By a 3-2 vote, the West Windsor Township Council moved forward with a redevelopment plan for the 350-acre Princeton Junction train station area that contains a base number of 350 housing units and sets up 10 zoning districts compiled from ideas discussed over the past year, most notably during a slew of “marathon” workshop meetings council has held this fall.##M:[more]##
The plan was an amended version of a proposal put forth by Heidi Kleinman, who, along with Charles Morgan, voted against it, saying that the small number of housing units would not be large enough to generate interest from developers, an opinion shared by Steve Goldin, CEO of InterCap Holdings, which owns 25 acres off Washington Road.
Kleinman had originally proposed 500 market units, with 160 affordable units, for a total of 660 — a plan she said was a compromise and reduction from Hillier’s proposal for 1,”000 units that caused public outcry and delayed the process for over a year.
The township’s professionals will finish up the language in the plan and bring it to council on Monday, December 8, at which time council will review the language as it prepares to send the plan to the Planning Board on January 5. The board will have 45 days to review the plan before it heads back to council for public hearings and adoption.
While the majority of council and the mayor have called the vote a significant step in the process, Goldin has said that “the reality is it’s not going to get built. This was just a smoke and mirror charade.”
Earlier this fall, Goldin had brought a proposal to council for 935 units on his property to come in two phases — in the first phase, 528 market units would be built, along with 132 affordable housing units to 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. Prior to that, Goldin had submitted a plan to the Planning Board for a multi-use development on his property that requests rezoning for 1,”440 condominiums and 88,”000 square feet of office and retail space, along with a letter implying possible litigation.
The council’s decision came just a week after the council discussed the possibility of cutting down the commercial uses in the area, and therefore only allowing only the amount of housing that would satisfy COAH obligations generated by a smaller project. Also discussed was a letter from the Dreher Group, of Princeton, which is under contract to purchase the Acme site, which has requested to be left out of the redevelopment plan. The developer only wants to make esthetic improvements to the shopping center and bring in a newer grocery store, but does not want to be included in the redevelopment plan because it could possibly mean demolition of the center and moving the buildings closer to the road, a move that would be a deal-breaker because of the financial implications, Township Attorney Mike Herbert told the council.
After a 30-minute closed session on December 1, one council break, and a lengthy council debate over two topics — the number of the housing units that needed to be included to ensure the plan is economically viable and safeguarded against litigation from developers, and the impact the state Council on Affordable Housing regulations would have on development in the zone, a topic that has driven most of the recent public discussions of the housing element — the council finally voted. It also came as township officials weighed the looming possibility of litigation from InterCap.
After the closed session, council reconvened, at which time Morgan announced that Kleinman, who has been the driver of the discussions during council workshop meetings on the plan, would be putting her proposal on the table. Kleinman outlined the various zones that would be created in the plan.
The proposal, she said, comes from numerous meetings over the years. “It’s a compilation of three national firms that have now looked at this same site over again,” she said. “They have come up with very much the same answer with a little different configurations.”
“There is nobody who is happy with everything,” she added. “It’s 350 acres. It’s not the 25 acres that InterCap owns.”
District 10 in her proposal outlines the property owned by Sarnoff, which already has a general development plan approved. “In the zoning what we’re saying they will continue to have a right to build that, but it is such a shame to lose that land to development, up against the Millstone River. So, we have tried to create a transfer of development rights, a funding source from land that West Windsor owns inside the 350 acres. By saying on our land, if we raise the height a couple more stories for buildings that will potentially get built, that we would have a funding source so that we could hopefully save Sarnoff.”
Kleinman explained that Sarnoff did not include any affordable housing in the plan that has already been approved, but that under the redevelopment plan, the township is requiring that if Sarnoff officials build, they will have to solve their own affordable housing obligation on their property. Morgan explained that township officials would have the ability to negotiate a deal with Sarnoff to amend the plan.
District 9 is the small piece of property where the school district keeps its buses on the corner of Wallace Road and Route 571, which would be transformed into a public park, created by the township, with land set aside for Wallace Road improvements, pedestrian and bike access to crossing over the railroad tracks.
District 8 consists of the power station, the Wallace Road parking lot, and the service parking lots on he left and right of train station. “We have goals to improve traffic circulation there, but the Wallace Road parking would stay the same as it is today,” Kleinman said. “We would like to suggest that in the future, we would use the surface parking for expanded kiss and ride, stormwater management, or just an esthetics.”
District 7 refers to everything currently on Route 571, from Wallace to Alexander roads. “We spent an awful lot of time on the overlay ordinance, and all of that stays in place,” she said. In this zone, there is housing included on the second floor. The buildings are two-story building, with the residential component included. “We’ve increased coverage on that land, we’ve encouraged parking that goes between properties so that hopefully people won’t have to keep moving their cars down the road,” she added. “This is about the trees, sidewalks, benches, and it’s about making it a lot nicer.”
District 6 is includes everything left and right of Vaughn Drive. “We have a series of buildings already there — Mack Cali buildings, and a lot of properties owned by the township of West Windsor,” she said. “It is zoned for parking and offices.” The zone includes a limitation of three stories for offices and a hotel conference center with at least 100 rooms as a possibility. “This is the property that we would allow up to five stories but the two top stories be used for the transfer of development rights to pay for the Sarnoff Woods,” Kleinman said. If there are offices in this section of the zone, it would generate an affordable housing obligation, and the housing would have to be built on those pieces of properties.
“The bulk of these properties are owned by West Windsor,” Kleinman said. “This is our future. We can chose to never build anything. But when it gets built, then we have to solve this obligation, but the obligation can be controlled because it’s our land.”
Vaughn Drive in the plan would be a connector road, and would not serve as a main street, says Kleinman. District 5 includes one business in the floodplain. “What we have done is use the District 3 property and using height again, to transfer development rights so we have some funding to pay to hopefully one day buy out that business,” Kleinman said.
District 4 is a thin piece of property owned by New Jersey Transit up against the Dinky line. “It is an excellent place to the parking lot because it’s next to the Dinky line and it comes up to the tracks,” said Kleinman. “It is zoned commuter parking and office and retail. It sits right on the continuation of Main Street as it goes over the track.” The parking garage would hold four levels of parking spaces, but would actually stand three stories high, Kleinman said.
Because the property is zoned office and parking, if NJ Transit should sell the land to build an office building, the obligation for housing is on NJ Transit’s property. But John Madden, the township planner, said that the redevelopment plan should state clearly that if there is an affordable housing obligation involved in any development to subsidize structured parking on NJ Transit property — which would solve a regional need — that West Windsor would not be obligated to provide affordable housing. “And if the state cannot agree to that, then the plan should state that NJ Transit should find an alternative means of creating structured parking,” Madden said.
District 2 is a slim piece of property on current Station Drive where the current Chinese restaurant is located. “We would like some retail on the first floor, but it is all for a parking garage,” Kleinman said. “Study after study says that this is the best use of the property along the tracks.” The parking garage would be tall and thin — four stories high in building, which creates five levels of parking.
District 3 is the west side of the train tracks, along the left side of Route 571. The property is often overlooked because the bridge is about two stories high, and the property is below view. “This property is really the flagship property entering onto our promenade,” said Kleinman. The buildings are three stories high, with a fourth story of a transfer of development rights from the business in District 5.
District 1 — InterCap’s 25 acres on Washington Road — in addition to the 660 housing units, would need to include an open grassy area with a space for art events and the Farmer’s Market, with office space, storage space, and public toilets, Kleinman said. “The length of the promenade is about 1,”000 feet on both sides,” Kleinman said. “The promenade is about 50,”000 square feet of public space. This is the center of the downtown, and on either side it would be flanked with 7,”200 square feet of retail.”
The internal roads, intersection improvements and off-street structured parking would also be the responsibility of the developer. Buildings would have height maximum of four stories, and the entire development would sit on six square blocks.
Kleinman’s proposal for District 1 also included allowing 10 percent of the square footage in the zone for offices. “I feel that when I walk down Nassau Street or Palmer Square, it’s nice when there’s a little bit of variety of the architecture,” Kleinman said. “It could be a small boutique kind of law office.”
After presenting her proposal, Kleinman urged the council to make a decision. “I am tired of talking about it. I am tired of coming to meetings,” she said. “I feel that it’s very difficult to create consensus. I would like to vote on this. If someone has another plan, we can run through their plan and we can vote on it, but I would request that someone second my proposal, and just vote. If it goes down, redevelopment is over. It’s done. No consensus could be made.” However, Kleinman could not get the other council members on board with her plan.
“If the plan didn’t specify those 500 housing units, it would be something I would be interested in trying to support,” said Anklowitz. “If you’re willing to leave it to be negotiated through a redevelopment agreement, I would be on board with this, but I think the public made it pretty clear that hey didn’t want a large housing component.”
Still, “we have continually seen that this project has been suggested by several planners that we should have about 1,”000 houses,” Kleinman argued. “I have clearly heard that people do not want 1,”000 houses. This project which I am proposing is about 660 — its about one-third; a 30 percent reduction. I can’t vote for a plan that doesn’t even begin to connect to some kind of economic viability.”
Anklowitz said that any developer would have to come back to council as a result of a redevelopment agreement anyway. Council should leave out specifying a number for the housing units in the plan, and let negotiations happen when the time comes to approve a redevelopment agreement.
But the possible litigation drove the rest of the conversation. “If we don’t put a number in and specify up to ‘x’ amount of 1,”000 units, does that leave the door open to any kind of further litigation?” asked Councilwoman Linda Geevers.
Debate over possibly including a range for the number of housing units, and whether it was defensible in court, ensued. Kleinman said she would love to leave out a number in her proposal, but said she felt it was important to have tight zoning and restrictions.
Morgan said he was sympathetic to Anklowitz’s concerns and that he had wanted to leave some of the decisions to the Planning Board in the future, when COAH rules and other implications were more clear. “To me, it doesn’t matter whether we start at zero, or start at 600, and leave it to what the planning board approves. The ending point isn’t so important as the ideal of allowing us control over that future, and it’s not achievable.” He said the township needs to be bullet-proof with regard to litigation. “If we could just find a way of legally giving us that kind of control, I’d be all over it, but I just don’t believe it’s there.”
Madden reiterated the council’s idea to include in the plan that the township be exempted from any affordable housing generated on the NJ Transit property as a result of the structured parking and office to be built here. He also said that the affordable housing obligation could be reduced by using demolition credits and bonus credits, and that is why, in a memo to council before the meeting, he had said the 500 units included in the plan, along with the 160 COAH units, would be acceptable.
Geevers asked about starting with a range of 450 units to 600 units. Councilman George Borek had also suggested a range of perhaps 200 to 500 units. Planning Board attorney Gerry Muller, however, said the plan should be as specific as possible, leaving out the ambiguities a range would create.
Township Attorney Mike Herbert warned the council that discussing these matters in public session could hurt the township’s legal position in court. “I must tell you that if in open session, you’re saying there is a range of 250 to 600, the developer already knows what the permissible number is — it’s 600.”
Still, Morgan said he was convinced that the economics really drive the project closer to 1,”000 units than 660. “If you’re not at 1,”000, if you’re at 660, you’re going to get sued anyway, because it’s not economically viable, and you’re putting in a number that’s unrealistic. So it seems to me we cannot move forward with that number without a financial analysis. We’ve got no financials here telling us with clarity that the 660 is economically viable.”
“Since we are in public session I think it’s important to note that the number of 660 was not pulled out of a hat,” said Herbert. “There’s some basis for that. Let the record reflect, because we may be in court sometime very soon, that 500 or 600 was not picked out of the air.”
While Madden said many studies point to a number between 750 and 1,”000 housing units as necessary to sustain a vibrant town center, Madden said 500 units is the “absolute bottom line minimum that we would want in some kind of town center. From there, it’s going to come out in negotiations.”
Herbert said he has never met a developer who was satisfied with the number of units given by any town, but that if the township makes a rational basis for its decision, it will be defensible in court. “We may be sued irrespective of what we come up with, but let’s have a more defensible position,” he said. “You’re not going to have a defensible position if you’re talking about 150 units or 15 units. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“If we’re not discriminating against, and we’re not taking anything from him, and we’re not being arbitrary or capricious, what’s his basis for the lawsuit?” Morgan asked. “Are you saying that somebody like Mr. Goldin can force us to change our zoning? I think the answer is yes, if it’s COAH-driven.”
Still, Herbert said he did not feel comfortable having the discussion in public. “One of the reasons why lost Toll Brothers was because of comments made in public session, and I’m simply telling you that if you go with 600 units or 500 units, it’s a heck of a lot better than coming up with nothing at all in terms of a defensible position in court.”
Geevers said that the 935 units proposed by Goldin included the COAH obligation that would have been generated on other parts of the redevelopment area, and because the council has added language that forces each individual property owner to be responsible for its own COAH obligation, it was no longer an issue. Morgan said that commercial is the main driver of COAH units, but said getting rid of the commercial use under the as-of-right zoning would cause the township to lose $9 million in revenue at full build out. Still, his own plan, which he did not bring to the table during the meeting, included the proposal to get rid of the heavy commercial uses in the redevelopment area.
After a break, Anklowitz made a motion to amend Kleinman’s proposal to instead include 350 housing units, subject to further application based on financial analysis, impact to community, and contributions for amenities as discussed through negotiations with developers.
“I can’t guarantee that even if you put 800, you won’t get sued,” said Herbert, who acknowledged it was clear there were not three votes in support of the 500-unit plan, when he was asked his opinion on the 350 units. “Rather than coming with nothing at all, which would be going to court without (the option for) negotiations, this is an attempt to be rational.”
“We said no to 1,”000 housing units,” Geevers said. “Tonight, we have 350. I think that’s progress.”
Kleinman responded: “No, it’s not progress because now you’ve got a project that won’t be built. Politically, it’s progress, but now you’ve taken two years of expertise and said, `We don’t care about that. We’re just going to pick a number out of a hat.’ This is not progress. This is silly.”
Geevers said she found, though, that township professionals had said they would be okay with including 350 units in the plan.
“Let’s make it clear — we would prefer 500, but some number is better than no number,” Herbert said. Muller also told council that comparing 350 units to the 660 units proposed by Kleinman was like comparing apples to oranges. “The 660 was a final number; 350 was a base number,” he said.
After the meeting, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said he was happy to see the process moving forward. He said the way he understands it, the 350 units is a basic right for developers, and depending on negotiations for more public amenities, the number could go up.
“Finally, after one and a half years, at least there are three votes on the council to move this forward,” he said. “I will expect there will be a fully documented report coming to the planning board. I’m hoping that the planning board will take expert review and move this forward.”
Further, “I think the positive thing is that finally, we brought this to some kind of conclusion,” he added. “There will still be people who will be unhappy and who will have reservation, but at least I have a plan that I can use to sit down and negotiate with the state agencies, like NJDOT, NJ Transit, and county, to talk about the support and commitments, and even property owners, to talk about preservation of open space and use of their properties.”
Following the December 1 meeting, however, InterCap released a statement accusing the council of wasting taxpayers’ money, only to ignore “the unanimous advice of their own planning, traffic, and legal experts. The Council instead endorsed a redevelopment plan which has no economic viability and will never be built, giving residents more of the same `politics as usual.’”
Further, the statement said that the “absence of leadership to create a better West Windsor does not reflect the will of the majority of the residents who want a real Main Street, improved traffic flow and parking for 1,”000 residents at current monthly rates.”
Goldin said the plan was a “nonstarter. We offered a two-step process with a trigger point,” Goldin said. “Nobody makes major investment decisions based on the whims of this or a future council. You need to have certainty,” and that certainty comes in the form of the number of housing units, he said.
When asked whether he was withdrawing his application for the plan including 1,”440 housing units — his property is currently zoned for research, office, and manufacturing, but not for any housing, and would require a rezoning — Goldin responded: “They have denied giving us the meeting we sought, and we are now evaluating our options in light of that denial.”
“Politically, the council is trying to say, `We passed a redevelopment plan,’ but in reality, all they did was pass the buck,” he said.
Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner, however, says this allegation is not true, saying that written communication, in the form of e-mails and letters, have been sent back and forth between Muller and InterCap counsel. Gardner also explained that the board is not obligated to do anything with respect to a rezoning. However, under township ordinance, a procedure is outlined for any developer wishing to have discussions with board officials in which the developer must pay $2,”500 application fee and place $10,”000 into an escrow account to cover the township’s costs in having its professionals — planners, attorneys, and traffic consultants included — look at the request.
Still, even that does not guarantee or ensure that the application would receive favorable action in terms of the request, Gardner said.
InterCap, however, does not want to pay those fees, Gardner said. “”They want to talk without putting money down,”” he said. “”We treat every developer equally. We follow the ordinance.””
