By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — The long-awaited redevelopment plan for Town Center South, encompassing 90 acres of vacant land, modest homes and small businesses on Route 33’s south side, was unveiled to the Planning Board and public last week.
The Town Center South Redevelopment Area, created by the Township Council 13 months ago, is across the highway from the existing Town Center and extends from Washington Boulevard to Robbinsville-Edinburg Road.
Under state law, the redevelopment process gives municipalities broad powers to purchase property through negotiation or condemnation; clear land and install infrastructure; relocate residents and business owners if necessary; and issue bonds without the down payment that otherwise would be required for traditional municipal bond ordinances. The law also permits loans, grants, tax abatements and exemptions to encourage redevelopment.
Fifteen different property owners are affected by the Town Center South Redevelopment Plan, but none spoke at last week’s public hearing. The mayor has said the town will not use its eminent domain power to condemn properties, preferring instead to negotiate for the lands that need to be acquired in order for redevelopment to move forward.
Robbinsville is itself a major landowner in Town Center South, holding title to 52 acres of vacant land there, including the 40-acre Kushner tract. The town now is paying the debt service on this $12 million land purchase from 2007 and is looking to the redevelopment process to make good on this investment. (The town could eventually sell or lease this land to the redeveloper).
Stuart Wiser, the town’s redevelopment planner, told the Planning Board during a three-hour public hearing Jan. 18 that “flexibility is the underlying philosophy” of the 164-page document.
”In light of the financial realities of the current economic climate, this redevelopment permits flexibility in, and relaxation of, the Town Center plan regulations currently enacted in order to maximize the potential of Town Center South in a manner that is mutually supportive of Town Center North,” Mr. Wiser said.
Some Planning Board members and audience members suggested the plan might be too flexible, particularly with regard to open space requirements, comprehensive site-wide stormwater management and safe pedestrian access from the south side of Route 33 to the north side.
The Planning Board made nine recommendations for improvements before unanimously voting to accept the plan and send it to the Township Council for final approval, which could come as early as Thursday, Jan. 26.
Once the Township Council has adopted the plan, the next step is for the town to advertise the redevelopment opportunity and select the redeveloper or redevelopers. Robbinsville’s existing Town Center on the north side of Route 33 was built by one developer, Sharbell, but the Town Center South project ultimately could be done by several different redevelopers, Mr. Wiser said.
”It could be that a developer only wants this piece; it could be that another developer comes in and wants everything,” Mr. Wiser said. “Let’s hope that we have an embarrassment of riches and have a lot of different concepts to choose from.”
The redevelopment plan Mr. Wiser presented requires four streets in Town Center to be extended across Route 33 to connect to the new Town Center South development: Lake Drive (near Roma Bank), Park Street (near Mack Dinette), Commerce Square (near Dolce and Clemente) and Robbinsville-Edinburg Road (near Poseidon). These four streets would cross Route 33 and eventually intersect with a new road called Liberty Street that would run parallel to the state highway.
Four large lots between Route 33 and the proposed Liberty Street would be created for mixed-use buildings containing residential units above ground-floor shops, offices and restaurants. The four-story buildings would have the same architectural look as the Town Center buildings that line the north side of Route 33.
South of Liberty Street, redevelopers would have greater leeway to design the street grid and create what the redevelopment plan refers to as “a community focal point, what planners call a sense of place . . .”
The plan lists single-family homes on narrow lots, duplexes and townhouses as the permitted residential uses. Also allowed in this 36-acre southern tract are community centers, retail shops, restaurants, bars, service businesses, museums, bed-and-breakfasts, open space, township administrative offices, theaters, solar energy facilities “or other form of alternative energy production facilities.”
Planning Board member Kathy Goodwine noted the redevelopment plan sets no limits on the maximum number of residential units permitted in Town Center South, but Mr. Wiser said that was by design to bring flexibility to the process.
”Because of the amount of moving pieces, we didn’t feel it was productive to have a strict dwelling unit per acre calculation,” Mr. Wiser said.
As a practical matter, the Township Council wouldn’t accept a developer’s proposal if it was inconsistent with the goal of having a mix of residential and business uses, he said.
Daniele Breyta, the vice chairwoman of the Planning Board, said the inclusion of “alternative energy” facilities under permitted uses south of Liberty Street should be changed to specifically exclude large wind turbine towers that generate electricity.
Ms. Breyta also said the redevelopment plan did not put enough emphasis on providing pedestrians with a safe means of crossing Route 33 from the Town Center South to the existing shops and restaurants already on the north side of Route 33.
Mr. Wiser said he thought “traffic-calming devices,” signals and crosswalks would accomplish that, but Ms. Breyta disagreed.
”Having personally used some of the (Town Center) crosswalks that exist now, in particular at Robbinsville-Edinburg Road . . . an older person is just not going to be able to negotiate six lanes of traffic,” Ms. Breyta said.
Tom Troy, senior vice president of Sharbell, the developer of the nearly completed Town Center on the north side of Route 33, took issue with the property tax abatements the town will be able to offer on the south side because it is a designated redevelopment area.
Two months ago, the Township Council granted Matrix a five-year tax abatement for the Southeast Industrial Redevelopment zone, a 176-acre parcel off Old York Road also designated as an area in need of redevelopment in 2011.
”My biggest concern about the plan, as it stands right now, is that it alludes to the PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, as a means of inducing economic activity,” Mr. Troy said.
It would be unfair to the owners of the Sharbell homes on the north side of Route 33 if the owners of homes on the south side get tax breaks, he said.
”I think you’re going to have a very clear issue of fairness on the issue of people who buy homes on the north side paying substantially higher or different taxes than people on the south side,” Mr. Troy said.
Mr. Wiser responded that if any tax abatements are negotiated between the township and the redeveloper of Town Center South, they would have to be approved by the Township Council after a public hearing.
”OK, this may not be the right arena then, but I just want to make sure the point is made to you folks,” Mr. Troy said.

