May 27, 2007

Trying to get back on track

By CARMEN CUSIDO
STAFF WRITER

Officials are trying to determine how a proposed transit village and train station at the former Johnson & Johnson site on Route 1 may fit in with Middlesex County's transportation plan.

Township officials, Mayor Francis "Mac" Womack and a NJ Transit representative this week met to review the proposed project.

A transit-oriented development proposal by North Brunswick TOD Associates, owner of the 212-acre site, calls for a mixed-use community village and train station.

Officials at a Middlesex County Transportation Coordinating Committee meeting on Tuesday offered possible solutions to alleviating bottlenecks around town and presented some elements of rail station plans, but did not indicate what the proposal would cost or give a timeline for it.

Transportation Coordinating Committee Chairman John Hogan said he was disappointed no timeline has been set.

"I'm being realistic. I know it's a money problem; it's about finance," Hogan said.

Tom Clark, regional manager for government and community relations at NJ Transit, said during the session that the project is a "big effort" which would not happen overnight.

NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said the agency is cast in a supporting role as the township works toward establishing a train station and a transit village.

The train stations at Jersey Avenue in New Brunswick and Princeton Junction are 14 miles apart, Stessel said. "New Jersey Transit has been considering adding a train station to the Northeast Corridor in that territory for several years," he said. But before a train station could be built, existing "bottlenecks" at Finnegan's Lane and Route 1, Adams and Cozzens lanes and Route 1, Adams Lane and Route 130, Renaissance Boulevard and Route 130, and Black Horse Lane and Route 130 would have to be addressed.

Womack said township Planning Board members have indicated they will approve of a transit village in such a way that will guarantee a train station. The mayor also said North Brunswick will accept a station only if traffic issues are corrected.

Township residents have expressed concern about how a transit village could result in traffic problems for them while out-of-towners want to know how they could get into a North Brunswick transit village without having to sit in traffic, Womack said.

Womack and Tom Vigna, township director of community development, told the committee that the proposal serves as an "opportunity to improve the capacity and frequency of (the) Northeast Corridor commuter rail service."

Anthony Gambilonghi, supervising planner for the county's Planning Department, said the proposed project "promotes efficient use of transportation."

A transit village and train station would reduce congestion because it would provide alternate means of transportation, Gambilonghi said.