Long overdue road improvements for Canal Pointe Boulevard, having made their way through a political storm, are now at the mercy of the actual weather.
Though no formal action was taken at a special work session at town hall on Sept. 22, a majority of West Windsor Council gave tacit support for the township administration’s effort to repave and redesign the pockmarked, 1.75-mile stretch between Alexander Road and Emmons Drive.
Resurfacing could begin as soon as December, if this winter proves milder than last. Inclement weather conditions could delay the start of construction to next spring.
The township has allocated $1.95 million for the project, but a construction contract is not expected to be awarded until November because the project still has to go through the bidding process.
While no one denies Canal Pointe Boulevard needs repaving, the bone of contention has been the township administration’s proposed “road diet” redesign. Intended to discourage overflow traffic from southbound Route 1 drivers seeking to bypass congestion, the traffic calming measure would not widen or narrow the 44-foot-wide roadway, but it would reduce the current lane configuration from four to three.
The road diet calls for one lane in each direction, with a center lane for left turns. Six-foot-wide bike lanes would be introduced on either side of the road. Bike lanes will be added to the stretch from Emmons Drive to Meadow Road, which is already two lanes.
Council president Linda Geevers and vice president Hemant Marathe have questioned the proposed lane reduction in the past. While they did not officially support the project on Sept. 22, they did not offer any objections either.
Council members Alison Miller and Ayesha Hamilton said they were encouraged by the presentation. Toward the end of the meeting, Council member Peter Mendonez said he would vote for whatever resolution it takes to pave the road, as having it done before winter is a common goal.
After a presentation by township engineer Francis Guzik, West Windsor Police Lt. Robert Garofalo and emergency services director Jim Yates were on hand to respond to council’s stated concerns.
Garofalo said other locales recorded 20 to 50 percent reductions in accidents after implementing road diets. He called the demonstrated safety benefits a “no-brainer.”
Going from two lanes in each direction to one would reduce the risk of accidents and improve crossing conditions for pedestrians, he said. Speeds will be lower, and drivers turning left in the center lane would not be exposed to cars bearing down from behind. This would also eliminate the risk of cars speeding right around stopped cars turning left or yielding to pedestrians.
Garofalo added that road diets also have minimal effect on traffic flow.
Yates also cited the safety benefits. “From an emergency response standpoint, more traffic lanes are better than less,” he said. “(But) I would forfeit a little response time for making it safer for the public.”
Guzik said the project will include the installation of advisory signs instructing drivers to pull right for emergency vehicles. The center turn lane will also be marked as a fire lane.
To aid pedestrians, four rectangular rapid flashing beacons will be installed, to be located at both Heritage Boulevard entrances, as well as at the Carillon Boulevard and Mayfair Drive entrances.
Two new bus bump outs, 100 feet long and 12 feet wide, will be installed on the residential side of Canal Pointe, one adjacent to Carillon and the other adjacent to the Heritage Boulevard entrance near Alexander Road.
Guzik noted that a traffic light or circle, which is not a part of the road diet project, may eventually be warranted at the Carnegie Center Boulevard intersection upon future development in the corridor. The Princeton Theological Seminary is proposing an apartment complex for its property off Wheeler Way and there is potential for additional office development.
During public comment, Princeton University spokesperson Kristin Appelget voiced support for the proposed project’s safety improvements and expansion of the bicycle network. The university’s Tiger Transit bus, free to the public, services the Seminary and an office building with 300 university support staff off Canal Pointe.
Several residents who live off of Canal Pointe Boulevard opposed the lane reductions and simply wanted the road to be repaved, while others feared repaving the road and keeping it to four lanes would result in a mini-highway.
“I’m here again to talk about something that I thought was settled,” said Canal Pointe resident Ted Strempack, a retired state police captain who supported the road diet at the public meeting in 2015 and again last April before council. “The mayor is holding the football and he should be running with it.”
Planners consider McMansion downzoning
At its Sept. 28 meeting, the planning board voted to recommend an ordinance to council that would decrease the maximum allowable house size in certain parts of town. The downzoning ordinance is intended to limit the construction of supersized McMansions and would need to be approved and adopted by council.
Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner said the purpose of the measure is to preserve neighborhood character.
Zoning Officer Sam Surtees estimates more than half of West Windsor’s single-family homes would be affected by the proposed zoning changes, which lowers the maximum floor area ratio (FAR) for the following zoning districts: R-2, R-30, R-30A, R-30B, R-30C, and R-30D. (To see if your house is in one of these districts, see the zoning map on the township website.)
In particular, several residential lots in the R-2 zone have seen the replacement of older sub-2,000-square-foot homes with houses more than triple in size. The R-2 zone requires minimum lot sizes of one acre (43,560 square feet) and currently has a maximum FAR of 13 to 15 percent, depending on the date of construction.
In other words, a house exceeding 5,500 square feet could be built on a one-acre lot, and a house approaching 10,000 square feet could be built on a two-acre lot in the same zone. The proposed zoning ordinance amendment would cap the FAR maximum at 10 percent. A one-acre lot would then be limited to 4,560 square feet of construction.
The five R-30 zoning districts have minimum lot sizes of 2/3 an acre, or roughly 29,000 square feet. Those zoning districts currently have a maximum FAR of 13 percent and the proposed ordinance would reduce the maximum FAR to 12 percent. For a 2/3-acre property, the proposed change would cap the allowable house size at roughly 3,500 square feet, a reduction of 300 square feet from the current zoning regulations.
The Wilberforce School presented a concept plan for a new three-building campus at the Sept. 21 Planning Board meeting. The K-12 Christian Private School is currently two years into a five-year lease at the Windsor Athletic Club on Clarksville Road. The new site would be on an adjacent 25.6-acre parcel west of the WAC.
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The Wilberforce School proposed developing 10.5 acres of the currently vacant property, which would include a primary school, secondary school, and administrative building totaling 50,000 square feet, as well as a gymnasium, athletic fields and playgrounds. A second phase expansion would add an additional 40,000 square feet of facility space.
The property is currently owned by Richard J. Gillespie of Lambertville. Last year, Atlantic Realty approached the township to consider rezoning the 25.6-acre parcel for a residential development that would include afffordable units (WWP News, Aug. 7, 2015), but Gillespie is now under contract with The Wilberforce School. Education is a permitted zoning use.
The planning board continues its busy fall season at the Wednesday, Oct. 5 meeting, when Princeton University is expected present its 2026 campus plan.
At its presentation to Princeton town officials in September, the university announced preliminary plans for developing its West Windsor properties for academic, administration, athletic and housing uses.
The university owns 508 acres of property in West Windsor, the bulk of which are located in the area bounded by Alexander Road, U.S. 1, Lower Harrison Street, and Carnegie Lake. The university also owns the vacant fields across from the Harrison Street Sunoco between U.S. 1 and the SRI campus.
Some university land already developed for storage, maintenance facilities, as well as solar fields utilized for electric generation.
