Will, George and Charlie

Read the New York Times account of the Washington Township experience with "smart gowth" and the Trenton Times account of Mr. Hillier's insistence on 1,000 housing units.

Read the response from Stan Katz.

Best4WestWindsor

Town Center and Train Station

The train station revitalization initiative is all about smart growth and new urbanism. We listened to you and believe that you don’t want either accelerated growth or "urbanism" in West Windsor Township.

We don't think you want 1,000 units of housing at the train station either, and we don't either. That will add more than 300 children to the school system, assuming the proposed 860 apartments and 140 townhouses.

We have heard residents say that the train station should be redesigned because:

• West Windsor Township residents need more parking at the station,
• Current zoning is obsolete:  it allows only office development, which is good for taxes, bad for traffic, but no longer readily marketable,
• NJ Transit owns much of the Princeton Junction parking lots,
• NJ Transit likely will build parking garages whether we like it or not,
• NJ Transit will need to finance its garages by developing the rest of its land,
• West Windsor Township should decide what is built – whether it's housing or retail or community amenity,
• West Windsor Township must influence the location, size, and “look” of those garages, and
• West Windsor Township must control the future build-out of our train station area.

We need to create a plan that works for West Windsor Township residents:

• Provide adequate on-site parking for West Windsor residents,
• Be tax neutral or positive starting now – we strongly oppose forcing you to "invest" your taxes in something that may pay off, if at all, only to future residents,
• Possess a modest scope and scale that fits our suburban township,
• Consider remote parking solutions for non-West Windsor residents,
• Improve car, pedestrian and bicycle circulation,
• Upgrade downtown Princeton Junction on Route 571, and
• Create an attractive destination.

We support redevelopment that meets the needs and expectations of the residents. We want to avoid unpleasant surprises.

These are our decisions to make together as a community. We want to hear from you and we ask for your support on May 8 to help us meet our shared goals for improving life for all West Windsor Township residents.

Click here for an outline of the redevelopment process.

Visit the redevelopment website:

http://www.wwallaboard.org/