Town Center more than just development

CANDIDATE’S CORNER by Vince Calcagno: Republican candidate for Washington Township Committee.

By:
   I find it troubling that Mr. Bob Giangrasso, the Democratic candidate for Washington Township Committee, has taken the time to write a lengthy criticism of Washington Town Center, calling for a halt to its development, when he could have better spent his time educating himself to the project. This project in Washington Township is considered the cutting edge of controlling sprawl, preserving open space and preserving farmland.
   Had Mr. Giangrasso spent his time more wisely, he would have found that Town Center is more than houses and more than just development. Instead, it is a comprehensive planning and development effort. Contrary to Mr. Giangrasso’s comment that this is poor planning and "sprawl at its worst," Town Center has received 17 years of planning and public scrutiny prior to a single building permit being issued.
   Mr. Giangrasso states that it’s just another 1,000 homes being built in town. What he has not stated is that:
   • The core of Town Center essentially encompasses approximately 450 acres. The Town Center is surrounded by a greenbelt of more than 550 acres of undeveloped land. Of the 550 acres, 278 acres have already been preserved as open space. This means that hundreds of houses that could have been built — won’t! The remaining 280 acres are currently in various stages of private and public negotiation for preservation.
   Preservation of this greenbelt around Town Center is critical to not only reducing the amount of residential development but also managing the traffic congestion in the area.
   • While it is true that up to 1,000 dwelling units can be built in Town Center, 141 of those units were originally approved to be constructed as part of Foxmoor and 153 units are part of a transfer plan that will preserve approximately 300 acres of open space and farmland in other parts of the township.
   • In addition to the residential component of Town Center, there is a commercial ratable component of approximately 300,000 square feet of commercial offices, restaurants, boutiques, cafes, community centers, clothes stores, farmers’ markets, and many other conveniences that are not in our township are planned.
   Already, 30,000 square feet of office space is occupied and another 120,000 square feet of space is in the planning and design phase. This includes small-scale shops in conjunction with the headquarters for a major bank and an engineering firm.
   • Mr. Giangrasso states that traffic is not being addressed. The fact is that the traffic experts from state Department of Transportation (Mr. Giangrasso’s employer), Mercer County, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Hamilton Township, and Washington Township have been working for the last four years to ensure that the development of Town Center improves conditions of regional traffic rather than hinder it.
   A considerable amount of time has been spent developing circulation plans to alleviate the congested east-west flow of traffic in the township. Many of these plans are either in the design phase or will shortly be in the design phase. The commissioner of DOT has consistently voiced his public support for Washington Township’s planning effort and DOT’s financial support for necessary infrastructure improvements such as the Route 33 southerly bypass.
   It is this level of planning that has enabled the township to receive various levels of commitment for $15 million from federal, state, and county agencies for infrastructure improvements and open space acquisition. Without this level of planning, agencies at the federal, state, and county levels would not be likely to take the township seriously.
   If Mr. Giangrasso thinks that assistance from public agencies and a dedicated Planning Department is not important, then I don’t know how he thinks he’s going to solve the problems of traffic, sprawl, development, and loss of farmland and open space. Mr. Giangrasso’s planning philosophy of "down-zoning" only results in costly lawsuits that the township has little chance of winning as witnessed in many townships throughout the state.
   This philosophy also takes the township down the path of "reactive" instead of "proactive" planning. Our township has benefited from the philosophy of "proactive" planning for the past two decades and has done a great job of trying to incorporate proactive planning in the context of the Municipal Land Use Laws dictated by the state.
   It is almost a certainty that without the Town Center planning that has occurred over nearly two decades, all the land in the Town Center would have been developed as residential without any commercial ratables, the density in Foxmoor would be 141 units greater, no comprehensive solutions to the traffic congestion would have been developed, and less land would have been preserved leaving more land for residential development.
Vince Calcagno, a Republican, is a member of the Township Committee and is seeking re-election in November.