TO: MSM Board of Directors
FROM: Dianne Brake, President
DATE: April 27, 1998
RE: Position on Timed Growth
What is Timed Growth?: John De Grove, a nationally known growth management guru from Florida, harps on the three C's of growth management -- consistency, compactness, and concurrency. "Concurrency" is a planner's term for "timed growth", or "phased growth". Concurrency means that infrastructure and growth are coordinated over time. It implies that development will not be allowed until the infrastructure needed to support the growth is in place. It also implies a partnership agreement among all parties responsible for land use planning and constructing infrastructure. It is the "management" part of growth management.
West Windsor's Ordinance: In 1994, in response to increasing traffic congestion and a perceived deterioration in the quality of life in the community, West Windsor Township Council adopted an innovative Timed Growth Ordinances (TGO). The measure was aimed to ensure that traffic will be able to be accommodated from new development as it is built.
The fundamental building block of the program is a 55-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) which sets forth the nature, projected costs, and timing of all improvements set forth in the Circulation Element of the Master Plan. The 55-year time frame is a function of the length of time estimated to build-out, given historical growth rates in West Windsor and the pacing of public expenditures deemed to be fiscally prudent and reasonable.
The CIP provides that the roadway improvements will be made sequentially, beginning in the Route 1 corridor, the most densely developed portion of the Township, and proceeding easterly over time toward the Township's more rural area. The CIP is organized into four improvement districts, with sub-districts, representing the four major road corridors in West Windsor. The TGO, in turn, is built on this improvement plan. It allocates development rights over time, to be given when the scheduled road improvements are to be made to provide capacity to handle traffic from the new development.
There are four timed growth districts, with sub-districts, corresponding to the CIP improvement districts. For each district, the TGO sets forth the date when the development rights can first be exercised. For example, District 2D, a sub-district in the Route 571 corridor, permits the exercise of development rights beginning in the year 2011, with 6.67 percent of them exercisable each year over a 15-year period. The corresponding CIP improvement district establishes the years 2011 - 2025 as the time period during which this district's road improvements will take place. There is thus infrastructure necessary to accommodate the traffic they will generate.
There are a number of significant qualifications to the program. Most important, the "bundle" of zoning rights has been divided into "basic rights" and "additional rights." The basic rights, ranging from 20 to 50 percent of the total package of rights, can be exercised at any time, while additional rights may be exercised only in conformance with the timing schedule described above. The basic rights percentage varies from district to district: the districts which have the earliest development rights have the lowest percentage of basic rights, and the districts having the latest rights, have the highest.
In addition, developers may opt out of the program by developing their site at 60 percent of the intensity otherwise permitted; or they may swap basic and additional rights with other property owners in the same timed growth district; or they may accelerate when additional rights can be exercised by constructing necessary roadway improvements to create capacity in the district; or they may exercise all of their development rights if an annual traffic capacity analysis indicates that there is sufficient roadway capacity in the district. Affordable housing projects are exempt from the ordinance.
The Township also adopted a community-wide off-tract assessment program requiring fair share payments from all developers based upon their share of traffic utilizing each CIP improvement. The program collects funds not only on behalf of the Township, but on behalf of Mercer County as well. This is done pursuant to an interlocal Services Agreement in which both the Township and County commit themselves to making the CIP improvements in the time frames set forth therein.
Court Says West Windsor's Ordinance Is Illegal: Early this year, Superior Court Judge Linda Feinstein judged in favor of Toll Brothers, a residential developer, who claimed that the Township had no authority under the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) to enact such an ordinance. Although West Windsor has decided to appeal this case, some local legislators have been called in to create legislation to give local government the authority to enact timed growth ordinances.
Proposed Legislation: There are two bills before the legislature right now: a simple proposal to add language to the MLUL that says municipalities can enact TGOs (Inverso, S-307), and a more complex one that lays out the parameters of such an ordinance (Turner/Schluter, S-550, Lance/ Gusciora).
Framework for MSM Supporting TGO Legislation: Restrictions on development should not affect affordable housing sites that are consistent with the memorandum of understanding between the Council on Affordable Housing and COAH and the State Planning Commission.
Growth should be encouraged in places designated for growth under the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (centers and PA 1 and 2). Therefore, money for infrastructure costs needed to support growth there should be made available on a priority basis.
Growth should be accommodated in places not designated for growth (outside of centers and in PA 3, 4, and 5). Therefore, money for infrastructure costs, other than that needed for health and safety purposes or for maintenance of existing infrastructure, should not come from public funds.