By Stephanie Vaccaro, Staff Writer
After more than two years, a settlement agreement has been reached regarding the construction of a transit village at Princeton Junction.
On Thursday, July 7, Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg approved an agreement between InterCap Holdings, the Fair Share Housing Center and West Windsor Township administration representatives, which hinged on the approval of the West Windsor Council at its meeting Monday, July 11.
To win the three council votes necessary, a concession was made on the part of the developer via a late night phone call during the meeting to Steven Goldin, InterCap CEO.
The change sought was to have 18 of 98 affordable housing units be for sale, instead of being for rent.
The settlement is a major step forward in what has been a debate that has gone on for more than two years.
The agreement entails the following: the construction of a transit village with a promenade surrounded by up to 100,000 square feet of retail space and 800 residential units. Ninety-eight of those units, or 12.2 percent, will be affordable housing units 50 percent will be for moderate income, 40 percent will be for low income and 10 percent will be for very low income. The township agreed to waive the affordable housing controls for the units after 35 years.
”Everything will be mixed together,” said Adam Gordon, staff attorney for the Fair Share Housing Center, of the affordable housing, the for-sale condos and the retail space. “You won’t have one area that is just condos or apartments.”
The 98 affordable housing units will be dispersed through the project. Clusters of affordable housing units within buildings will be acceptable given that no more than 50 percent of the units in a building are affordable.
The architectural features and exteriors of the buildings where the affordable units are located will be indistinguishable from the other buildings on the site.
Structured parking spaces will be constructed with approximately 1.4. spaces for each residential unit on site.
InterCap has committed more than $2.6 million in off-tract roadway improvements as well as paying for on-site improvements. These new roadways will allow Alexander Road and Washington Road to be connected and will facilitate much easier access to the train station.
InterCap will also reimburse the township $683,000 for the formulation of the Princeton Junction redevelopment plan. Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said that the township has spent $700,000.
One concession that was later withdrawn on the day of the council meeting was that West Windsor’s agreement to allocate $900,000 of its affordable housing trust fund to help pay for parking spaces for the affordable units, something that is estimated at $18,000 per spot.
”This is needed and again I am hoping that this will help to start moving the whole redevelopment forward,” said Mayor Hsueh. “It has a lot of implications socially, financially and environmentally.”
”To me, this is an ice-breaking moment,” said Mayor Hsueh.
”We are grateful for the leadership and support shown by council member Khanna, Borek and Ciccone in putting the interest of West Windsor taxpayers first,” said Mr. Goldin. “We look forward to providing residents the new places to shop, dine and gather that they have waited for for so long.”
Though Mr. Goldin was unable to attend the meeting, he said he was able to attend virtually, as he received text messages as the meeting progressed, both from home viewers and from those present at the meeting, and was able to respond to the issues as they arose.
”From our perspective, it’s a good settlement,” said Mr. Gordon.
He hopes the project will be built instead of being tied up in endless negotiation.
”We think, on balance, it’s reasonable and it’ll allow this development to start,” said Mr. Gordon. “We think it’s particularly exciting that this could be moving forward in the next year given the need for economic development.”
The ordinance regarding this matter is set to be introduced at the council’s next meeting on July 18, said Bob Hary, township administrator. If it passes, it will be referred to the Planning Board for their consideration before coming back to the council for a second reading.
