Housing element unchanged

WEST WINDSOR -- When Hillier Architecture presents a semi- final plan for transit village redevelopment to the public next week, one constant will remain -- the "absolute" need for 1,000 housing units to make it work.

It was the number of housing units mentioned in all four concepts presented by Hillier to the public on March 17. That number will not change next Thursday night when the combined elements of the two plans most favored by residents are melded into a single design which the public can "tweak."

"Everybody wants to know why we need 1,000 housing units," J. Robert Hillier said yesterday morning at his West Windsor offices. "It's the absolute minimum number of units needed to get money for the infrastructure. They (the housing units) will help pay for it now and with taxes. It will give the place a vibrancy."

The 1,000 units would be in two housing areas: 860 apartment-style houses on the west side of the tracks, just north of the Dinky tracks around a plaza, and 140 town houses north of Route 571 on the Sarnoff property. A mix of rental, purchase and affordable housing would be incorporated.

The 1,000 number has been mentioned often by residents who fear an influx of children and added school taxes, a consequence refuted by Hillier and by West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District financial officer Stan Katz, who recently finished a study on the subject.

Hillier says the town houses and apartments would produce approximately 3 children per 100 units, for a total of 30, compared to Washington Township's 2.6 children per household.

Katz reported in February the number of children did not matter so much as the timing of their ar rival. With a student population peaking in 2009, he said the WW-P district could handle more stu dents as long as the housing units weren't developed by 2010. Hillier's plan will stretch past 2010.

Katz said that it was single homes and complexes with "kid- friendly environments" such as playgrounds and pools that at tracted more families with school- age children.

The proposed housing at the train station will be geared toward empty-nesters and young professionals. Affordable housing will be included in the mix although Hillier and West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh could not say how much an average "affordable" house in the township would cost.

Katz, a recognized demographer of the township, said after the second Hillier workshop that all of the 1,000-unit plans would work without jeopardizing school enrollment. He called Hillier's mix "perfectly reasonable," even if it generated as many as 300 students.

"If you don't put housing around the retail, it will be like For restal Village," Hillier insisted, referring to the Plainsboro shopping site that has had several reincarnations. "Community stands for people being together."

Hillier predicted the plan he modified from "the Big Move" into "the Little Move" will indeed move the train station northward and closer to Route 571, but not as far as originally planned in a concept that even Hillier admitted was a bit of a dream vision.

But he corrected himself on the amount it would have cost to move the station as far as originally suggested. He said Monday night it would cost "three quarters of a billion dollars" but yesterday he cor rected that number to "$50-100 million." The modified move will cut most of the connecting and signaling costs involved.

Hillier predicted his plan, which will be presented in final form be fore township council, the planning board and the public on June 4, will address social, economic and traffic problems. But he admitted, he's "still trying to figure out why residents liked" the "Big Move" concept more than the other three. He thinks it may be the idea of moving the station and the town center closer to Route 571.

The architect was also surprised by how personally people took the process, with some coming to him asking for street lights, sidewalks and other items that applied only to their immediate neighborhoods.

But Hillier calls the West Windsor transit village experience "the greatest public participation that I've ever seen."

"In China, you just give the plans to the government and it happens. In other (American) towns, you get 150 people at a meeting," Hillier remarked. "Here, you get 400 and 300. It's democracy in action.

"At the end of the day, it will be their town, maybe not exactly what everybody wants, but it will show residents that we listened to them."

(The April 19 workshop "Plan" will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Grover Middle School, 10 Southfield Road. )

Contact Joyce J. Persico at jpersi co@njtimes.com or at (609) 989-5662.