Sikorski sounds more certain this time.
By: Vic Monaco
HIGHTSTOWN Borough Council President Walter Sikorski for a second month in a row is predicting a big step at the next council meeting in the long-planned redevelopment of the former rug mill plant.
"I believe we will name a developer at our next meeting," he said this week.
That developer would be landowner John Wolfington, and that meeting is scheduled for Tuesday night.
Mr. Wolfington was named conditional developer in 2004, long before he purchased the 7-acre Bank Street site, but the council let that designation expire in the fall of 2005, when the two sides could not come to an agreement on the number of residential units to be built.
Mr. Wolfington originally said he could abide by a previous borough limit of 80 units, but quickly raised that to 130. The borough ultimately increased its limit to 130, after which Mr. Wolfington said he’d need 141 if he were required to refurbish or rebuild the nearby municipal building.
The Planning Board in June rejected the council’s plea to remove that requirement from the redevelopment ordinance.
Mr. Sikorski said this week that that issue has been resolved and indicated that the borough would take a cash payment in lieu of that work. That figure was cited as $350,000 by borough officials this spring.
"A developer’s agreement is being worked on as we speak," he said Monday.
Without the borough hall requirement, Mr. Sikorski added, Mr. Wolfington’s plan will not exceed the current limit of 130 residential units.
Mr. Sikorski said the council is expected to introduce an ordinance Tuesday that would remove that requirement. That would be sent for Planning Board review on Sept. 10, with final council approval possible on the 17th. He said a developer’s agreement could also be on the council’s Sept. 17 agenda.
Planning Board Chairman Steve Misiura said this week that he is open to removing the borough hall requirement and that his bigger concern had been a "drastic reduction" of retail and office space from the plan.
"My understanding is that the council will refer it back to us with additional changes, not just removing borough hall," he said.
Councilwoman Constance Harinxma has expressed concerns over the project turning out to be exclusively residential, saying a retail component is essential in her mind. Mr. Wolfington’s latest public plan called for retail space on the first floor of new borough hall space along Mercer Street.
Mr. Sikorski declined to say this week if the newest plan would include any retail space.
Neither Mr. Wolfington nor one of his representatives could be reached for comment this week. The same was true of Mayor Bob Patten, who also had predicted Mr. Wolfington would be named the redeveloper earlier this month.
Councilman Patrick Thompson, who has expressed displeasure with Mr. Wolfington and the borough’s process in dealing with him, declined to predict how he might vote Tuesday before the public gets a chance to speak.
"I continue to have concerns over how we’ve positioned ourselves in the negotiating process and how that potentially has driven our current agreement with respect to the value that that is going to provide to the borough and its residents," he said.
Councilman Larry Quattrone said in July he was ready to name Mr. Wolfington the redeveloper of the land.
The mill property is one of only two significant developable parcels left in the borough; the other being the former Minute Maid tract.

