Yeah. Try not to blow into yours. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But in case you need it, Michael, we're good. We're good. The planning board 2000 uh June 225, 2025 special meetings called to order. This advised that the notice of the
time, date, location, and to the extent known agenda of subject meeting was promptly posted in the public place reserved for such or similar announcements on June 10th, 2025, transmitted to the Times to Princeton packet in West Winds of Plainsboro News on June 10th, 2025 and filed with the
township clerk on June 10th, 2025. Please hold the role. Mr. Patel, yes. Mr. Lavaro, Mr. Shefftell, Mr. Panov. Yes. Mr. B. Miss Bri. Miss
Applegat. Yes. Councilman Whitfield. Mayor Marte. Yes. Vice Chairman Hoverman here. Chairman Clark here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Okay. This is a special meeting. Um talk about
housing element. There's a lot of people. I see a lot of excited faces out there. I want to give everybody every everybody an opportunity to speak if if we can. Um can I just want to get a show of hands who plans on speaking tonight? Just raise your hand.
Okay. Uh which is great. Thank you. And the reason why I'm asking is because usually we limit the amount of time people speak for to three minutes. I want to make sure I get everybody a chance to speak. So if you think that somebody spoken before you has basically
said the same things you were going to say, there's no, you know, try not to repeat yourself just for the sake of hearing. Um because we want to get through this meeting and we we want as many people to have an opportunity to speak as possible.
Um with that said, I am going to there's a letter that was uh addressed to the planning board that I'm going to read into the record. is from Eert Seammens attorney at law from Frank uh Patrino.
So it's regarding consideration of draft housing ele draft housing element and fair share plan planning comments on behalf of Tri-State Pro Inc. 23036. Dear board members, I along with Kevin Moore represent Tri-State Pro Inc. Our
client retained Craig Rahen Kemp as a premier planner and leading expert in affordable housing law to review the township's draft housing element and fair share HFSP. Mr. Rahen Kemp resume and report are
enclosed. His report concludes with the following statement. This report is intended to outline for the planning board why it is my belief that the planning for 284 units is inappropriate. There is no impediment that would prevent West Windsor Township from achieving full compliance with this
assigned 480 unit obligation. Paper compliance. The act of looking like you comply while avoiding actual compliance will not succeed and result in waste of taxpayer money and the board's efforts. As Tri-State Pro site, he states the
tri-state site is suitable for inclusionary development. It is inconsistent with the purpose of Mount Laurel doctrine to create unmet need while a suitable site is actively being offered for inclusionary development.
This is especially true when during the third round of tri-state site was found to be suitable met the four ables and an ordinance was drafted proposing to reszone the site for affordable housing. A copy of the draft ordinance with conceptual site plan architectural
details is enclosed. The deadline to submit the HE FSP to the affordable housing program is June 30th. Accordingly, the board has time on June 25th, 2025 to direct its planner to
amend the HEFSP to correct the three deficiencies outlined in Craig Rahan Camp's report and designate the tri-state site to be reszoned for inclusionary housing at a density of eight units per acre for town houses or
17 units per acre for multif family units. respectfully submitted Frank Petrino uh with CC to um township folks and so on so forth. Um I'm not going to go into the attachments. I'm going to
let our attorney for the planning board and our um planner uh talk and Sam also can weigh in on the on the the attachments and the uh regards to um the
ordinance that was um prepared. So, who wants to go first? I'll go. Sure. Go ahead. I do. Yeah, sure. We'll swear you in. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony shall give will be the truth? I do. Thank you.
And please just introduce yourself. Good evening everybody. My name is David Novak with Burges Associates. I am a professional planner. One that's lit up green. Is that better? There we go. Off to a bad start. I apologize. Good evening
everybody. My name is David Novak. I'm with Burges Associates. I am a township planning consultant. I'm a professional planner in the state of New Jersey. Um we are in receipt of the letter which the chairman uh had read into the record. Um I don't have much comment on
it. Uh as I will explain later, there will be an objection period as well as a process which has been established by the state to deal with objections to the housing plan. I will add though that the uh letter did not contain a planning report. It did contain an ordinance that
was two pages long. It contained a concept plan that included another site which is currently under development and it included a resume. Uh but there's no planning report that was attached to that report. Frank Martina, anything to add to that?
No, I I really have nothing to add. As Mr. Novak mentioned there is a process a formal process that's been established by the Fair Housing Act which was revised in last last year in March of last year which um outlines a procedure for formal objections um and and
specific criteria that has to be addressed by by those objections um and so that that would be the appropriate forum for addressing um issues that have been raised in this and in this submission to the board. Thank you Sam.
anything yet? No. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, David, you're up to talk about um Oh, sorry. Um, thank you. Um, okay. So, at this
time, I'm going to turn over to the public for any public comments regarding uh tonight's um uh agenda. So just line up a non-aggenda items. Sorry
about the house plan. These are these are the non-aggenda items. If you want to talk about um what's going to the housing element plan, I'll give time for the public after that. Yeah. Sorry for the confusion. This would be time for comments regarding
anything that's not relating to the housing plan, right? and then I'll do my spiel and then it's time for questions and comments on housing plan. What happens is people show up uh they want to comment on other things that are going on around town. Um I usually forget to ask the public to come up and
speak about those things because I see a lot of faces that are anxious and so I inadvertently skipped over that. But if anybody wants to speak on a non-aggenda item, please step up and talk away. Okay, not seeing any. David, you're up.
Okay, I'm up again. Good evening everybody again. My name is David Novak. I'm with Burgess Associates. I'm the township planning consultant. If at any point my face starts to wander away from this microphone, please feel free to yell and say that you can't hear me. It is a bad habit that I try to get out of as well as speaking too quickly, but
that is the North Jersey in me. So, there's only so much I can do about that. Uh, tonight we'll be discussing the draft housing element and fair share plan. Uh but before we go into the details of what that is and what we're aiming to do, I think it's important to give a brief background on what
affordable housing is and why exactly we're doing this. I'll keep this brief as possible because I don't want to monopolize time, but I think that's important to understand what all this is about. Uh so to begin with, what is affordable housing? Uh affordable housing is incomerestricted housing that
is available for sale or for rent. It's restricted to very low, low and moderate income households. Now those three income brackets, those three tiers of very low, low and moderate income are derived from median regional income limits which are established throughout
the state. So West Windsor is located in region 4. That includes Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean counties. And the way those brackets operate is that they are based off of a percentage of that median income. So, for example, for a
threeperson household in our region, the median household income for a threeperson household would be $17,048. Moderate income households or households that make up to 80% of that regional income. So, for a threeperson household
to qualify as a moderate income level household, they would have to make $93,639 a year. A low-income household is 50% of the regional income limit. That would be $58,425. And very low would be $35,15,
which is 30% of that regional income limit. So when we talk about affordable housing, those are some of the incomes that we're talking about. There are a number of forms that affordable housing can take place in. I think mostly everybody here, especially in the board, is familiar with inclusionary developments. Inclusionary
developments are multif family developments uh whether they be apartments or town houses that include a number of market rate units as well as a certain number of affordable units. In West Windsor, we require 25% of all units to be affordable. So if there's a
multif family development that's being proposed somewhere, if there's four total units, one of those need to be at least affordable. So why do towns need affordable housing? It's actually a constitutional obligation uh determined by the New
Jersey Supreme Court. Um we have to understand that this has been going on since the 1970s. I promise I will not get into a long history lesson on this, but this all began back in 1975 with the first Mount Laurel decision where the court decided and determined that every developing municipality has an
affordable housing obligation. Throughout the years, subsequent court cases determined that it's actually every municipality has that obligation. And in 1985, the state adopted what's called the Fair Housing Act or the FHA, as well as the Council on Affordable
Housing, COA. There's a whole lot of history that happens after that. The important thing to remember is that affordable housing is really broken up into three time periods. We have something that's called the prior round, which encompasses the years between 1987 and 1999.
third round which covers the years 1999 and 2025 and now the fourth round which is what we're dealing with now which will cover the years between 2025 and 2035. So we're going to fast forward from 1985 from the creation of the FHA and COA
which had been the state entity which oversaw affordable housing throughout the state to March 20th 2024. The state adopted new legislation on March 20th, 2022 24 which in short because it's a very long document eliminated COA and it
split its duties between the department of community affairs or the DCA as well as the administrative office of the courts which is short AOC for short. The DCA was the entity that was deemed responsible for determining the states
and each region's affordable housing need numbers. They also calculated each municipality's affordable housing de numbers, but those were non-binding. And when the DCA first released its report, it had suggested or calculated that West
Lard's affordable housing obligation was 661 affordable units. It also calculated a present need, which is what we call a rehab obligation, rehabilitation obligation of 61 units. Those are deficient households throughout the community that based on census
information they think are deficient enough to require fixing up. The AOC was established as the entity responsible for handling disputes and that's what we were discussing earlier and that's through something called the resolution dispute program or the program for
short. They are responsible for handling disputes on affordable housing need numbers as well as housing plans. The new legislation also adopted a series of pretty aggressive and tight deadlines. Uh the one significant
deadline was back in January of this year wherein municipalities had to establish or adopt a resolution establishing what they thought their perspective need numbers were for the fourth round for that period between 2025 and 2035. Uh we worked with the township. We
analyzed the DCA data and we argued that the DCA got a number of things wrong and we suggested that based on their methodology but correcting for flaws in their data, the obligation should really be 392 affordable units. Well, we adopted that resolution and
sure enough, we had a couple of objectors. We went through the settlement pro process and ultimately we came to a settlement agreement with one of our objectors which established our perspective need obligation of 480 units. So that is our fourth round
obligation but we will address that in just a little bit. So with all that background information I haven't really answered the question why are we here tonight. This is now the next step in the process and this is going to be a multi-step process. uh municipalities are required to adopt a housing element
and fair share plan to discuss how we've addressed those prior round obligations, the prior round and the third round obligation as well as how we're going to address our fourth round obligation. And these plans must be adopted by the end of June. Um and then after the plan gets adopted,
it needs to be endorsed by the governing body. This is a little bit of an oddity with state law. Typically, when we have a master plan element like a housing plan, those are adopted by the planning board. So, we've had several of these hearings in front of the board. We've
adopted a circulation plan element, an open space and recreation plan element, a community facilities plan element. Those are much more fun to work on. Those are the purview of the planning board. But because the housing plan includes draft ordinances as well as a
spending plan, which is how the township will spend affordable housing trust fund monies to make properties more affordable. We require the mayor and council to also endorse the plan. So I mentioned that we have to adopt this by the end of June. What happens if
we don't? There is a strong chance that we would lose our protection from what's called a builder's remedy lawsuit. A builder's remedy lawsuit in a nutshell uh is essentially a mechanism in which a developer who is interested in a piece of property
that wants to build multifamily housing can do so by suing the municipality under the guise of we will produce affordable units here. What that does is that it essentially makes you the municipality lose control of your local
zoning. So as per the legislation, it is important to get this adopted before the end of June. The plan uh is divided into several sections. There is a extensive community background. I will not bore you with the
demographic data unless you're very interested in that. Um but it does split up how we've addressed our affordable housing obligations in the past and how we plan on doing it going forward. Uh for the prior round obligation, which again covers the years 1987 to 1999, the
township had had been assigned a prior round obligation of 899 affordable units. Uh through 17 different components that generated 674 units or beds of affordable housing as well as 225 bonus credits for 899 total credits.
Thus, for the prior round, the township addressed the entirety of its obligation. Then we had a third round obligation which encompassed the years between 1999 and 2025. The township adopted its last housing element in fair share plan on February
27th, 2019 which seems just like yesterday. That plan was based on a settlement agreement signed between the township and fair share housing center. Fair Share Housing Center, I might have mentioned them before. They are the leading nonprofit advocacy group for
affordable housing throughout the state and due to that position um have been granted essentially a seat at the table for affordable housing matters throughout the state. Based upon that settlement agreement with fair share housing center, the township had a third round obligation of 1,500 affordable
units. And for the most part, the components that we identified in our third round plan do not deviate what we have identified in the fourth round plan. However, there were a few changes based on life happening. Um, very briefly, there was a project that was called PTS phase 2 that is located
beyond the Woodmont Way development which was used to be known as Woodston as board remembers. It's essentially the theological seminar uh seminary. Uh, it's a student apartment complex which at the time they were anticipating to be converted to multif family units. Um, as
for our third round plan that was supposed to generate 48 total affordable units. However, there was a deadline established in the plan and in the settlement agreement that if there was not a sale or a ground lease by January 1st, 2025, we'd have to make up the units elsewhere. And unfortunately, that
project did not come to fruition. There was another project known as Meridian Walk, um, also known as Garden Homes, also known as Duck Ponds. These developments go through a lot of name changes, so it's tough to figure out sometimes, but that's located along Route One, essentially to the rear of the square at West Windsor. uh that was
originally anticipated to generate 628 total units including 157 affordable units. Uh the project was granted site plan approval but it was for 360 total units including 100 affordable units.
The township also had proposed a special needs to affordable program which was supposed to generate 32 units of affordable housing. However, that was not successful. Uh but that being said, we largely made up the shortfall for other projects which have been approved. Uh there were additional affordable
units generated at Avalon Bay, which is the um basically the redevelopment project under construction at the uh West Windsor train station. We generated additional units at the Talons at West Windsor, which is now known as or formerly known as Heritage Village. Uh we also approved a newer project called
the Regency at West Windsor which is an age restricted project in the eastern portion of the township that would generate 22 affordable units and the township was able to extend affordability controls at Bear Creek to Hamlet which is also within the eastern portion of the township and that
generated 61 affordable units. Now that brings us to the fourth round. As I mentioned before, based on the settlement that we have, um, we have a perspective need obligation of 480 units. However, the township conducted
what's called a vacant land adjustment. And there is an acknowledgement within the legislation that some towns just don't have the room to accommodate the full amount of their obligation. And we conducted this vacant land analysis in acknowledgement due to recent and
approved developments. Um and in acknowledgement of that, we don't have a lot of space available left for development. Um this is evident on page 26 of the housing plan which we prepared. Uh within West Windsor, there are 8,173 acres which are developed with
residential uses which range anywhere from single family to multif family developments. We have over 1,000 acres that are restricted by homeowners associations and other like associations associated with those developments. Uh outside of that we have 2,153
approximately residential units that are currently under construction. Uh we have approximately 438 residential units which are approved but not yet under construction yet. And we have 938 residential units that are envisioned in this housing plan. That's not to mention
nearly 6,000 acres of land which are devoted to open space and farming. So the community is developing and this vacant land adjustment was conducted in recognition of that. And what a vacant land adjustment is supposed to do is that it's supposed to generate what's
called a realistic development potential, which is realistically how many more units can your municipality support. And based on the guidelines in the legislation, we conducted an analysis and determined that we can accommodate approximately 236 affordable
units. Now the obligation or the RDT that we're trying to beat for the fourth round consists of those 236 affordable units as well as two leftover affordable units which we did not generate from the third round. So the number we are trying to hit in this housing plan is 238 units.
We are proposing several components to address that RDP. The first would be called what we call the BMS site which is located at block 7.04 lot one. It's located at the intersection of US Route 1 and Nassau Park Boulevard. It's a former office building or an underutilized office
building. What we are proposing is a new R5E district that would allow 555 total units with 139 affordable units. We're also able to receive 59 additional bonus credits from that project. And that was a bonus credit. The legislation does
allow for opportunities to generate bonus credits based on the type of development that you're proposing. And one of the new bonus credits is redeveloping sites that were formerly used as commercial sites. Because of that bonus, this site is able to generate 198 total credits.
Another component to address our fourth round RDP would be the Woodmont Commercial Site, which is located at block 86, lot 58.02, located at the intersection of Meadow Road and Canal Point Boulevard. Uh that site was recently approved for a daycare
center along the suburbly portion and an office building along the northerly portion. In that northerly portion, we are now proposing a new R5F district which could generate 35 residential units including nine affordable units. The next site is known as Obel Placa.
That's located at block 7, lots 9.01 and 31 uh within the northerly portion of the township. We are proposing a new R5G district there to generate 80 residential units including 20 affordable units. We are also proposing uh a multif family
development reszoning at the Carnegie Center which is that large office complex along Route 1, essentially right in the dead center of it. It's known as the 400 series block 9 lots 84 and 85. Uh the plan proposes a new R5H district
which would generate 200 residential units including 50 affordable units. We also have the Ellsworth Center which is a mixeduse project located within the north end of town near the intersection of Cranberry Road and Princeton Heightstown Road consists of block 5 lots 20.01
02 03 04 lot 62 and 76. We are proposing a new RP7A and RP7B district which would generate 98 total units including 25 affordable units. We're applying some of those back to the third round because this has been a project that's been
ongoing as well as 19 credits towards the fourth round. We also have a smaller property located along Eden uh I'm sorry, Oak Lane which is licensed as a group home for the developmentally disabled which will generate four credits for us. So altogether these
components generate 241 units of affordable housing or beds plus 59 bonus credits for 300 total units. The important thing to remember is that this is just one step in the process. So keep that in mind and I will follow up
on that when I get the next steps. We're not just uh providing opportunities for new affordable housing in the plan though. We also uh updated our spending plan. Uh a spending plan is essentially a mechanism that helps uh predict the best we can how much
affordable housing trust fund monies we'll be getting over the next 10 years and how we can allocate those monies. And the township actually has a very productive and uh creative spending plan. Uh I wish I could take credit for it, but it was really township staff that put in a lot of input for it. So
that spending plan includes a rehabilitation program. It includes an affordability assistance program specifically helping low-income households with hot water and HVAC program. Uh there's a Hamlet energy program as well with rental assistance.
Uh the township is going to continue its foreclosure and bankruptcy program which is used to ensure that units are not lost through the foreclosure and bankruptcy program. We are proposing a new closing cost program which is designed to help provide assistance for down payments for incomequalified individuals and
restricted units. We are proposing a homeowners association fees program uh to help maintain a fund available for affordable homeowners and restricted units to help mitigate the adverse effects of special assessments incurred by HOAs. And also we're proposing a
veterans ownership maintenance program which is intended to provide financial assistance or other support to veterans in qualified households in restricted units for home ownership and maintenance including home repairs, accessibility modifications, and qualified home
improvements. So that's our housing plan in a nutshell. When we think about the next steps, there will be a number of those. Um first the plan as I mentioned needs to be adopted before the end of June. Uh it would then be endorsed by the
governing body and I believe that's planned for immediately after this meeting by August 31st. There's a deadline that any interested party can challenge the validity of our housing plan.
That challenge needs to be based on the actual content of the housing plan. So, a challenge cannot be profered just because a developer says, "Hey, I want my site in there. You didn't include it." They need to point out what they think we did wrong with the housing plan. After that, those disputes would be
handled by the program, and the point of the program is to see if those disputes can be settled. December 31st is the deadline for the municipality to settle any challenge or provide an explanation as to why it won't make all or some of the changes requested during that process.
And by March 15th, 2026, which seems like it's far away, but I promise you is right around the corner. That's the deadline for municipality to amend its housing plan if it has to and to adopt any ordinances. So, this is one step and a multi-step process. Those are the deadlines that
are established by the legislation. But let me speak about the deadlines that deal more with more community concerns. This plan identifies where we'd like our affordable housing place to meet that RDP requirement. After that, putting aside all the
program language and litigation potentially, the next step would be refining ordinances. So, as a result of tonight, if knock on wood, this plan gets adopted, there will not be a site plan application tomorrow because the first thing that needs to happen is that the draft zoning ordinances, which we
drafted to show that these properties could be developed, need to be refined. Uh, so typically what would happen is that developers would meet with the West Windsor technical review committee. Those be reviewed, refined. Sometimes there's a concept plan presentation in
front of the planning board to get additional input. The next step after that would be an introduction of an ordinance in order for that ordinance to be then referred to the planning board for a consistency with our master plan back to the council for adoption and then after that there
would be a site plan application. So this is the first step in a multi-step process but there will be several opportunities to have a bite at the apple at this. Um, so I don't want anybody going away thinking that if this plan gets approved tonight, tomorrow
you're going to see clear-cutting and there's going to be a development built right next to you. Uh, there's going to be multi multiple steps in this process, multiple revisions, multiple refinements. This is establishing the blueprint for what we're looking to do to address our affordable housing needs.
And that's essentially the housing plan in a nutshell. I apologize for speaking too long. Um, but I'll hand it back over to the board. Thank Thank you, David. Um, very thorough. I appreciate that. Um, Martina, anything to add to that?
Nope. Sam, Martina, did you want to indicate that publication and the notices for all? Yes, I that I pretend I did that at the beginning of the meeting. The um notice is in order and the the notice of publication um uh and the the board has
jurisdiction. Sir, thank you. Okay. Um, any of the board members questions for David? If if there is anything in David's presentation that the typos or things you can just give it to him at another time, you know, and
he'll make the corrections. Yeah. And I should have mentioned too, uh, I did distribute three pages out to the board. We have additional pages available on the desk if anybody's interested. I had made, um, thus far three typos in the document. Uh none of them are super subst uh substantive. The first dealt
with those income limitations. There was a typo where the uh amount in the text did not line up to the amount in the table. There was another typo dealing with a table regarding um household composition. And then there was another typo which referred to a project by the
wrong name back in the third round. We've corrected those. We've updated the pages. So if anybody wants to see what those look like, they're available on the desk. Okay, great. Thank Thank you, David. David, I think you addressed it. Um, but I'll ask um
third round obligations. Uh, has West Windsor totally met its third round obligations or is there any carryover into the fourth round? There is a slight carryover. So, explain how that works. Absolutely. So, our third round plan was designed to address an affordable
housing obligation of 1,500 affordable units. the components that we had proposed in that third round planned added up to 1,500 units. However, since some projects didn't come to fruition or didn't
generate as many affordable units as possible, we do have a slight shortfall. We were able to make up the majority of that shortfall through the projects I mentioned. However, we still have a shortfall of two units. So, or two credits, rather. So, we were aiming for 1,500 credits in the third round. We
ended up with 1,498. So, those get carried over to the fourth round. And is there uh a time clock on that obligation, meeting that obligation separate from whatever happens in the fourth round? I would say the time clock
to meet that obligation is uh met basically through the adoption of those ordinances. Uh, Martine can correct me if I'm wrong, but we need to adopt those ordinances by March of 2026. Okay. Thank you, Curtis. Thank you, David. Anybody else? Okay. At this time,
I'm going to turn it over to the public to comment on the housing element plan that and anything that David has said. Um, again, I'm going to limit the speakers to three minutes because I want to get give everybody an opportunity to
speak. And just to reiterate that if somebody goes up to the microphone and basically says the same things you were going to say, please, you know, refrain from coming up and, you know, you may take time away from somebody else. So, I
appreciate that. Thank you. Um, line up. Let's go. State your name and address for the record, please. And I'm going to I'm going to swear everyone in. So, as you come up, please just raise your right hand and I will um swear you in. Do you state or affirm that the testimony you shall give will be the
truth? Thank you. Please um tell us your name, sir. How do you spell that? Thank you. And and your address, please, sir. Okay. Thank you. Can I share? Yes. Yes,
please. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is I've been Wester resident since 1996. I repres I'm here representing in spirit of trying to be um you know efficient here my neighbors. There's about a dozen
of us here. Okay. I represent the neighborhood in Wester called acres as historic neighborhood. It was a uh deliberately planned racial integration neighborhood from the 1950s and the uh
historical society of West Windsor is soon to put a historical marker on the neighbor which is adjacent on off of Alexander Road from one of the developments and uh the N we'd like to express four specific concerns that we
have about land. personally is the traffic. It's difficult. A lot of traffic on Alexander Road, hard to turn from our neighborhood, but this has been a chronic problem for a long time. Um, specifically, this development is on that sloping road down the canal that it
adds additional risk because of the blind spots associated with curve and the slope. And if you put a big high density development in that place, it creates those kinds of of extra challenges. potential solution to this is to limit the scale of the development to to to to
um to to keep to avoid a lot of traffic. Next next concern is uh the impact in our community. Uh there's little buffer area in the plan and um also concern that maybe some developments might be
very high and that could kind of impact the neighbors. There's the neighbors by the canal and neighbors that we have. So potential solution to that is again if the the scale was limited if it's above the faith the other neighbors put and the bike was limited that could help address the issue.
Third one is the environmental impact. This neighborhood is close to the DNR canal, the child wildlife refuge institute woods. There's variety of regulations for environmental impact. What we ask is to have a proper environmental study done. Make sure
whatever gets developed, you know, addresses the spirited law of all of those neighboring areas. And then finally um in 20 2018 Princeton University completes uh publicly a development plan for their property on the other side of Alexander Road. A lot
of the same issues came up at that point and um this also impacts commuters into Princeton. Right. So we just asked that uh Princeton University and Princeton community uh be consulted so that whatever Princeton ultimately develops
here that plan is harmonious with this plan. to death in the long run that those things together are reasonable. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hello Tom. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you shall give will be the
truth? Thank you. And you are Tom Calabria. You speak into the microphone. Please join us. Um my first comment capacity as the chairman of the affordable housing committee at our meeting earlier this month we reviewed the proposed plan uh
and broadly speaking we're supportive of it so I just wanted that in the record. Um everything David described we discussed all of that as well. Um, in my capacity as a private citizen, not as the chair of the affordable housing committee, I do have concerns in the
sense that the inclusive nature of our affordable program is leading to overdevelopment. And I think we should consider all affordable units. Um, I'd say that because I mentioned I live in 08540. That's where all this development seems to be located. And it's already very,
very congested with Woodmont Way, the lofts at Princeton. I mean, the number of apartments being shoved in over near where I live is just beyond the pale. Um, so I think we really should consider an all affordable unit so that we don't have to build three market rate units for every
Thank you. Good evening, sir. Do you do you swear or affirm that the testimony you shall give will be the truth? Yes. Thank you. And what what is your name, sir? Dan Fbregio. How do you spell that? F A B R I Z io.
Thank you. And your your address? Reside at 8 Exit Court. And it's within the development of Princeton Greens, which the and um have some concerns about I guess there's a piece of paper going around
showing the homes, you know, from a sky view. I don't know. and put it together. But I just have some concerns. One, um, based on the concept plan, I think it's a bad site for any developer. I don't know who maybe just looked at a map and
said 5 acres, you know, let's put 80 homes here. If you walk the site and you go to the back of it, there's like a 30 foot drop that goes down. And I mean, look, it's a cliff and it's dangerous, but nonetheless, how are you going to
put 80 homes and then in the vacuum it goes down 30 40 ft and when it goes down, that's where it levels off with Princeton Greens and we have I guess a section of town homes. Um, and from from the neighbor perspective being uh
developed, we have beautiful bamboo, we have insured trees. It's almost like a nature preserve. The people love it and I hate to see all that disappear just to cram 80 homes or affordable housing. I'd rather see the township buy it and make it open space, make it, you know, a
passive place. I think there's a lot of wildlife uh that's been using the place, including the bear a few weeks ago. Actually went back there. Um but it's a dangerous curve. We all know that. There's been deaths. I've been a resident since uh January of 88 in West.
It's a dangerous curb. Lots of accidents. Um I And when they did the road died on Canal Point, they just trying to get out of our development made us wait longer. I can't imagine 80 whole cars at rush hour just
trying to get out of that little development on a very busy Alexander Road going down in and out of development. I think it it's crazy. Um there was no notification to homeowners about this that this was happening tonight. We all heard about it. I would
let him know. Um the um I I say should consider for open space. Um it's a natural habitat for wildlife. Um it's going to destroy a a nice natural habitat place. Um I I just don't think
it's a good spot for affordable housing or any housing period. Um, at least walk the property, give it a second thought, maybe you can find someplace else. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Do you swear or affirm that the
testimony you shall give will be the truth? Thank you. Sorry, just spell your last name, please. L and your address again. I don't want to echo everything that has
been said here. However, I do support here. But there are some concerns that I have about this particular property. Um, and it really has to do with school
accessibility and traffic. The distance This development ogles and west windsor school is substantial. Busing students across elementary, middle, upper, middle, and high school levels will
significantly increase the township's carbon footprint and worsen already hazardous traffic. This is not sustainable. that Alexander Road safety it was alluded to wasn't specific enough for me
so bear with me here. Um the development sits at a notoriously dangerous stretch of Alexander Road with an S curve. Despite numerous accidents and fatalities, the county and township were not successful in mitigating this danger.
Adding multiple school bus trips throughout the day will exacerbate congestion and create avoidable traffic risks. Therefore, I respectfully propose that the town should pivot this
development to serve senior housing. I want that to sink in for a minute here because it has everything to do with our school system and the kids and our safety. So if we pivot,
this would alleviate school transportation pressures and help distribute senior housing more equitably across the township rather than concentrating it solely in the southern areas. I would also ask that engineering
work to ascertain if egress to the oval laka development might be shifted away from Alexander Road. And this is for safety for everybody. It is two lanes at that juncture in the road on Alexander
Road. It is two lanes going in and out. Those of us who live in that neighborhood know what it was like when the two bridges went under reconstruction and it was closed and everybody was having to go to Washington. Our neighborhood, like myself, we're all going into Princeton,
the university. This is where we where we live, where we work. West Windsor 2. And granted, this site is a very intelligent site for some kind of housing because it will bring more traffic to our economy along
the corridor of Route One, and I appreciate that. Um, and finally, this was also spoken to. Um although the 2022 sighting guidance has not been mandated into law, it does provide a strong framework and West
Windsor should proactively collaborate with the Swan Township and other stakeholders to ensure that the responsible planning that addresses the flooding risks in this area are dealt with. So I thank you. Thank you.
I do swear or affirm that the testimony you shall give will be the truth. Thank you. What is your name? A O T H A R I 12 Canal Road. Thank you. So I'm a resident of Canal
Road which abuts the plot of property and speaking on behalf of some of my neighbors on Canal Road. I live behind the 30 foot route that was previously described. My primary concern A few of people have already raised um the increased traffic on out the
existing bend near the Oval entrance coupled with preent speeding as well as disregard for that pedestrian crossing by the toe path already causing significant safety issues. recently a truck major traffic accident on Alexander road
and I've personally witnessed two car accidents in the past year by the chop path where cars are speeding and not paying attention to pedestrians trying to cross the road. So thus because it is heavily trafficked by pedestrians, by hearts, many young families walk that toe path and are
trying to cross the road. There's often speeding and there is a big safety concern behind that bend around. Thank you. Thank you. Leaving. Um do you swear affirm that the testimony you shall give will be the truth? I do. Thank you. Uh my name is
Kathleen Murphy. I live at 10 Canal Road. Um, I of course share everybody's concerns about the road and the traffic, which I won't repeat. But, um, two other concerns on my mind. One, um, is the
beautiful and diverse trees that border my property and the Oel's property, some of which are over 100 feet tall now and home to hawks and foxes and all those other animals that are back there. So I would hope that uh if that development
moves forward there that there's a way to ensure that the mature trees that are already there are kept. Um and my other concern is just the storm water because it's a straight downhill from that
property to my backyard and then down the other houses on Canal Road. So, I just worry since there's already a bit of an issue with water, if it's paved over, what happens to all that water probably coming down into our yard? Um,
thank you all very much. Thank you. Good evening. Do do you swear or affirm that the testimony you shall give will be the truth? Yes, I do. Thank you. And my name is Wing Jang. I for Glenn Acre. I live in one Glenville Drive, Princeton, New Jersey. Uh I have
a 95 year old neighbor, Sandy Robleswitz. She cannot make it here, but she would like me to read her notes to the respectful U members here. Um my name is Sandra Robbins and I'm one of the original four homeowners on
Glennville. We are a community who care about each other. We are involved in each other's lives. We know each other's children and some grandchildren. We share happy events and sadly sat ones. We help each other out. And since the
pandemic started in March of 2020, we meet weekly in a driveway. It's not easy making a turn onto Alexander in either direction because of the traffic. I can imagine the chaos that will occur if there are cars from more units nearby. I
hope that we don't have more traffic to contend with. Thank you for your considerations of my comments. So, this is from Five Glennial Drive, Sandra Robbins. And uh I want to say something personally for myself. I appreciate you.
Um I didn't get a gentleman's name, but I appreciate all the number you throw out, but we are real people. That's our home. I respectfully invited all the members come to my house, sit in my backyard and envision a fourstory
multi-unit soaring along my property line and 40 people could look at you from different levels at certain time and I live very modestly. I live in a rancher, modest rancher. My yard, my backyard is my pride and joy.
I bought this property not for the house. I can live with one bed or you know one sofa or whatever but I appreciate my environment. I appreciate my neighbors. So I invite you guys come over one glam wheel drive sit down with
me. We don't have to talk anything and see what your heart tells you what you envision whether it's the right thing to do. I appreciate you have a mission to do but this is by life. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Okay. Um, any other members of the public wish to speak? Hello, Ellison. Should I just swear you in? Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you shall give will be the truth? Yes. And we know you. Allison Miller.
I've been on the affordable housing committee for 30 years and I've been through everything with West Windsor and I just want to say two things. First of all, these sites have sewer. That's very
important. They're 25% affordable. Uh, I know Tom wants to see it uh 100% affordable, but I think we can do that.
We can argue about that in the next round. Uh, there are social reasons why 25% works in West Windsor and the sites are
close to office and retail. Uh and the affordable housing committee did say please uh support this. We supported it. I am very
I listen to these people who say there's no room near me. There's no room near me as I'm with them. There's no room near anybody. And uh I hope that you will take an
extra look and make sure that people are not overwhelmed by new housing because that too is uh a disadvantage.
Anyways, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Um, anybody else from the public wish to speak? Please step up. Good evening. Do you do you swear affirm Do you swear affirm that the testimony
of SH will be the truth? Thank you. And what is your name now? Yeah, view. Thank you. Go ahead. So, I would say 50% of this it scares me fourtory building is in my
backyard. The per my backyard. That's a lot. That's even insane. You live in a culdeac historical. It needs to be preserved.
The university is preserved. There's just a little too much that you're asking for 80ome units. And don't use affordable as a cute way
of selling this. It is not appropriate. Thank you. Okay. Any anybody else from the public wish to speak? Please step up. Okay. Yes, why not? Any any members of I'm okay. You're
good. Okay. Um I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So moved, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Second. Second. Second by Sue. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay.
[Music] David, any additional comments or your comments? Um, all which were Can you I I would like you to reiterate the process. Yes. you know, and the the timelines and the objections and that
there's no develop, as far as I know, there's no development that's set in stone that's going to be four stories or that. And I know this board is very conscious of when a plan comes before us, we try to make sure that it's
aesthetically pleasing. There's there's um buffers. We try to limit heights where where we can and we work within the ordinances of of what we're allowed to do. But we we
have instilled some aesthetically pleasing elements to different plans that's come before us where the developer did not um come in with those uh those BMS or those
buffers. So, I just want to, you know, let the public know that we're conscious of that. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think talk about some of the timelines, David, please. Yes, sir. Um, and David, just add when and how they can they will have an opportunity to give an input. I mean,
it's Yes. Um, so exactly as you had mentioned. Um, and I thank everybody for their comments. You saw me typing away on my computer. I promise I was not looking up the Yankee scores. I was writing everybody's comments down here. Uh the reason being is because of that very process that everybody brought up.
Um I sensed a couple themes specifically with this development. Um as I mentioned, this plan does need to get adopted before June, but there will be time after that until we need to adopt the ordinance to meet with the developer, transmit these concerns, and
have those technical review committee meetings with township staff and professionals. That includes myself, but it also includes people that are much more knowledgeable and smart than I am, including our engineer, consultant, engineer, landscape architect, environmental expert, traffic
consultant. Um, all people will be weighing in on this to uh review a draft ordinance and essentially eventually a concept plan as well. Um, after this plan gets adopted, we have about a until March of 2026 to adopt
that ordinance. And then after that there will be additional opportunities for community input not just with the ordinance because it needs to be heard but also with a site plan application. But we've been writing these comments down. these will be transmitted to the
developer um or the the the interested parties that are interested in developing the site and um we'll do our best to balance this because we hear you and understanding that this is a difficult balancing act not just for this community but for every
municipality throughout the state and we need to make sure that we balance all these different interests and different needs to ensure that we get the best outcome. It's not always the most popular outcome, but we're looking for the best type of outcome. Um, so just to reiterate the process, once this plan
gets adopted and endorsed, uh, there will be an objection period. Based upon that objection period, depending how it goes, there might be a revision required to this housing plan. Um, any type of revision or amendment to the ordinance would have to be adopted by March of 2026.
Um, and then after that, there'd be another site plan or eventually a site plan application. So there's many steps in this process still. Thank you. So the adoption of the resolution 2025R-04
tonight does not shut down the process of your input of your objections of your um insightfulness into what comes before us. In in addition, as I as I said before, any developer that comes before
the planning board with a site plan is going to incorporate some of your views and suggestions as best we can to incorporate them into those plans. Um, anybody from the board wish to add anything?
Yeah. Um, kind of true. Yeah. I mean, I I fully understand your concerns. Um as mayor I have worked very hard tried to reduce our obligation because we are by law required to build something. The DCA
wanted us to build 661 units. We worked very hard to reduce our obligation to 238 units. That still means we need to build a total of 952 units which is roughly about 8.5% new development of our existing stock.
that is on top of 20% that we build in round three. So we have to I mean I I had Tom and I had talked about and Tom had consistently said try to do 100% affordable. There are other issues with 100% affordable and and township has
never done that. We have pride ourselves into having inclusionary development not not discriminating against people living in affordable housing. I was very happy when we tried to reduce the number to 238 that at least with this number I could satisfy without having to do 100%
affordable. Now this plan is it's very much possible as David said somebody's going to sue us saying that number is too low if if we lose in court if we have to build more houses we may have we may be forced to do that I don't know that but we have tried very hard with
support from council and uh planner and lawyer did an excellent job trying to reduce as fewer houses I that we can build and as the chairman said and David said we will take every precautions and the development will address as many of your concerns and questions as we
possibly can. I mean I cannot guarantee it but as many of concerns and questions and there will be plenty of time for input. Uh it's not like David said tomorrow we are going to start breaking ground. It's a very long process. Um and
nothing is going to happen before uh March of 26 and then uh after that depending on how the court rules. So I understand your concerns. We will take David was taking notes. So whenever that plan is presented, they will definitely
take all your concerns into account. But this is what is best for West Windsor and we are required to do that and we did whatever is best for the entire town. So thank you. Thank you, mayor. Anybody else?
Okay. With that, I'll entertain a motion. to approve resolution 2025-R4. I think there's some typos in there or there's no typos in the resolution. I in the resolution. Yeah, I don't think so.
In the plan. So, so motion to uh approve uh planning board resolutions 2025-R4. Yeah, I will move to approve the resolutions with the typo changes that David outlined in the fair share housing plan. Thank you. I hear a second.
A second. Second by Sums. Uh, please call the RO for this vote. Mr. Mattel, yes. Mr. Panco, yes.
Miss Apple, yes. Mayor Marte, yes. Vice Chairman Hoverman. Yes. Chairman Carp. Yes. Thank you. Um session. Okay. Meeting ajourned. Thank you everybody.