WEST WINDSOR: After 5 years, development plan faces a vote

By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
   WEST WINDSOR — Years of controversy will culminate in one roll call vote Monday night, as the adoption of the controversial redevelopment plan for the train station area goes before council following a public hearing.
   As few as two ‘yes’ votes would enact a land use ordinance for the 350-acre area encircling the Princeton Junction Train Station.
   Five years have passed since the Township Council defined the preliminary boundaries of the redevelopment area. The subsequent years were encompassed by heated debate, personality disputes, legal battles and accusations by community members of deliberate stalling on the part of council.
   Council struggled to find a balance between the scope and scale desired by the community and a development that will be attractive enough to private developers. Housing, in particular, has been a note of contention as residents feared that housing could further congest roads and flood public school enrollment.
   Last fall, architecture firm RMJM Hillier rolled out a new draft of the redevelopment plan. Council spent a number of marathon work sessions and meetings revising the draft before it was sent to the Planning Board in December. The board completed its review of the plan in 17 days, sending it back to the council amid complaints from community groups that they were not able to provide sufficient input.
   In response, the council invited the groups to a work session last month, where council members approved hundreds of additions to the plan before introducing the ordinance.
   Township Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said he hopes that the council can finally make a decision, one way or the other, on redevelopment.
   ”Starting from 18 months ago, I’ve been asking council to either make a decision or vote it down, so the township didn’t have to waste money for it,” he said.
   If the plan is approved, he said, he will be able to begin working with county and state agencies to obtain infrastructure funding. To date, over $170 million in outside funding, mostly for improvements to Route 1, has been lost because of delays in the redevelopment process, he said.
   Details of the plan would be worked out over the next couple of years, he said. This would include the economic impact of the plan, he said.
   ”I will not allow taxpayers’ money to be spent on this redevelopment, once we get into the implementation,” he said.
   The controversial housing element of the plan calls for 350 housing units in the transit village area, a 25-acre property along Washington Road owned by Intercap Holdings. The number of housing units could be negotiated to be higher, if the developer will provide public amenities, according to the plan.
   In October, company CEO Steve Goldin left the redevelopment process, announcing plans to request rezoning of the property to build 1,440 condominiums and 88,000 square feet of office and retail space. He accused the council president of intending to “process redevelopment to its death.”
   The next month, he rejoined the process, proposing 935 housing units on the property. But shortly after council decided on 350 units, a number Mr. Goldin said was not economically feasible, the company filed a builder’s remedy lawsuit against the township.
   When the ordinance goes up for vote on Monday, there will only be four council members in West Windsor. Will Anklowitz, who has been appointed as a judge in the state Superior Court, submitted his resignation on Monday.
   Township Attorney Mike Herbert said that assuming all four members attend, the ordinance could pass with either three votes, or two votes, providing the other votes are an abstention and a ‘no’ vote.
   Without the necessary votes, the ordinance would fail, he said. From there, it could be reactivated.
   One vote can already be placed in the ‘no’ column. Council President Charlie Morgan, who voted against the introduction of the ordinance, said he would vote against its adoption Monday. He attributed the decision, in part, to the “intolerable” amount of housing.
   Despite the contention by township planner John Madden that there are a total of 487 housing units in the plan, Mr. Morgan said other “reliable” counts put that number as high as 1,400. And that doesn’t include the 350 units that would be up for negotiation, he said.
   ”We know, we just know for a fact that the economics do not work at 350,” he said. “We know that number is going to be negotiated at some significantly higher number.”
   Councilwoman Linda Geevers said she’s going to listen to the public on Monday and make a decision based on the facts. She asked the township professionals to review the redevelopment plan Monday night, particularly issues of most concern to residents, in a logical, factual manner.
   ”We have to base decisions on facts, and not divisive innuendo,” she said.
   Without a redevelopment plan in place, the area around the train station could become another Metropark in Edison, she said.
   ”As I’d repeatedly said before, a redevelopment plan protects the township’s interests and not the developer’s interests,” she said. “We control our destiny.”
   Councilman George Borek said the vote is an “important juncture” for the township, and he has not yet made up his mind on how he will cast his vote.
   ”I’m leaning one way but I’m giving everybody an opportunity to weigh in with me,” he said. “I think it would be premature to say at this point how I’m going to vote.”
   Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman did not return a call for comment by deadline.
   The redevelopment plan is available on the township’s Web site at www.westwindsornj.org.