By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — A majority of West Windsor resident-commuters using the Princeton Junction train station are not willing to pay more than $90 a month for a parking spot, according to a study funded by local developer and InterCap Holdings CEO Steve Goldin.
Conducted by Urbanomics of New York over a three-day period, 276 West Windsor resident-commuters were interviewed, or around 12 percent of the station’s daily commuters who call West Windsor Township home.
InterCap officials called the study an important part of their redevelopment work in assessing what they think public amenities like parking, the Vaughn Drive connector road, and improvements to the Main Street area of Route 571 would cost versus what West Windsor residents would be willing to pay.
Of those commuters without spots — making up around half of the surveyed individuals — a majority would not be willing to pay more than $90 a month for the use of a spot. A majority of those currently possessing a reserved spot at one of the station’s lots would not be willing to pay more than their current $30 to $40 monthly parking bill, the study found.
When combined with an earlier InterCap-funded study, it appears there is a large disparity between what commuting West Windsor residents are willing to pay for a spot, versus the price of such a spot necessary to fully fund the construction of a 1,000-space parking deck, without public moneys.
”The township should proceed with great caution if it is assuming it could count on the demand for more than 500 spaces priced in excess of $90 a month,” wrote Urbanomics representatives.
The earlier Tim Haas and Associates study, conducted in December, found that to preclude the need for township dollars in the construction of such a facility, a monthly charge of $210 would have to be exacted from township commuters using the parking deck.
But at monthly rates of less than $210, the need for public funding of the project gets greater and greater, according to the Haas study.
”The $210 would cover all debt service and operating costs (of a 1,000-space parking deck),” said Mr. Goldin. “It was thought people would probably pay that, grudgingly, but that’s not the case according to this analysis.”
Supporters of redevelopment say the process would allow those public amenities to be funded out of the pockets of developers interested in building in the township’s 350-acre redevelopment zone.
Detractors maintain amenities desired by the community could be built without the need for redeveloping the train station area, or smaller-scale development than some plans have outlined.
Parking Authority Chairman Andy Lupo — after receiving a copy of the study late last week — called it “interesting,” but noted that it was developer-sponsored, and paid for by a firm with an obvious interest in the township’s redevelopment process.
Mr. Lupo said that the Parking Authority was moving ahead with its own exploration of creating more parking options for commuters, and would refrain from restricting the avenues to do so to solely those linked to the township’s controversial redevelopment planning process.
”It’s really redevelopment of the 300-plus acres,” he said of the township planning process, “and from our perspective it is parking at the train station,” he added, referring to the parking authority’s focus. “That’s not our priority,” he said of the train station redevelopment, “getting parking for the commuters is.”
Parking Authority officials are currently in the final stages of preparing a request for proposals to be sent to two finalist firms.
The company selected by members of the parking organization would be tasked with assisting in working for the Parking Authority to accurately gauge both the parking needs at the station and the options for satisfying those needs.
”We continue to believe there are options in front of us that are in addition to the full redevelopment,” Mr. Lupo said.
