Planning Board to develop specific plan
By Greg Forester
Staff Writer
PLAINSBORO — The Plainsboro Township Committee voted Sept. 10 to designate the 156-acre FMC property — and future site of the University Medical Center at Princeton — as an area in need of redevelopment.
Citing benefits to the township in negotiating with the developers of the site, the township began reviewing the site earlier this year to see if it met redevelopment criteria as Princeton HealthCare System gets ready to relocate from its current facility on Witherspoon Street in Princeton.
Representatives from some of the consultants that reviewed the site made the presentation to the governing body, which then voted unanimously to approve the designation and support the Planning Board’s recommendation.
Township officials said the designation would allow the township to better deal with some of the aspects of the project such as traffic and housing, and allow the township to better serve the interests of Plainsboro in the project.
Now the Township Committee will look to the Planning Board to come up with a redevelopment plan for the parcel, which contains many obsolete and unused buildings left over from FMC’s heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
”It now goes back to the Planning Board for the redevelopment plan, who will be working with a number of consultants that we have worked with and will continue to work with,” said Mayor Peter Cantu. “There will also be a number of opportunities through the process for the public to provide input on the project.”
Following the Township Committee’s vote, the designation will have to go before officials from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, which will review the designation and decide on approval.
After that, the township will go through a detailed planning process for the Route 1 site.
”I think we still have a number of things that need to be addressed through this process, and there remains several months of review and discussion,” Mayor Cantu said.
Township officials said they anticipate approval from the state body, and that this redevelopment project was a little simpler than others.
The project involves a single property, rather than the numerous properties that most redevelopment projects involve, and there will be no need for use of condemnation, Mayor Cantu said.
”There is a single owner of the site, and we are already working with the Princeton hospital applicant that is interested in being the developer,” Mayor Cantu said.

