Language same but votes may not be
By Vic Monaco, Managing Editor
HIGHTSTOWN The Borough Council plans to reintroduce an ordinance Monday in what has become a long and winding effort to try to redevelop the former rug mill property on Bank Street.
The redevelopment ordinance is exactly the same one that drew much criticism from the public and local Economic Development Committee and was defeated by the council 4-2 in December, according to Borough Administrator Candace Gallagher. But the governing body has a new councilman and at least one other member who may reverse course and vote to approve the ordinance.
Councilman Jeff Bond, who was elected in November, publicly expressed support of the ordinance last year but also told the Herald he didn’t intend to support a reintroduction of the same changes in 2008.
”I don’t know what my feeling is now,” was Wednesday’s comment from Councilman Bond, who has long sat on the borough’s rug mill committee.
Mr. Bond’s vote could be moot as Councilman Larry Quattrone said he might change his earlier vote and OK the ordinance.
”If they put it back up for a vote, I may have a problem voting no a second time,” he said Wednesday. “We have to make a move somehow.”
If the council were to arrive at a 3-3 tie, as it has in the past on rug mill issues, Mayor Bob Patten, who favors the revised ordinance, would vote and likely push the ordinance through.
What surprisingly won’t be on the council’s agenda Monday is a new redevelopment plan from the owner of the 7-acre tract, John Wolfington.
Rich Almquist, vice president of development for Wolfington Companies, said in July that such a new proposal would likely be presented in August. He said this week that the plan still isn’t ready, including a market feasibility component, but he is hopeful it will be done sometime next month.
Councilman Dave Schneider, who sits on the rug mill committee and favors the ordinance, said Wednesday that he is tired of waiting for another plan, and such a proposal should have no bearing on the vote.
”It’s been the better part of this year that we’ve been waiting for a new plan and not a council meeting where I did not make it clear (in private session) that we should introduce this ordinance,” he said.
”I’ve been arguing the entire time that if the ordnance is right for the people of Hightstown, why hold off and write a plan for a specific developer,” he added.
The new redevelopment ordinance maintains a limit of 130 residential units on the property, something Mr. Almquist said last month is abided by in the latest, pending proposal. But the new ordinance drops a previous requirement that the developer also build or rehabilitate nearby municipal office space, something Mr. Wolfington has said he can’t afford. It would allow him to make a payment in lieu of such work, which was previously said to be $350,000.
Its approval might go a long way in getting Mr. Wolfington to drop a lawsuit he filed in January against the borough, seeking to overturn the current ordinance, which requires the municipal construction, and recoup more than $250,000 he says he has spent to help pay for local review and planning.
Mr. Wolfington has been negotiating with the borough for more than four years on the redevelopment of the tract, having begun by saying he wanted to build 82 residential units. The land is one of only two significant parcels in the borough that can be developed, the other being the site of the former Minute Maid plant.
Borough Council President Walter Sikorski, who sits on the rug mill committee and favor the new ordinance, declined to comment on the pending reintroduction. And Mayor Patten, also on the committee and a supporter of the ordinance, did not return call seeking comment.
In December, the council voted 4-2 against the revised ordinance, with Councilman Quattrone casting the deciding ballot. He voted no after getting a reply from the local EDC that the amendments in the ordinance represent a “lost vision” for the mill project.
Mr. Quattrone said this week that his primary concern is ordinance language that could result in the vacation of a stub of Mechanic Street, which provides a path for emergency vehicles to and from the municipal complex. He said he’d like to see the Planning Board help make that decision.
Council members Ryan Rosenberg and Constance Harinxma, who voted against the revised ordinance in December, could not be reached for comment.

