By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Negotiations between Hopewell Township and Kooltronic on collaborating on building a walkable community at Marshall’s Corner and Pennytown have failed, and the township will pursue an alternate strategy.
At last night‘s (Wednesday) Township Committee meeting, all five committee members agreed it was time to abandon efforts to negotiate with Kooltronic. They made that decision after township attorney Steve Goodell’s report on the negotiations to date on the intensely controversial proposal to build the walkable, mixed-use community.
The township and Kooltronic "have been negotiating for many months and not reached a meeting of the minds," Mr. Goodell said. "My advice is to pursue other alternatives."
He added that everyone on the township’s negotiating team, which has been meeting with Kooltronic, believes "that the two parties are too far apart in terms of what their expectations are of what they’ll get out of this project. The two property owners (the township and Kooltronic) would have sold their properties to a redeveloper" in order to build the walkable community. "There would have to be agreement on terms of sale" and other issues. "I don’t think it makes sense to go forward with these plans unless we’re on the same page."
And we’re not?" asked Committeeman Michael Markulec.
"No," Mr. Goodell replied decisively.
The committee agreed that Mr. Markulec will lead the effort to get more information on how the township could develop the 25 acres the township owns. That tract is where the razed Pennytown Shopping Village used to stand.
The possibility Mr. Markulec will look into calls for 70 affordable housing units, 52 market-rate units, several stores and a community center.
Township Administrator/Engineer Paul Pogorzelski said there is enough water available on the Pennytown tract to service such a development with wells. There is no public water available there now.
However, Mr. Pogorzelski said, a development on the order of the one Mr. Markulec will investigate could not treat all its wastewater onsite.
One way to deal with that problem, Mr. Pogorzelski said, is to send treated wastewater to the nearby Hopewell Valley Golf Club, which could use the water for irrigation.
In response to a question from Mayor Vanessa Sandom, Mr. Pogorzelski said the golf club currently draws 12 million gallons of water annually from the Stony Brook and that this number would be reduced substantially if treated wastewater were used instead.
Another possibility, he said, is a deal with Kooltronic under which that firm and the township would work together on disposing of their wastewater.
Meanwhile, Kooltronic has taken the initial steps, officials said, on developing its 76 acres — which would have been part of the walkable community with the Pennytown tract — on its own. Again in response to a question from Ms. Sandom, Mr. Pogorzelski confirmed that Kooltronic has recently obtained, from the township planning office, application forms needed to get the process of developing its land under way.
Township zoning allows Kooltronic to build 255 units of housing on its land, located across Route 654 from the Pennytown tract.
Options for the Pennytown tract, other than the one Mr. Markulec will explore, are to build nothing but the 70 affordable units or to sell the property to a commercial developer, officials said.
The announcement that the proposed deal with Kooltronic had gone belly-up was greeted with cheers and applause at the packed municipal auditorium Wednesday night.
If Kooltronic builds 255 units and the township buils 122 units under the option Mr. Markulec will look into, the total of 377 units will be 27 more than the number of units the now-scrapped walkable community would have held, officials said.
Also, if Kooltronic builds nothing but single family homes on its land, which zoning allows it to do, that develoment would very likely have significantly more school-age children than the walkable community would have held, a township housing consultant said, since the walkable community would have included townhouses and affordable units on the portion of the property Kooltronic owns.
A nationwide data base has shown, officials said, that apartments and townhouses house fewer school-age children than single-family homes.
Any development application from Kooltronic would have to be approved by the township Planning Board before construction could take place.