Less than a month after the West Windsor Council handed the Planning Board the responsibility of creating a redevelopment plan for the area encompassing the Princeton Junction train station and the downtown area, the fate of that process has again fallen back on council.##M:[more]##
On October 24 the Planning Board heard proposals from township professionals that included several new possibilities for the redevelopment area, including a movie theater and hotel. But the planners declined to consider any new possibilities until Council indicated whether or not it would provide funding for such a study.
And it’s a tight schedule for the Council, which has scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday, November 7, at 5 p.m., to decide on a redevelopment budget, review the Hillier contract, and discuss finding a redevelopment attorney. Unless the Council introduces a bond ordinance by Monday, November 26, and adopts it Monday, December 17, the project may be delayed for months.
In their presentations to the Planning Board on October 24, Township Planner John Madden and traffic consultant Gary Davies of Urbitran told the board that analyzing infrastructure components of the plan — a major request the council made when handing the board the responsibility for the plan — without selecting one or more development scenarios to be used in undertaking analyses for those needs, was impossible.
“This meeting (October 24) was for a limited purpose — to determine if we could accommodate council in terms of their request and deal with infrastructure improvements, parking garages, road improvements, a Main Street, without considering other elements of an overall redevelopment plan,” said Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner. “I had indicated we needed to determine if, in fact, our traffic consultant could provide us with an effective traffic analysis without considering those important elements of an overall redevelopment plan. What’s taken place is contrary to what council indicated they would like us to do.”
Further, “until council approves this proposal and is prepared to fund it, I don’t see us moving forward, unless there is some assurance from council that they approve of this proposal.”
Now council is charged with determining whether to provide $70,”000 to Davies and $35,”000 to Madden, before the Planning Board gives them further direction. Those numbers are part of an estimated $122,”000 the council may need to budget, excluding the cost of a redevelopment attorney.
During the Planning Board meeting, Davies and Madden suggested at least seven different options for the area that look at commercial, retail and residential units — including two new options they devised that included a multiplex movie theater and a hotel conference center — and told the board to narrow the options down to two or three for them to analyze.
“There are too many potential land use combinations, there are too many potential spatial combinations, and there are too many dimensions to convert” to be able to simply focus on the areas outlined by council, said Davies, adding that he and Mr. Madden cannot “reverse engineer” the plan. “It’s much more productive to deal with real scenarios and real proposals.”
Davies and Madden did, however, highlight how they envisioned the process. First, the consultants said they want to look at prior proposals, studies, and information that already exist, including the Hillier plan, Vision Plan, analyses compiled by New Jersey Transit officials, and other data. Said Davies: “The key to this whole thing is there is a wealth of data out there. It would be a waste of our time and your money for us to reassemble things. We believe we need to and should use the information that’s there.”
Then the consultants will look at the different options for redevelopment of the 350-acre site, including current Hillier proposals, alternatives, and the “as of right” option. They will study the amount of traffic generated by each proposal, estimate parking demands, and refine and analyze the options until the board is satisfied, they said.
In order to take that step, they presented seven scenarios to the board, with rough estimates of traffic generation. The first four were Schemes A,B,C,D proposed by Hillier. The fifth and sixth options, labeled Schemes E and F, contained their suggestions for the area that included a movie theater and hotel conference center, and Scheme G, which was the “as of right” option. And Davies emphasized that “there is not one scenario that generates no new traffic on the street system. Every scenario is going to add traffic to the streets. It’s simply a matter of how much traffic we think we can live with, and we don’t know that answer right now.”
Hillier’s Scheme A had the lowest intensity, with 250 residential units, 40,”000 square feet of retail space, 200,”000 square feet of office space, and 600,”000 square feet of additional office space on the Sarnoff property. Davies estimated that the area would generate about 1,”700 new trips — or more cars — every hour on the road and the need for more than two dedicated lanes for that traffic. Scheme D of the Hillier plan produced 3,”200 more trips an hour, as it included the proposal for 1,”000 residential units and more retail and office space. This would require four dedicated lanes of travel, he said.
Davies and Madden briefly discussed their two alternatives to the Hillier schemes. Scheme E calls for 750 residential units with 340,”000 square feet of retail space, a movie theater, a hotel conference center, 200,”000 square feet of office space, and 600,”000 square feet of office space on the Sarnoff property. Scheme F scales down the retail to 190,”000 square feet and brings the office space from 200,”000 to 150,”000 square feet. Scheme E would generate 3,”700 new trips, while Scheme F would generate 3,”000 new trips, they said.
“The reason we’re suggesting this is that it’s an active place,” Madden pointed out. The downside of having a train station is that it’s very busy during peak hours on Monday through Friday from 9 to 5 p.m., but it dies down on weekends and week nights. “A concept like this really feeds to much more activity,” and could make it a “happening place,” he added.
And the existing as-of-right, which would generate the most traffic — with 4,”500 extra trips per hour — would require five or six lanes, he said.
Regardless of which scenario the board selects, Madden said the two professionals want it to be an open process, and that they are not there to defend or support the Hillier Plan. Davies and Madden said if the board were to select several scenarios with suggestions, they could come back by December with a traffic presentation, work on revising and focusing the plan, and come back in January with estimated costs, revenues and financing sources. Then, in February, they would help the board complete the plan and make recommendations to the council.
That time line, however, will be pushed back until council approves funding to pay the professionals to begin that work.
Council President Will Anklowitz, Council Vice President George Borek, and Councilman Charles Morgan did not attend the October 24 Planning Board meeting and are awaiting copies of the audio to review the consultants’ presentations before the November 7 meeting.
Said Anklowitz: “One of the things that goes with more money is some directions on how to use it,” he said. “There’s no blank check. The more we ask them to plan, the more expensive it will be.”
He says his main concern is that regardless of whether the ideas in the proposal are more creative or more moderate, he wants to make sure “that we budget enough money to accomplish the amount of planning. I don’t want to see them come back and ask for more money and I don’t want to see the project get stalled.”
Borek said the council gave the Planning Board instructions on what it wanted with regard to traffic and parking, but “how we get there might be a different story,” he said. He said he worried about spending taxpayer money on something residents don’t want.
Councilwomen Linda Geevers and Heidi Kleinman did attend the board meeting and saw the presentations. Geevers said she would like the idea of having a multi-purpose arts building for art shows and classes, and for movies, rather than a movie theater. Movie theaters, she said, are geared more for highways and malls.
“I think it’s something the community should consider,” she said, adding, however, that whatever is put there should be something residents want.
“The main and top priority right now is looking at the redevelopment in terms of putting up a parking garage and the traffic and infrastructure needs,” Geevers added. “I don’t think you can talk about putting up a parking garage in isolation. The big question is who’s going to pay for a parking garage?”
In order to determine the criteria for a parking garage, “you have to understand the traffic and infrastructure possibilities for the entire 350-acres,” Geevers said. “We have our priorities, but I still think you have to look at the area in a comprehensive way.”
Said Geevers: “We’re trying to get to the middle ground.”
Kleinman said she was pleased with the presentation, especially because it expressed an alternative process.
“I think their proposal did reinforce the important priorities that the council had set up when we had sent them (to the board),” she said. “Their presentation clearly expressed the need to establish the as-of-right scheme.” To her, she said, the difference is that Hillier proposed four schemes with very similar concepts, but with varying densities. In the new proposals, Madden and Davies have advised the board to select three approaches — including the entertainment center proposal — to the site to gain knowledge. Said Kleinman: “They feel that by comparing dissimilar approaches on the site, we can learn enough to develop a consensus and our own vision.”
Morgan, however, didn’t echo this sentiment, saying there is some concern about the high fee quotes, and that he didn’t understand why the proposals were going beyond the guidelines council gave them.
“I think we need to get the horse in front of the cart,” he said. “The horse in this case is parking and the infrastructure that goes with parking.”
He said once officials determine where parking should be located and figure out how the roads need to be designed to accommodate traffic generated from parking, that’s the maximum that should be allowed. Designing entertainment complexes and designing the roads for them is backwards, he said. Instead, officials should “design small streetscapes, then allow whatever buildings will flourish in the concept of that small streetscape. If that means nothing but the parking, so be it.”
Site Clean-Up Urged,
S-Curve Studied
In other municipal news, the council voted during an October 29 meeting to draft a resolution to have the Department of Environmental Protection force Edgewood Properties to remove all of the contaminated fill at the site of the future WWM Properties shopping center on Southfield Road. Morgan offered to draft it, after he reported to council that he read in state statutes that the council may have some authority in the matter.
Last month, the DEP, during a presentation to council, said capping the fill and removing only one hot spot, was an acceptable course of action for remediating the site. Representatives from Edgewood are expected to come to the council meeting on Tuesday, November 13.
Also during the October 29 meeting, Township Engineer James Parvesse gave the council an update on various engineering projects around town, including the Alexander Road S-Curve, the Grover’s Mill Pond dredging, and the former Princeton Junction Firehouse.
Parvesse showed the council and public three concepts for the S-Curve project, and council members and members of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance said they favored the second concept, which shows widening the road by 80 feet and other reconstruction and improvements to be made. It would also include a four-foot sidewalk and a bicycle path all the way to the Princeton border.
With regard to the Grover’s Mill Pond dredging, Parvesse said a contract has been awarded to Select Transportation Inc. of Ohio. The schedule is to build the disposal area this spring and have the dredging begin next fall. Also, a final site plan for the firehouse will be completed next week, he said.
Hearing Continues on Rite Aid Signs
The West Windsor Zoning Board on Thursday, November 1, was scheduled to continue a hearing for a sign waiver for the Rite Aid Pharmacy and shopping center at the corner of Route 571 and Cranbury Road.
According to Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, the Dreher Group of Princeton already has approval from the board, and the only thing left for further discussion is the signage. The developer still needs some county and state approvals, Hsueh says, but once that is squared away, the developer will be able to begin construction.
The site plan calls for a 14,”673 square foot Rite Aid, and an additional 6,”000 square feet of retail space that could include a Starbucks coffee shop and an Italian restaurant.
This means that time is now dwindling for those commuters who have taken advantage of the currently vacant center. Many train riders park in the lot all day, even though the lot is not designated for train station parking. But because the lot is privately owned, “if they allow people to park, there’s nothing we can do about it,” says Hsueh.
