Montgomery to consider the most beneficial use of property across from Pike Run development.
By: Kara Fitzpatrick
MONTGOMERY Somerset County has awarded the township a $14,700 grant toward the Belle Mead Planning and Design Initiative a comprehensive study of 154 acres of undeveloped land across Route 206 from the Pike Run development.
The land, in common ownership with the Pike Run community, is currently zoned for office space but, said Mayor Louise Wilson, "That is likely to change as a result of this planning process."
The township will work with Robert Lane, a planner from the Regional Plan Association, to confer with the land owner, residents, surrounding land owners, township officials and other commissions and planners to determine what would be the most beneficial use of the large chunk of land.
The first element of the process, slated to begin in the coming weeks, will be to seek public input by surveying township residents and businesses. But, said the mayor, it could be as long as 10 to 18 months before any changes to the zoning or Master Plan would occur.
The township hopes to obtain additional state grants to fund the planning process.
Although there is currently no specific vision for what the site will eventually be, "It truly needs to be something shaped by community members," Mayor Wilson said.
"Some of the very best ideas seem to come from the people who just live nearby," said the mayor, adding it is they who have a "practical understanding of the lay of the land."
Mayor Wilson said one criterion that should be taken into consideration during the planning process is whether the product of this process will have positive revenue impact. Also, she said, the plan "should work in terms of traffic circulation . . . (and) needs to be feasible with or without public transportation. As of right now, there’s no public transportation."
The old Belle Mead train station is located on the parcel of land to be evaluated and New Jersey Transit is currently weighing the feasibility of reopening the West Trenton Line. That line, which closed in 1982, serviced the Belle Mead station.
If the reopening of the West Trenton Line comes to fruition, it would restore the commuter rail service through Somerset County. The line would connect with the existing Raritan Valley Line and provide further service to Newark and New York.
A chosen plan for the Belle Mead site, said Planning Board Chairman Steve Sacks-Wilner, should be "designed such that it will be able to flip over to a transit village if and when the West Trenton line is open."
Working hand in hand with this procedure will be efforts to achieve a transfer-of-development-rights ordinance under state law, said Mr. Sacks-Wilner. Such an ordinance, he said, will allow the township or a landowner to acquire the development rights to a specifically zoned piece of land and transfer them to another location in order to avoid the use of public funds for the purchase of land.
The Belle Mead parcel could be a receiving zone for development rights from other, more environmentally sensitive, sections of town, like the Sourland Mountain area, explained Mayor Wilson.
But, she said, don’t expect a heap of new houses to sprout up on the Belle Mead parcel, which is in a sewer service area. "You can’t put more than you can serve with the existing sewer," said the mayor.
Overall, said Mr. Sacks-Wilner, when all is said and done, the township, with the assistance of community members, hopes "to plan a potential transit-oriented commercial retail area in Belle Mead, which is good from a transportation point of view and good from a ratable point of view."