Registration by Friday needed for meeting
By:Charlie Olsen
The planning boards of Hillsborough and Somerset County are hosting a public design workshop from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 30 in the first floor cafeteria of the Auten Road Intermediate School.
According to Somerset County principal planner Kenneth Wedeen, participants in the workshop will seek public input on three different plans prepared by consultants Phills Preiss Shapiro & Associates under the guidance of architects who can mark changes directly to the plans.
"The changes can be put directly to paper," Mr. Wedeen said. "The design gets better and better the more input we get. The public can tell us things they want to see in the Transit Village that we may not have thought of."
There are a limited amount of spaces for the workshop, and lunch will be provided. To sign up, please call the Somerset County Planning Board at 908-231-7021, or e-mail [email protected] by Friday.
The township Master Plan states that the purpose of the transit village is to complement, not compete with, the plans for the Town Center by adding access to the West Trenton line through the proposed Hillsborough train station near Amwell road.
Current permitted uses for the pedestrian-friendly Transit Village include: mixed-use retail sales and services, residential and office space; detached single family, duplex, townhouse and multifamily residential units; hotels but not motels; clubs and social buildings; museums, libraries, and other cultural facilities; and public recreation areas.
According to Hillsborough planner Bob Ringleheim, the section in Phase 2 in the Master Plan is still a work in progress.
"They’re looking for public input a presentation, then break into groups," Mr. Ringleheim said. "The county can take all the little plans and come up with a final plan."
According to Mr. Wedeen, the cost of reactivating the West Trenton line, including stations in Hillsborough and the Belle Mead node in Montgomery, is $200 million.
Currently the West Trenton line is freight only. In order to get federal transit money to help pay for the project, Transit Village zoning must be in place to guide growth around the station.
"We hope when passenger service is reactivated we can open up those two stations in Somerset County on this line," Mr. Wedeen said.
The West Trenton Line Station Area Design Study in March asked general questions about "big box" retailers, such as Wal-Mart or Kohl’s, but Mr. Wedeen said that isn’t something they’re considering for the Transit Village.
"Normally, big box is not discussed," Mr. Wedeen said. "We want to link with the Town Center, we don’t want to build to take away from the Town Center."
Mr. Wedeen said that the designers are "very cognizant of open space," including bikes, trails, parks, sidewalks and greenways that would accentuate the agricultural history of Hillsborough.
Although the Transit Village appears on the Master Plan, Mr. Wedeen said that the County is involved because of their participation in the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, a Metropolitan Planning Organization that is trying to improve transit in New Jersey and also between New Jersey and New York.
Two of the projects they are working on in conjunction with the Transit Village are dual-mode trains that can switch from diesel to electric power to comply with NY tunnel regulations allowing a one-seat ride to New York City and the Trans-Hudson Express (THE) tunnel project.
The $7.2 billion THE Tunnel and the dual-mode trains, will allow NJ Transit to double the amount of trains into and out of New York City, from 25 trains per hour to about 50 trains per hour.
The Transit Village and Hillsborough station are part of a larger plan for improving the Route 206 corridor, said Somerset County Planning Director Bob Bzik at a meeting of the Somerset County Planning Board Tuesday.
The major planning initiatives include: the Hillsborough Town Center; the Hillsborough Transit Village and station; the transload facilities at the VA Depot; the Somerville Landfill redevelopment, the development of Orlando Drive in Raritan; the Montgomery Belle Mead Transit Village; and the Montgomery Town Center at the intersection of Route 206 and Route 518.
"All have their own public process and will improve the quality of life for Somerset County residents," Mr. Bzik said. "I don’t know of anywhere else where there is this level of planning going on."