit to using the liquor license monies because we’re anticipating getting money back from the redevelopers” to pay back the local bond ordinance. That timeline for recouping costs would be set out in redeveloper agreements, officials added.
Kleinman said she felt that NJT originally came to the table because the township indicated it was creating a redevelopment plan. Now, that it has been adopted, “the ball is in their court” to do their part of the remaining work. “I want to make sure our traffic planner is not doing all the work.” She said she wanted to see parameters outlined for the professionals in their proposals.
Morgan said another issue that remained was the number of crossings over the Dinky track, and Hsueh said NJT has also hired consultants to deal with that issue, which is exactly why a budget is needed so the township’s own consultants can also work on the issue.
“If we believe that two crossings are important to what we want, and if we want to have NJT see the importance of what we want, we shouldn’t have them look at it in a vacuum,” he said.
Marion said he would obtain an updated proposal from McManimon, will set up meetings with Madden and Davies to develop a scope of their proposals, and have Louth draft a bond ordinance for $200,”000 in time for the June 22 meeting.
InterCap Holdings CEO Steve Goldin, who has filed a lawsuit against the town challenging its affordable housing plan and the new zoning designation for his property, said in reference to the $200,”000 bond ordinance that “the disregard for taxpayers that the mayor and council have shown is amazing in the face of litigation that will likely result in the redevelopment plan being illegal. They propose to spend an additional $200,”000 before a decision in the matter.” He said he also believes that “no state agency is going to seriously consider West Windsor’s overtures while the litigation and COAH noncompliancy are pending.”
Joan McGee, of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, urged the council to address the association’s issues with the plan. One of those issues is with the maps, which show a transfer of development rights of the conference center and a portion of the offices up to 137,”000 square feet from the Sarnoff Woods area to an area closer to the train station in District 6. The move is meant to preserve as much open space in the area along the Millstone River as possible. However, the association said it felt the portions of the development being proposed for the transfer would instead fragment the forests and harm the wildlife.
