HIGHTSTOWN: Planners accept Route 33 study

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
   HIGHTSTOWN — The Planning Board on Monday unanimously accepted the Route 33 Corridor Study, the plan for redevelopment on the old Minute Maid property.
   The Minute Maid land is located in both East Windsor and Hightstown along Route 33.
   The old Minute Maid facility itself sits vacant in Hightstown. It closed many years ago.
   ”We’re not necessarily endorsing it at this point, it’s just really formally accepting the report at this point,” said Steve Misiura, of Hightstown, chairman of the Planning Board.
   Mr. Misiura explained they were provided an electronic copy of the Route 33 Corridor Study just a few days prior and were given the hard copies on Monday.
   ”We really haven’t had a chance to look at it,” Mr. Misiura said.
   East Windsor is the lead agency on the Route 33 Corridor Study, he explained, adding that East Windsor had a motion at its Township council Meeting on June 6 to accept the report and send it to its Planning Board to continue the process.
   ”I think what we want to do is the same thing,” Mr. Misiura said as he suggested to the board to accept the report.
   ”I think it would be good to accept this report and for the borough to refer to it for other things it needs. It’s to our advantage,” Mr. Misiura said.
   Mr. Misiura asked the board if there were any questions. Gary Rosensweig, Planning Board attorney, pointed out that this study would be used by the re-examination committee.
   ”We would accept it and it would be utilized by the re-examination committee as a document during the re-examination report and taking appropriate action is necessary and consistent with the report and recommendations,” said Mr. Rosensweig.
   Mr. Rosensweig also noted that since most of the members just received the document that they needed to study it.
   ”We need to study and have the committee deal with it when the committee begins its work. We will be talking about re-examination later,” Mr. Rosensweig said.
   Mr. Misiura noted that Mayor Steven Kirson, Fred Montferrat, and himself were in attendance at the East Windsor June 6 council meeting.
   ”They had good things to say about us in working with us on this process so it was a positive thing,” Mr. Misiura said.
   ”It absolutely was positive,” said Mr. Montferrat, vice chairman of the Planning Board.
   ”Every council member on the East Windsor board embraced it. They enjoyed being able to with our board along with their subcommittee to bring this report back,” Mr. Montferrat said.
   With that, Mr. Misiura moved that the Planning Board accept the report and refer it to the re-examination subcommittee.
   ”I would like to thank the board for that. It has been a long time coming,” Mr. Misiura said.
   The study is set to go before Borough Council at its next meeting on June 18.
   Also, the Hightstown Planning Board has scheduled a special meeting to be held on Monday, June 25. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Ely House located, 164 N. Main St. and action may be taken at the meeting. On Monday, the Planning Board also discussed its Master Plan.
   ”You started this process a little while ago and there were a series of worksheets to help you through and consider – planning policies, existing policies — should look like,” said Tamara Lee, borough planner.
   ”Basically what this would do is, I would prepare the re-examination board. I would do the research that a lot of you are trying to do and I would meet with you and discuss some of the big policy issues. And, I would draft the re-examination report and we would review it and then take it for a public hearing,” Ms. Lee said.
   Ms. Lee noted there is going to be a tendency or a desire to turn the re-examination report into more than what it really is.
   ”The Municipal Land Use Law tells us exactly what it needs to be and that is an examination of what the existing policies are, examinations of the existing circumstances that exist and how have they changed since the last re-exam, the examination of the policies that may have been fulfilled and which ones have not been fulfilled and then finally what should the current planning policies be, which ones do we abandon and are there new planning policies that we can generate,” Ms. Lee said.
   Ms. Lee noted that those policies would not be spelled out in detail in the re-examination report.
   ”It should be reserved for a Master Plan amendment,” Ms. Lee said in reference to future planning discussions per the Route 33 Corridor, Minute Maid and Rug Mill properties.
   ”A re-examination (is needed) just determines in what direction we go and where we need more detailed policies and then we go ahead and consider that more fully later,” Ms. Lee said.
   ”The Master Plan over time often becomes an assemblage of documents,” Ms. Lee said after explaining the process again of how they go from discussing the policies to creating a draft to the final draft then a public hearing and then possibly making revisions again.
   Mr. Misiura questioned the fee that the Planning Board had for its initial budget on the project which hadn’t been completely exhausted yet and noted that council would have to be asked for additional funding after its balance was applied to the new quote from Ms. Lee.
   Mr. Misiura asked Planning Board members Councilwoman Gail Doran and Mayor Steven Kirson, how they felt about going to council to ask about covering fees that might be required to work on the re-examination project.
   ”This project is as an important as any project that we face in the near future. This is really what the planning board does, it plans. We need a plan for this borough and so I would hope that council would consider this very carefully. And I think that is money well spent,” Mayor Kirson said.
   ”Ultimately the re-examination project costs us money up front . . . it will prevent spending down the road on lawsuits,” said Christopher Moraitis of Hightstown, planning board member.
   ”At the time, I don’t think we realized how quickly these things get picked apart. These judges are reading them. They make their decisions based on the language in them. The language is very important,” Mr. Misiura said.
   ”What I am seeing seems reasonable,” said Ms. Doran.
   Ms. Lee noted there are some big issues that the committee did need to address.
   ”There are three major issues are the Minute Maid property fall out, the rug mill, and the municipal are the main issues,” Mr. Rosensweig said. “Sure you can put it off but not when you have a large planning issue sitting before you. We need to address that and we think it’s appropriate to move now.”
   The State has allowed 10 years now instead of six years, according to Mr. Rosensweig.
   Mr. Misiura just asked that Ms. Lee help keep them on track with their timeline. It was noted that this could take up to a year or less to complete since they would need input from all the various boards and committees to just gather various information.
   ”There are sort of the unknowns that I can’t tell you,” Ms. Lee said.
   A motion was made for it to be forwarded to council for funding funded.
   The next regularly scheduled Planning Board meeting will be 7:30 p.m. July 9 at the Hightstown First Aid Building, 168 Bank St.