Two candidates are vying for the remaining 15 months of the council seat vacated by Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh.
By: Gwen Runkle
WEST WINDSOR The two candidates in next month’s Township Council election sounded off on a wide range of topics including Toll Brothers, future development and the realignment of the Alexander Road bridge while speaking to The Packet on Friday.
Incumbent Rae Roeder, a lifelong township resident, is the president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1033, a union that represents 6,500 state workers.
John Sabino, a relative newcomer to the area, is a vice president of Merrill Lynch.
The two candidates are vying for the remaining 15 months of the council seat vacated by Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh when he took office in July.
The council unanimously selected Ms. Roeder to fill the seat on an interim basis until the nonpartisan election in November.
She had previously decided not to run for a third term, but changed her mind in May after the state Supreme Court decided to hear the township’s appeal of affordable-housing requirements on the Toll Brothers site off Bear Brook Road.
"It would take a lot of time and energy for an individual to catch up with everything in the case," Ms. Roeder said. "My background and experience will be valuable, since the council is a named party in the case and we have taken a pro-active role. We hired our own engineer to analyze drainage and storm water effects on the site."
Both candidates agree that Toll Brothers’ action seeking a builder’s remedy for the 1,165-unit Estates at Princeton Junction development in 1993 was unfounded and outrageous but have come to different conclusions on how to view the appeal.
Mr. Sabino, with a future-focused perspective, said the township needs to make sure it does not look at the situation simply as a retrial of past court errors. Ms. Roeder, with a more history-centered perspective, said the township has to respect the events of the past in order to continue to take an active role in the appeal.
Much of the two candidates’ discussion Friday followed similar lines, with each agreeing on a topic at the onset but disagreeing on the details.
For instance, they agreed it is important not to disturb the character of existing neighborhoods while realigning the Alexander Road bridge but expressed conflicting ideas on how to solve the problem.
Mr. Sabino called for the township to hire new professionals to give the township a fresh perspective on the problem.
"There are not enough alternatives on the table," he said. "We are relying on the same guy (Gary Davies, township traffic consultant) to give us the same solutions over and over."
Currently three options of realignment are outlined for the Alexander Road bridge in the circulation element of the draft Master Plan.
Ms. Roeder disagreed and stressed that direction given to the professionals is what matters most, particularly through gathering community input.
"We need to gather information from the residents that live in the places that are affected. The quality-of-life issues should drive the professionals," she said.
Both candidates also agreed that a delicate balance needs to be struck in dealing with commercial development in the township but, once again, disagreed on how this could be accomplished.
"The township’s next battle in the fight against sprawl is going to be in commercial zoning," Mr. Sabino said. "If we allow full build-out at Sarnoff Corp., along Alexander Road, Route 571 and Route 1, it will be an absolute disaster."
Mr. Sabino, who grew up in northern New Jersey, said an effective way to balance commercial development in the township would be to use incentive zoning.
"For instance, we could say we’re not going to let you build a whole lot, but if you donated 10 soccer fields, you could get a more relaxed floor-area ratio," he said. "There is no all-or-nothing solution."
Ms. Roeder, on the other hand, said incentive zoning is not a viable solution.
"It’s great to say if you do this, we’ll give you that, but the only thing that will hold up in court is down-zoning," she said. "We tried timed growth and that didn’t work. We have to rezone to what the roads and surrounding areas can sustain."
The makeup of the Township Council often places Ms. Roeder in the middle of a two-sided split, with Council President Alison Miller and Councilwoman Jackie Alberts aligning on one side and Council members Kristin Appelget and Charlie Morgan on the other.
Ms. Roeder explained that although she ran for council in 1993 aligned with Mr. Hsueh, Ms. Miller and Mary Ellen Merino, she felt it was important to break from the group based on the principles of the township’s nonpartisan form of government.
"I’ve always been a person who speaks up with a different opinion and I am not unwilling to say the hard things. I feel it’s important to be independent and I moved out of the circle of the group in the best interest of the community," Ms. Roeder said.
"It’s tough to be in the middle and not just go along to get along, but somebody has to do it."
Mr. Sabino also said he feels it is important to stand up to the majority.
"Regarding issues of land use, I think I tend to side with Jackie Alberts and Alison Miller. However, I am closer aligned to Kristen Appelget or Charlie Morgan on issues related to finance," he said. "But I am not blindly following one group or the other. I will look at each issue and determine what’s best."

