West Windsor eyes reductions in what can be built.
By: David M. Campbell
WEST WINDSOR Sarnoff Corp. and American Home Products, two of the largest landowners in the township, voiced strong opposition this week to the proposed 50-percent reduction of developable square footage in the township’s newly drafted Master Plan.
"As a businessman, I certainly appreciate the need for this kind of planning," said Dr. James E. Carnes, president and chief executive officer of Sarnoff, at Wednesday night’s meeting of the Township Planning Board. "But I am concerned with its potential impact on our technological campus proposal. A 50-percent reduction in the floor-area ratio will make that vision impossible."
Dr. Carnes said the firm is willing to compromise but hinted that it might consider expanding elsewhere.
In January, Sarnoff unveiled a concept plan for a 2.75-million-square-foot expansion of its Penns Neck facility, which includes two hotels, about 20 office and research buildings and 17 parking decks, and could ultimately bring as many as 10,000 new employees to the site daily.
A draft of the new Master Plan, unveiled recently by the Planning Board, calls for a reduction in the floor-area ratio at Sarnoff from 30 percent to 15 percent, a measure intended to address traffic congestion.
Dr. Carnes recommended a compromise floor-area ratio of 21 percent and told Planning Board members Sarnoff has reduced its original proposal accordingly.
The original concept plan proposed developing only 24 percent of the property, 6 percent less than the permitted ratio, Dr. Carnes said. The reduced plan, which has not yet been presented to the board, is about 500,000 square feet smaller than the first draft, he said.
The new design addresses concerns raised by the community in January about traffic impacts on the neighborhood, and includes rights-of-way for innovative public transportation such as buses and light rail.
"Sarnoff wants to move forward with a plan to ensure we will continue to be a good neighbor for another 60 years," Dr. Carnes said.
Dean Lundahl Jr., senior vice president of Advance Realty Group, Sarnoff’s partner in the expansion, said Sarnoff’s proposed innovations in public transportation will have "a regional impact," one that will make the technology firm and the region a model for the state.
Dr. Carnes said that if the township decides to adopt the 15-percent reduction in the floor-area ratio in its Master Plan, Sarnoff may have to "evaluate our options."
Chris Baker, lawyer for American Home Products, which owns the 660-acre former American Cyanamid tract off Route 1, voiced similar concerns about the proposed cut in allowable development.
"We can understand why the board has been led to consider a reduction in FAR," Mr. Baker said. "We still think the particular reduction that is proposed is really excessive."
Mr. Baker questioned the popular logic that a reduction in commercial development at the expense of property-tax revenue will result in a traffic reduction. He argued that neighboring communities would host development instead, resulting in a forfeit of the tax benefit to West Windsor but no reduction in traffic.
Earlier, Planning Board members estimated that the proposed reduction in floor-area ratio at Sarnoff would cost the township about $9 million in annual property tax revenue.
Mr. Baker said "certainly we could live with" the 21-percent ratio proposed by Sarnoff.
Planning Board hearings on the draft Master Plan are expected to run throughout the month. On Wednesday, the hearing was crowded with residents of Berrien City in Princeton Junction, who are opposed to a realignment of the Alexander Road Bridge that would widen Alexander Road through their neighborhood at the expense of some homes.
But land use took up most of the meeting, and neighbors had little opportunity to talk.
At the end of the meeting, however, the board unanimously agreed to review land-use and traffic-circulation issues in Princeton Junction and the village of Edinburg separately from the draft Master Plan, in cooperation with community leaders from those two historic neighborhoods.