Hillier gives view on next steps for West Windsor redevelopment

Planner more upbeat, but still wary of project politics

By: Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — The RMJM Hillier firm, tasked with planning the redevelopment project around the Princeton Junction Train Station, presented its recommendations for the future of the process Monday at the project’s Steering Committee meeting.
In the first seven months of 2007, the process has already seen public workshops and input sessions yield various plans whose features — such as the inclusion of large numbers of residential units — continue to be controversial within the community.
Monday’s presentation focused on the planning firm’s ideas for getting the project moving forward with the support of the community.
Throughout the meeting, RMJM Hillier Chairman J. Robert Hillier appeared more upbeat then on June 4, when he had said his firm could withdraw from the project if it couldn’t provide what West Windsor wanted. But he also said that the nature of the project still presents some difficulties.
Mr. Hillier said the firm usually works with a client that selects a plan out of several options, telling the firm whatever else it wants in the project.
"The problem we have here is that our client in this project is whoever comes to the meeting," he said. "The question is who is really the client?"
One new recommendation Monday included the publication of a multi-page booklet with information about the entire process, aimed at arming the public with a knowledge base with which to engage in future discussions, officials said.
"We will get a book out to everyone in the township, outlining everything, and hold public discussions about the topics in the book," said Mr. Hillier. "The booklet should be done as a draft that is open to comment and revision, so everyone doesn’t think it’s getting rammed down their throat."
After distributing the educational materials, Hillier officials recommended starting a new series of smaller public meetings centered on various parts of the project they felt the West Windsor community needed more education about before making a decision to support plans created by the firm.
Mr. Hillier said the earlier meetings — including the last gathering on June 4 at Grover Middle School — had been too impersonal in a large auditorium that was poorly attended.
Hillier and township officials said holding the future meetings at the West Windsor Senior Center, located at the municipal complex, would allow for better discussion and engagement of residents.
Some of the topics planned for the meetings included existing conditions of the redevelopment area, traffic, circulation, economics, and the design qualities of the future project.
West Windsor officials said they were in agreement regarding the necessity of more public meetings designed to engage the community, but several said the township would benefit most from a more in-depth economic analysis of the costs and impacts of the project.
"We need to add more in-depth analysis about the economic impacts of the project," said Mayor Hsueh. "No one has done this yet and the public has asked for it, so we must deliver."
Before understanding the economic analysis of the earlier plans, the community would need to understand the rationale behind the decisions made by Hillier officials in creating the plans, some officials said Monday.
"We need to understand the decisions made in your plans, and why you made them," said Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman. "Once we understand that it will be time to talk about economics."
Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner went one step further, saying future plans, and any economic analysis, would have to include more specific calculations and planning in order to gauge the project’s economic impact.
"Economics, housing units, affordable housing," said Mr. Gardner. "Everything in the economic analysis fluctuates until you have a specific plan."
Ms. Kleinman said more meetings and more engagement with residents would be the only way the project would receive support from the township.
"Only after getting people to come to the table during the education process will you be able to receive an endorsement," said Ms. Kleinman. "Right now people don’t understand the project."
Mr. Hillier said he still stood by some his earlier plans despite criticism from some in the community.
"I think that we have a good land-use plan, and in the context of all the questions, it’s defensible," Mr. Hillier said.
Mr. Gardner said the project would never receive unanimous support from the community, and that he still didn’t understand what level of consensus those working on the project were looking for before moving forward.
"When have we reached the level of consensus necessary to move forward with the project?" Mr. Gardner asked. "This is my question, and no one at this table has been able to give me an answer."
While the months-old project has been very polarizing in portions of the West Windsor community, Mr. Hillier said he believed the portion of the public aligned against the project were making themselves heard more than those in support of the plans.
"The folks who are against redevelopment have been more organized and more vocal than those who support it," Mr. Hillier said.
Other discussion included the creation of an addendum to RMJM Hillier’s current $400,000 contract with the township, which officials said has become a necessity because of the increased scope of work being undertaken by the firm.
Mayor Hsueh said that while it was important to keep the process going, the township needed to be careful about the taxpayer-supported costs of the project.
"We can recoup the monies from the developers in the long term, but for the short term we need to be mindful about how we spend the money," Mayor Hsueh said.
Township officials discussed dates for the first of the new set of public workshops, rejecting the proposed Sept. 24 date because of scheduling problems.
Mr. Hillier said the township and his firm would probably have about five weeks to work on the educational booklet and get it out to the public before the next possible date for a meeting, on Oct. 11.
The steering committee also set a date for their next meeting on Aug. 20 at 1:30 p.m. at the municipal building.