Mike Baxter of West Windsor
I expect that many of you are aware that Intercap has filed a lawsuit against our town. I recommend you read the entire 24-page complaint. You can view it on the [email protected] site. For those who don’t have time, this is my interpretation of what it says:
The Highlands Act prohibits residential development within an area in New Jersey. Because of the development restrictions elsewhere in the state, Intercap must build condos in West Windsor. Intercap has worked with the township for two years to develop a substantial amount of affordable housing. The zoning change Intercap advocates has broad-based public support. The condo development will reduce traffic within the property and reduce greenhouse gases and will be smart growth. The state needs more affordable housing in general and it is the responsibility of West Windsor to provide affordable housing for not just the municipality, but also for the welfare of the region and the state. West Windsor cannot act within its own best interests but must act for the welfare of the people of the region and the state. Additionally, our community is concerned about the tax impact of a large influx of school children. This concern violates the Federal Fair Housing act because we discriminate based on familial status.
And, a nice coda from the developer that pledged their redevelopment plan wouldn’t cost WW taxpayers a thing: Intercap wants damages and costs.
There is an ample hearsay on the numbers of condos that Intercap wants the courts to force our community to allow them to build. A couple of numbers I’ve heard bounced around include 1,200, 1,440 and 1,880. I think you can do the math on what something of this scale will do to traffic, school crowding, home values and taxes.
Do you ever get the feeling that some developers operate like companies that come into a community, make their outsized profits and leave the community to clean up the toxic waste remains of their activity?
The economy is in dire straits. We’ve already wasted over $1M of our tax dollars on the mayor’s transit village folly. Clearly defending our town against this monstrosity is going to take more precious taxpayer money. Our town government should have three top priorities — cutting taxes, cutting expenses and cutting spending. This is not the economy for doing anything other than the absolute necessities.
If you see anyone from Intercap around our town, you may want to ask them why they filed a lawsuit against our town. Maybe you’d like to ask them why they want to tear apart our community, mangle our schools, massively increase our traffic congestion and our taxes. Maybe you should ask them how they sleep at night?
Mike Baxter
West Windsor
