Editorial
The old adage about the devil in the details is worth remembering in discussions of Robbinsville’s Town Center South Redevelopment Plan. However, in this case, it may be the devil is in the lack of details.
The township redevelopment planner’s stated goal of deliberately making the plan flexible in order to attract a plethora of ideas and options from potential redevelopers vying for the work may be valid. Nevertheless, the absence of clear limits on how much residential housing can be packed into the “southern tract” of the 90-acre redevelopment area is making plenty of people uncomfortable.
Right now the Board of Education is planning a December construction referendum that will ask voters to approve spending money to either expand the existing overcrowded elementary and middle schools, or build a new grade 3 to 5 school. Any redevelopment proposal — even one with a worthy goal of mixing residential with business/commercial — should be on taxpayers’ radar because of the impact it could have on the school construction decisions being made now.
Under the plan presented to the Planning Board on Jan. 18, four streets in Town Center would be extended across Route 33 into the new Town Center South project. Four-story buildings with ground-floor office/retail and residential units above are permitted on the lots fronting the south side of Route 33, opposite the existing Town Center. Behind these south-side lots would be a new road called Liberty Street and everything south of Liberty Street is pretty much an open canvas.
Sure, the plan says what the “permitted uses” are in the 36-acre tract south of Liberty Street: housing, community centers, shops, restaurants, museums, open space, township offices, bed-and-breakfasts, and even solar energy facilities. But what the plan does not provide is specifics on the permitted density of the residential housing — how many homes are allowed in this residential-business mix?
The council says it is going to be changing the plan to remove single-family detached homes as “permitted uses” in the southern tract. But townhouses and duplexes (which, in theory at least, are supposed to attract fewer families with children) are still allowed. And in all likelihood, townhouses and duplexes will be part of any potential redeveloper’s plans. The question is: How much?
Robbinsville borrowed $12 million to buy the 40-acre Kushner tract in the redevelopment area in 2007 in order to stop construction of hundreds of single-family homes. It understandably views selling or leasing that land to a redeveloper as a better option than paying debt service on vacant parcels. And, presumably, the town would not go along with any redeveloper’s plan that sabotages the purpose of buying the Kushner tract in the first place: to stop an influx of hundreds of schoolchildren.
Nevertheless, as the Township Council works toward adopting a redevelopment ordinance in the weeks ahead, it might want to consider setting limits on how much housing can be included in the Town Center South redevelopment project before redevelopers start submitting their proposals. If the township’s intention is not to allow the tract to be overwhelmed with residential housing anyway, what’s the harm of putting some limits in writing?

