Maybe I’m just a cranky old woman, but I’d like to put in my two cents’ worth about the development of the so-called transit village in West Windsor. I know from a few conversations around the Penns Neck neighborhood, that everybody around here isn’t so hot about the project, and I believe these objections are worth noting, even if they’ll fall on deaf ears.
I moved to Penns Neck in 1970. I was commuting to New York then, and the house on Washington Road seemed wonderfully convenient. Oh yes, even then the traffic was a bit more that I was used to at our temporary rented house in Princeton. The road was graced, however, by lovely old trees and shrubs on neat, carefully tended modest homes of a certain age, and my husband and I immediately sensed its warm, neighborly feel (borne out as soon as we moved in by neighbors who lent us a hand).
I have lived here now for 41 years. My child went through the excellent school system, and we have been comfortable and happy and have made many friendships. Times have changed things, of course, as has West Windsor Township, its farmland replaced by dozens of new developments, the population growing by the thousands. I thought how wonderful that Penns Neck is “built out” and won’t lose its character.
Now, however, we are facing the coming of a new development at the end of Washington Road next to the train station. To me, the consequences are crushing. Not only have we been subjected to the unpleasantness of the developer, but also to the endless arguing of the township council, as well as lawsuits. We will be housing hundreds of new people, as well as their cars, and Washington Road, with its present heavy traffic, will become a nightmare.
My complaints are not about the physical planning of the village itself, as much as its overall existence. The drawings of the buildings and streets look nice, with space for shops, the farmers market, and a large parking garage. The affordable housing question seems to have been resolved, although I have no idea what the cost of living will be there eventually, nor about its fiscal benefit to the township. I simply believe that the development is unnecessary and a mistake.
As I write, I am thinking of the multiple housing units going up on the Clarksville Road on the way to Quaker Bridge Road. Huge, unspeakably ordinary, and ugly —there are already seven of these monsters, and more coming, it seems — that will bring hundreds and hundreds of new people to West Windsor, not to speak of to the school system. Are we turning into a suburban ghetto? What price are we paying for all this housing? At least the new village is trying to present a pretty face on itself.
Finally, I foresee a new kind of traffic disaster. Traffic studies were made a few years ago by the state at the time of the consideration of the Millstone Bypass. That bypass was considered unsuitable, and the state accepted another idea that would have changed the way roads went into Princeton and along Route 1. The economic downturn has apparently made that solution unworkable, although its creation of new jobs would be a boon to the area. And, all important to me, Penns Neck would be preserved, as is.
Paula McGuire
219 Washington Road
