By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — Redevelopment planning duties came full circle Wednesday when the Planning Board passed a resolution that declined responsibility for the creation of a redevelopment plan for the train station area and returned the job back to Township Council.
The board cited micromanaging and interference in Planning Board redevelopment work by the council, resulting in an impossible planning process.
”We did not want to be micromanaged, we made that statement, but we did want to know where council stood on certain issues,” said Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner. “I see an ongoing series of problems developing if we continue to hold onto this. Township Council knows what they want, they hold the purse strings, and they are competent enough to handle this and hire the professionals they want to hire or retain.”
The resolution narrowly passed with a vote of 4 to 3, with one abstention.
Some board members labeled the “threshold” resolution passed by council last week as the final straw, after months of council guidelines, directions, and micromanaging since the board took over the planning in October.
That resolution imposed stringent spending limits on the township administration, and was later revised to include language urging the Planning Board and Parking Authority to use similar controls on redevelopment spending.
Also, board members have repeatedly said that council measures were sometimes contradictory, and represented the constant council interference in planning work of the all-volunteer Planning Board.
Wednesday’s resolution does not mean that the Planning Board could not see the redevelopment plan in the future, for additional work and consultation.
If and when the Township Council completes a redevelopment plan, it would have to come back to the Planning Board anyway, according to Mr. Gardner.
But the council could ignore those final board recommendations, so it was important to let council create a plan that it would not reject at the end of the process anyway, Mr. Gardner said.
”It’s important to do this to conserve time and taxpayer money,” he said.
What appeared to be another redevelopment impasse did not seem to dismay Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, who said he remains optimistic about working with the council to finally create an acceptable redevelopment plan for the 350-acre area around the Princeton Junction train station.
”Either way, I will have to be part of the redevelopment,” said Mayor Hsueh, who serves on the Planning Board. “What is important is mutual trust and working together.”
Some Planning Board members said they feared that punting on taking the lead on redevelopment planning meant losing a chance to create something wonderful for West Windsor and future residents.
But the current process had become untenable, they said.
”I think we will be missing an opportunity,” said Vice Chairman Steve Decter. “But, under these circumstances we should send it back, though I am not optimistic about what’s going to happen.”
Planning Board member Martin Rosen said the situation was surreal, as the board discussed handing responsibility for redevelopment back to council, only months after first accepting it with optimism.
”Such an abrupt about-face is both surprising and disappointing to me,” said Mr. Rosen, who later voted against the resolution, citing the good of the community.
Diance Ciccone also voted against the sending planning work back to the council, saying she was an eternal optimist.
”This is an opportunity to be visionary,” said Ms. Ciccone. “We don’t have the constraints the council has.”
Mr. Gardner’s wish to let the Township Council handle the planning was supported by Township Planner John Madden, who said any work by township professionals would overlap the work done last year by project planner RMJM Hillier.
”You will have to duplicate services,” said Mr. Madden. “We would have to trace over a lot things that Hillier already did.”
Mr. Madden’s recommendation was that the Township Council work with RMJM Hillier officials and go back to several plans created by the planning firm following community workshops in the spring of 2007 to create a viable plan that the council supported for the redevelopment area.
Board members said it was the first time they heard professionals recommend Township Council handle the process.
Council support for a comprehensive plan for the redevelopment area — instead of one inclusive only of parking for West Windsor residents and a redone Main Street area along Route 571 — was another discussion topic during Wednesday’s discussions.
Board members said they believed that council — especially the majority elected last May of William Anklowitz, George Borek, and Charles Morgan — only supported those components, and would shoot down any larger plan that had other elements.
An e-mail from absent Planning Board member Debra Lemeshow was read aloud during the meeting by Planning Board Attorney Gerald Muller.
Speaking of a letter from Mr. Anklowitz to the board, she said, “This appears to me as more rhetoric and a façade for council’s intended single outcome: a parking garage and Route 571 Main Street – period. They should just come out and tell the Planning Board to identify the necessary acreage for a garage.”
Mr. Morgan cast the lone abstention, after saying earlier that he believed the general feeling on council was to let the board perform its work without additional council instructions.
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman said Thursday that she was confident council could effectively move forward with the plan.
”The task of council will now be to facilitate a discussion to develop the directives to give to Bob Hillier to revise his redevelopment concept plans,” said Ms. Kleinman. “He presented something and said what would you like me to do, and we need to provide him some directives.”
Mayor Hsueh said he agreed with moving forward to get RMJM Hillier more involved in the process.
”My recommendations to the council is to schedule a meeting with RMJM Hillier,” said Mayor Hsueh. “Later we can have the Planning Board and its consultants double-check and analyze. Once we have a concept plan the Planning Board will have to review it anyway.”
