John Koran of West Windsor
In an attempt to keep the redevelopment process going, the West Windsor Council has set the number of residential units arbitrarily at 500. Settling on this number appears to have ended the stagnation between Council and the planning board.
Council President Anklowitz should be commended for his work and leadership toward a guiding set of principles that the planning board can use.
Councilman Morgan has always been a champion of the process and deserves credit for his vigilance.
While Council member Kleiman continues to be invested in the creation of a transit village at the train station, Council member Geevers’ comments reflect the caution expressed by her constituency. There seems to be a political price to be paid if the process dies.
On December 10, the citizenry gave Council an earful. With questions ranging from financial feasibility to fanciful arts and movie complexes residents raised all the appropriate points within the framework of an inevitable transit village plan coming to a train station near you. That is, until long-time residents Bill Benfer and Bob Akins, who have seen a town center plan’s incarnation morph many times, got up to speak. They brought to the discussion a perspective that needs to be restated.
Their perspective originates from a broader, regional, and historic place. Our discussions have been knowingly centered on the wrong piece of property. The “Area In Need Of Redevelopment” deserves some attention; however, that area needs to be put into perspective with regard to the entire region available in the township for further development. The area around the train station is environmentally sensitive, at its capacity as a train station alone, and plagued by unsafe intersections and roads already at failure.
Mr. Benfer drew attention to the Wyeth property, which has been under consideration for future development. The idea can be broadened from the larger perspective that the train station could remain simply a train station (with improved parking and circulation), a neighborhood center on Route 571, and commercial/office/mixed use space developing on the Wyeth property as a town center. In this progression the Maneelly property on Bear Brook Road could provide much needed services for Windsor Haven and Toll residents; and Canal Point residents could connect more easily to a “township center” once Meadow Road is completed.
It challenges the basic concepts of physics and common sense to assume that we can force all of what we residents have been promised into this highly limited space at the train station. When we abandon the framing that Mayor Hseuh has used – that we keep the discussion within the redevelopment area at the train station—only then can we begin to ask ourselves “what truly works for West Windsor?”
John Koran
Scott Avenue
West Windsor

