Latest News

Latest updates on the proposed transit village project:

• From The Home Tribune - State DOT to fund $3 million study of North Brunswick Transit Village proposal BY GENE RACZ

  June 20, 2008

  Proposed plans for a North Brunswick Train Station and Transit Village just got a $3 million boost from the state Department of Transportation, which will help fund a feasibility study.

  The grant will be given to Middlesex County, primarily to examine ways to connect Route 130 and Route 1 in the vicinity of the station proposed for a 212-acre former Johnson & Johnson campus. In addition to a new stop along the New York to Trenton Northeast Corridor rail line, initial plans include a hotel and commercial and residential sites.

  The former J&J site, including its 1.2 million square feet of building space, was purchased by North Brunswick TOD Associates, LLC, an affiliate of Garden Homes and Garden Commercial Properties, in summer 2006.

  "The overall project is not one that's just good for North Brunswick, but one which would be good for the entire region and the entire state," North Brunswick Mayor Francis Womack said. "It is good that the state and the county are having the foresight to do this study not only when you look at the long-term economics for the region, but the day-to-day battle everyone has with gas prices. This is the kind of thing we need to be doing, and you can't have a Transit Village without the infrastructure.

  "A study showing how much it will cost is a step in the right direction."

  In a letter to Middlesex County Freeholder Director David B. Crabiel, dated May 28, state DOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri noted that the area between Route 130 and Route 1 in the proposed location "is made up of large expanses of wetlands, streams and forested areas." Kolluri added that the key for success in coming up with a viable plan will depend upon "coordination with the Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak."

  Kolluri's letter proposed that Middlesex County assume the lead for the initial phases of the study and that in order for the DOT to fund successive phases of work, "this initial study must conclude that the project is feasible and fundable."

  A new train station in North Brunswick would fill the largest gap in the New Jersey Transit System — a 14-mile stretch between the New Brunswick/Jersey Avenue stop and the Princeton Junction station.

  North Brunswick has held a series of town meetings regarding the project which is conservatively estimated to cost about $100 million to complete.

  Womack noted that NJ Transit has plans to install a loop for trains to turn around just south of the proposed station.

  "We do know that the bigger picture is that in terms of the state of New Jersey and the towns, we've all got to get together and get our economic situation straightened out so that the Department of Transportation will have money to give us so we can actually have these things that we need."

• From North Brunswick Sentinel - Seminar tries to 'cool' effects of global warming: Urban Land Institute study advocates less driving, more compact development BY JENNIFER AMATO
  
  

  NORTH BRUNSWICK - A seminar on the environmental impacts of land use and planning was held April 30 at the Yellowbird Reception Center on the former Johnson & Johnson property on Route 1.

  North Brunswick TOD Associates, which is developing the proposed mixeduse transit village on the site, hosted a workshop on the Urban Land Institutepublished study, "Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change," in conjunction with New Jersey Future and Smart Growth America. The workshop featured various speakers discussing the effects transportation and sprawl have on the environment and how more compact development could limit future effects.

  North Brunswick Councilman Ralph Andrews began the program, saying "credible science has determined, as we know now, that global warming is a problem."

  As the liaison to the North Brunswick Planning Board and the Open Space Committee and as the chairman of the North Brunswick 2030 Committee, he said the goal must be to reduce emissions soon because by the year 2030, oil shortages are expected, and by 2050, "We see big problems starting in the environment, and thereon out."

  David Goldberg, the communications director for Smart Growth America, said that even by 2020, a 15- to 30-percent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels are needed - and today we are 20 percent above those levels.

  He said this reduction is "impossible" without a reduction in transportation because transportation emissions are onethird of the U.S.'s carbon dioxide emissions and are the largest single contributor of greenhouse gases. He said the U.S. is responsible for 45 percent of the car emissions in the world. He said the amount of emissions is a combination of miles per gallon, fuel carbon content and vehicle miles traveled.

  The former Dartmouth College and Columbia University graduate said that if the current trend continues, the total number of miles driven in this country will grow by 59 percent by 2030.

  "Vehicle miles traveled are growing faster than population growth," he said. "We can get pretty close to our goal - if we stop driving."

  Goldberg said the Growing Cooler study analyzed sprawl, traffic studies, project level scenarios and regional planning scenarios. He said putting residents in walkable communities vs. suburban sites cuts down emissions by about 30 percent. He said on average, people in lowwalkable neighborhoods drive 39 more miles per person each work day and 40 percent more on weekends.

  He also said shifting 60 percent of new growth to walkable areas could save 85 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030.

  "We need more choices in vehicles, we need better choices in fuel, we need better transportation and how we get around, and [better] housing locations," Goldberg said.

  He also said there is an undersupply of attached and small-lot houses, with an oversupply of large-lot homes. He said two-thirds of the buildings that will be inhabited in 2050 are not built yet, and that half of the buildings expected to be built by 2030 don't exist today.

  Jack Lettiere, former commissioner of the N.J. Department of Transportation and the current president of his own consulting firm, said, "Whether you believe the science or not, you have to agree it's just not a good idea to put all this stuff in the air."

  Lettiere said transportation demands, congestion cycles, the dynamics of transportation, land-use changes and land-use components are all interrelated, and are normally problematic.

  He said there is a "vicious cycle of congestion," where residents demand an increase in capacity, then increase their number of movements, then need a place to live, then increase their average length of travel, which causes more sprawl, which makes highways more crowded. And then the demands for more highways begin again.

  "There is a large disconnect because you can't get there from here. Sometimes there is no public transportation, sometimes you can't walk … and sometimes there is a disconnect of where you put things and how to connect them when you can't get there [without a car]."

  He therefore suggested linking transportation and land use, network connectivity, balanced street design, sustainable environmental design and involving the community as combatants to suburban sprawl.

  Peter Kasabach, the executive director of New Jersey Future, also spoke during the seminar.

  Avideo of the meeting will be available mid-month on www.OurTownCenter.info. For more information, visit www.smartgrowthamerica. org.

• North Brunswick Council Passes Resolution Supporting a
  New Rail Station and the Principles of Smart Growth

  North Brunswick, NJ (January 8, 2008) – North Brunswick Township Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting a new rail transit station and the principles of Smart Growth at the December 17, 2007 Township Council meeting.

  The resolution ‘supports a new rail transit station as a regional multimodal transportation hub at the former Johnson & Johnson North Brunswick Campus, provided existing roadway infrastructure and traffic bottlenecks are sufficiently expanded and improved.’ Earlier this year, the Planning Board had adopted a comparable resolution with unanimous support and had forwarded this resolution to the governing body for consideration and endorsement.  Mayor Francis Womack said, "The resolution reflects North Brunswick's desire to be a regional center of rail transportation and smart growth principles".

  The resolution supports the State’s Development and Redevelopment Plan, which ‘encourages compact, mixed-use development with access to mass transit’.  It further endorsed the programs and initiatives put forth by the NJ Department of Transportation, NJ Transit, and the NJ Office of Smart Growth to ‘promote transit villages as a viable alternative to suburban sprawl that consumes open spaces, increases congestion, and contributes to air pollution’.

  North Brunswick Township is a community committed to Smart Growth principles and has initiated steps to become a sustainable community, by forming the North Brunswick 2030 Committee.  The committee, comprised of residents, council members and students, explores and implements plans to make the town a sustainable community by the year 2030. 

  The resolution also recognized the efforts of the landowner of the former Johnson & Johnson, North Brunswick TOD Associates, for hosting ‘a series of 10 public workshops and open houses over the course of one year that were attended by many township residents, and explored the possibility of a future transit village built in accordance with Smart Growth principles’.

  The resolution specifically pointed to the Township’s Master Plan, which has ‘identified existing roadway infrastructure and traffic bottlenecks that must be addressed before a new rail transit station can be located at the former Johnson & Johnson North Brunswick Campus’.

  The resolution added that ‘NJ Transit has been studying a location for a new rail station in Southern Middlesex County for many years’ and noted that ‘ridership recently grew by 6.8% to 74 million riders setting new records for ridership levels and substantiating the growing demand for mass transit’.

  The resolution unanimously passed by the Township Council was signed by the township’s Chief Financial Officer Ronald Amorino, Business Administrator Robert Lombard and Director of Community Development Michael Hritz.

• North Brunswick Resolution 12.17.07

  
  click to view

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