WEST WINDSOR: Judge delays InterCap plan

By Allison Musante, Staff Writer
   WEST WINDSOR – The township’s settlement with InterCap Holdings for a proposed transit village has been further delayed after Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg did not approve the agreement at a fairness hearing last Tuesday.
   According to township attorney Michael Herbert, the judge ruled that a more thorough hearing was needed to determine whether the agreed-upon 40 moderate-income affordable housing units is sufficient on the 800-unit site.
   Mr. Herbert said he and counselors argued that the township, as a whole, already fulfills the Mount Laurel principals, which require every municipality to provide a realistic opportunity for low- and moderate-income housing. But at the hearing, representatives from the Fair Share Housing Center contested the agreement.
   ”We take a different view given that we’re one of the top municipalities generating new affordable housing that’s been pretty aggressive over the years,” Mr. Herbert said. “We’re putting out the economic necessity because InterCap is financing $3.3 million in infrastructure, an 80-foot-wide promenade with civic space and has agreed to 70,000 feet of retail where there was no retail space before.”
   Judge Feinberg has instructed Mr. Herbert to prepare and re-submit a public notice of the fairness hearing that justifies the 5 percent affordable housing set-aside, which is the result of months of negotiations with InterCap. The provision is lower than the original designation set forth in the township’s redevelopment plan, which set aside 57 of 350 units – or 16 percent — for affordable housing in that redevelopment district.
   ”The notice that first went out was more of what we call a ‘whisper in the woods,’” Mr. Herbert said.
   Mr. Herbert said he and the attorneys, including InterCap’s representation and township planning attorney Gerry Muller, were not prepared to give testimony defending the provision at the hearing. When Judge Feinberg approves the notice, another hearing will be set for May or June, at which time testimony will be given.
   Mr. Herbert said the objection from Fair Share Housing Center attorney Adam Gordon was not a surprise. The group has contested the township’s agreement since last November. In a letter addressed to Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and then-Council President Diane Ciccone, dated Nov. 22, 2010, Mr. Gordon wrote that a 20 percent set-aside for affordable housing was needed, with an appropriate split for very low-, low- and moderate-income units.
   ”It is particularly unconscionable in the context of a developer who used Mount Laurel litigation to gain leverage over the township,” he wrote.
   InterCap sued the township in 2009, challenging the redevelopment plan’s designation for its 25-acre property.
   If Judge Feinberg approves the settlement, it would formally end litigation.
   ”We hope that Judge Feinberg’s ruling will encourage the township and InterCap to reconsider the reduction in working and middle class homes on the site,” said Mr. Gordon in an email.
   A call to InterCap CEO Steven Goldin for comment was not returned by press time.