By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
PLAINSBORO — A Princeton HealthCare System-authored plan for the future medical campus off Route 1 in Plainsboro will be the subject of a review by the township’s Development Review Committee tonight at 6 p.m. at the Plainsboro Township Municipal Building.
The site plan up for review outlines the new hospital Princeton HealthCare System officials plan to build on the 160-acre FMC Corp. site, with an expected completion date of sometime in 2010. It also includes plans for a 32-acre park along the banks of the Millstone River, according to spokeswoman Pam Hersh.
”The site plan for the portions of the project the hospital is responsible for have been submitted to the Planning Board,” said Ms. Hersh. “We’re going to respond to all of their comments, and then go before the Planning Board.”
The Development Review Committee will provide a technical critique of the site plan for the hospital, although the partnership between the township and hospital officials will likely mean a relatively simple review for the plan, according to Les Varga, the township’s director of planning and zoning.
”There really aren’t any outstanding issues because there has been so much homework done throughout the development process,” Mr. Varga said.
Hospital and township officials have already been exchanging information on portions of the various plans, which was received by the township in late March.
Princeton HealthCare System has also applied to subdivide the property into five lots, with the hospital as the obvious anchor of the entire property, Mr. Varga said.
Following the completion of the Development Review Committee’s work on the site plan, the committee will likely send the plan on for review by the Planning Board, with varying amounts of instructions and caveats, Mr. Varga said.
Alternatively, if members of the Development Review Committee take issue with some significant aspect of the site plan, it could be sent back to hospital officials for additional tinkering.
”It will ultimately put its imprint on whatever is sent to the Planning Board,” said Robert Sheehan, the township administrator.
The delivery of the site plan to township officials in March followed the adoption of a redevelopment scheme for the FMC property by the Township Committee at the end of January. That redevelopment plan worked out the concepts for the site, leaving the site plan submitted by the hospital to delineate the details.
”They (the Development Review Committee) are not looking at concepts, as much as particulars,” Ms. Hersh said.
Since the January adoption of the redevelopment plan, Princeton HealthCare System officially acquired the site from the FMC Corp., although representatives of the company would not reveal any details of the March 18 deal.
There are still FMC employees working in certain portions of the site, according to hospital officials, although many of the structures on the property have been severely underused since the company’s heyday on the property in the late 1980s.
That under-utilization was one of the criteria used by the Township Committee to have the area declared “in need of redevelopment” in 2007.
All of the 19 buildings currently situated on the FMC site are slated for demolition, to make way for the new structures called for in the medical campus plan.
It calls for a 806,000-square-foot hospital facility, a skilled-nursing facility, a retirement community, a 270,000-square-foot office complex, and the public park along the north bank of the Millstone River.
