By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
The Hopewell Township Committee is considering hiring a professional planner and other consultants to devise a formal proposal for a new village centered around the 25-acre Pennytown tract, which the township purchased two years ago.
The purchase was paid for with affordable housing fees paid over the years by developers, not with tax revenues.
A decision on whether to move ahead with drawing up the redevelopment plan for the village, which would include affordable housing as well as other residences, is expected to be made next month.
Conferring with the Township Committee Monday night was the committee-appointed Pennytown Task Force. It proposed creating a new village on the Pennytown tract and two nearby tracts of land — 100 vacant acres owned by Kooltronic, across county Route 654 from Pennytown, and the township-owned Else tract, about 70 acres in size and just south of the Kooltronic land.
The Else tract also is vacant, having been a farm until the township bought it a number of years ago.
Ed Truscelli and Betsy Ackerman, of the Pennytown Task Force, told the committee the task force believes a small, mixed-use village, about a half-mile wide, would be the best use of the three parcels of land. The village could include retail outlets, small parks, a senior center and teen center.
The township already has passed an ordinance designating the three tracts a redevelopment zone. Under state law, noted township bond counsel Ed McManimon and township administrator Paul Pogorzelski, that gives the township much more flexibility in dealing with prospective developers of the land than the township would have otherwise.
”There’s tremendous value in the place,” Mr. McManimon said of the area proposed for the new village.
He confidently predicted, if the township proceeded with a redevelopment plan for the village, it would recoup all the money it spent on consultants needed to get the project off the ground as well as significantly replenishing its affordable housing funds.
Noting the township owns both Pennytown and the Esle tract, Mr. McManimon said, “The township has all the leverage because the property is in its possession.”
He added Kooltronic has indicated it is amenable to proceeding with the redevelopment plan.
”Several developers have already expressed interest” in participating in the construction of the proposed village, Mr. Pogorzelski said.
Mayor Jim Burd sounded a cautionary note, saying the plan may “not seem so great for those who live in the Marshall’s Corner area” of the township, which is where the new village would go.
”I’ve talked to some of them about this, and they feel like they’re being bowled over and rolled over,” the mayor said.
Mr. Pogorzelski said, if the township decides to move ahead on the venture, the “first shovel could go in the ground” by 2013.
