West Windsor redevelopment referendum gains little council support

Anklowitz proposal not backed by others on council; now the focus turns to a possible public opinion survey

By: Greg Forester
   WEST WINDSOR — West Windsor voters won’t see a question about redevelopment and transit villages on the November ballot after a push for a nonbinding referendum by Council President Will Anklowitz received little support from other council members at Monday’s meeting.
   The possibility of including a referendum question has been tossed around for months as a way of gauging the sentiments of a community that seems to be divided over the project and its potential impact on West Windsor.
   But with the deadline to get a referendum in front of the voters in November rapidly approaching, Monday’s lack of support looks like a referendum on redevelopment has been shelved for at least another year, if not forever.
   "By posing a referendum question we would have been able to gauge the feelings of five, six, or 7,000 residents about the transit village, which would have been very helpful," said Mr. Anklowitz. "That is the reason legislatures created the referendums, so officials could get an idea about the voters’ feelings."
   Other council members didn’t demonstrate support for the measure — giving the measure no real way of being voted into effect before the upcoming referendum questions deadline 74 days before the November election — although a public opinion survey could still be put together sometime in the future, council members said.
   "I cannot support a referendum because I don’t believe it would be able to answer the questions we need answered," said Councilman Charles Morgan. "Whether the answers came back yes or no, I still don’t think we would know what the West Windsor community wants."
   Mr. Morgan said he continues to support a public opinion survey put together by a professional opinion surveying company, following the continued effort — through meetings, booklets and other measures — in educating the community about the implications of the controversial project.
   Other council members said any possible referendum question that included any mention of residential units would fail to get any votes of approval, because of the polarizing effect the topic has generated during the project’s planning process.
   "The transit village designation includes references to a strong housing component, and people would probably read that and vote no because of it," said Councilwoman Linda Geevers. "The referendum would then just become another way for people to say no."
   Councilman George Borek said throughout his election campaign he had supported a referendum, but also believed an opinion survey could be a better way to measure the residents’ sentiments.
   "I was in favor of a survey because unlike a referendum, it goes to everybody, instead of just the voters," said Mr. Borek. "Now that there doesn’t seem to be support for the referendum question, I believe we will need to do the survey."
   The letter by Mr. Anklowitz supporting the measure included an argument addressing one long-standing objection used by opponents of a referendum, who argued the complexities of the redevelopment project in West Windsor could not be hashed out in a single question.
   In his letter, Mr. Anklowitz disagreed with this argument.
   "Critics of the referendum may argue that the issue is too complex," he said. "Voters in West Windsor deserve more credit than that."
   Despite Mr. Anklowitz’s sentiments, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said he continues to believe it would be too difficult to get the right question together to accurately gauge the community’s feelings about the project.
   "I don’t understand how we would be able to get the correct wording down for people to make an educated decision," said Mayor Hsueh. "How could we get the real reaction from the voters?"
   Earlier discussion of a referendum on the redevelopment process for the area around the Princeton Junction train station had met resistance due to the legality of using a referendum under New Jersey law governing the redevelopment process.
   Redevelopment statutes specifically prohibit the use of initiatives or referendums in submitting or adopting ordinances or resolutions, although making the transit village referendum question non-binding would have circumvented those problems, which only apply to binding ballot questions.