Farrell Delman of West Windsor
As a member of the State Planning Commission, a stepping stone to higher office, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh is responsible for establishing state “urban and suburban redevelopment, housing, transportation” and other planning objectives. The commission is entrusted with creating growth districts and sees the Princeton Junction train station as critical to massive region-specific growth to reduce suburban sprawl, encourage use of public transportation, and other goals broadly outlined in the 1985 State Planning Act — most of which I support, including the environmental benefits from clustering higher density in some areas to support open space in others.
I am not opposed to tall buildings, public transport or lots of people including those needing low income affordable housing. It all depends on how we do it and how much West Windsor residents benefit compared with others. What the act does not state, for example, is who pays for regional redevelopment that disproportionately impacts those closest to the regional train center. Had Mayor Hsueh addressed this critical issue over the last seven years and shown us how this will be tax positive for West Windsor residents from day one, he could have won my vote. The fact that Mr. Hillier showed the opposite and Mr. Hsueh bypassed the redevelopment’s own finance committee confirms this conflict.
Prior to Council’s 3-1 vote in favor of redevelopment, planner John Madden described this first step as “the beginning of the end” of redevelopment for West Windsor. We are now entering Phase 2 with no financial plan, no contributions from neighboring townships, no government commitments, no plan for phasing the additional traffic, and no model to determine “what’s in it for us” other than a new location for the farmer’s market and a vague “sense of place.” Throughout, Mayor Hsueh has argued “we can’t tie the hands of the developers” or this won’t get built. Now comes the hard part – delivering on a genuine town center at no cost to the taxpayer.
As a member of the State Planning Commission, Mr. Hsueh desperately needs to deliver on a large and vibrant regional hub but as West Windsor mayor he needs to do this without raising West Windsor taxes or creating more traffic congestion. By deferring to New Jersey Transit’s ability to generate funds from office construction in order to finance West Windsor parking garages and bypassing Mr. Morgan’s plan to build the garages now at no cost to the taxpayer, it became clear that Mr. Hsueh is inclined to favor the state and his career in these all-important Phase 2 decisions. As an academic and government regulator who lacks business experience, Mayor Hsueh may not be able to deliver negotiated results that are as satisfactory to West Windsor taxpayers as they are to the state, developers and to himself.
We need a tough negotiator for West Windsor, one who has business experience, one who can ensure that redevelopment will not be the “end of West Windsor” and one who does not have a conflict of interest. I urge you to vote for Charlie Morgan.
Farrell Delman
West Windsor

