At the end of July, with just one member of the public in attendance, the Metuchen Planning Board approved the final site plan application for the proposed development known as the District at Metuchen.
“We will probably be breaking ground in late spring or summer of 2010, demolish the rest of the buildings, and start building D,” said developer Robert McDaid. “It would take a year to get that building and the parking deck built, so we are at summer to fall 2011 to get that built. [The whole project would take] three to five years from ground-breaking.”
When it is completed, the developer estimates that the mixed use development, billed as a smart growth transit village, will have a market value of $75 million. It is slated to have 150 residential units, of which 11 would be work/live units and 24 would be COAH affordable housing units. There would also be 63,280 sq. ft. of retail commercial space, with a minimum of a grocery store, a bank, an Ace Hardware store, and a restaurant, along with other retail stores.
Mayor Thomas Vahalla said at a public appearance in late July at the Senior Center that though he did not know the name of the planned grocery store, it would not be a ShopRite or a Stop and Shop. Instead, he said it would be a store associated with New York City.
“The grocery store will be roughly 15,000 to 16,000 sq. ft.,” Vahalla said. “The old Stop and Shop was 25,000 to 26,000 sq. ft. So it will be a little smaller but still the type of place you can go to to get what you need.”
The original plan called for 121 residential units and 16,269 sq. ft. of office space. The number of residential units has been increased by 29 units, with no more space designated for strictly office use. However, there will be units known as work/live units, which according to the developer would be used by live-in occupants such as accountants, architects, and artists.
There will be 32 one-bedroom units, 83 two-bedroom units, five one-bedroom live/work units, and six two bedroom live/work units. Of the affordable housing units, there would be four one-bedroom units, 15 two-bedroom units, and five three-bedroom units.
The development will be built on a 5.85 acre site which contains Boro Ace Hardware, several vacant single-family dwellings, parking lots, a wooded area, and a former grocery store that was recently demolished.
The applicant now proposes to provide 501 parking spaces, which is a reduction from the 517 spaces originally proposed.
Borough ordinance would normally require 607.5 spaces for such a major development. The applicant explained how the mixed-use nature of the development meant that 501 spaces would be sufficient (see below).
Tax revenue for Metuchen. Commissioned by the developer, a June 2009 Community Impact Statement, prepared by planning consultant James Higgins Associates of Ocean township, found that the development would generate at least $618,188 in surplus school tax revenue and $84,174 in surplus municipal tax revenue, for a combined surplus annual tax revenue of $702,363 for Metuchen.
The study said that according to calculations based on “Who Lives in New Jersey Housing? A Quick Guide to New Jersey Residential Demographic Multipliers,” (PDF), the 150 residential units would result in approximately 297 new residents for Metuchen and up to, but likely less than, 27 new school children.
Mayor Vahalla had said at his appearance at the Senior Center that the borough had deferred making pension contributions to the state for some municipal employees until 2012, but that he expected the District at Metuchen to bring in enough tax money to cover that obligation.
“One of the things we did with our budget this year was that we took a deferment of pension moneys,” Vahalla had said. “Gov. [Jon] Corzine came up with a plan to defer payment of our pension obligation, and it came to $384,000 that we could defer paying. We don’t have to start paying it back until 2012. My estimation is that Renaissance will be done by then, and the moneys from that will cover it. Had we not done that, it would probably have meant that we would have laid off a number of employees, maybe police officers, and maybe even shut some areas of the borough down.”
Additionally, Vahalla said that though some families may choose to live at the District of Metuchen, since most of the complex is one and two bedroom apartments it will not generate nearly as many children for the local school system as Franklin Square has done.
The development would have four major buildings, designated as Buildings A, B, C, and D.
Building A. This is a four-level building, with 63 total dwelling units and a parking deck. According to McDaid, due to market conditions some of the units are now slightly smaller than as they were proposed in the preliminary plan, and the number of units within Building A has been increased. Twelve of the development’s 24 affordable housing units are located in Building A. A special third-floor skybridge will connect it to Building D so that Building A residents who park in the parking deck can go straight to Building A without having to step outside.
Building B. Located on the corner of Lake and Middlesex, this building will have a total of 28 dwelling units, of which nine will be COA affordable housing units. There will be an important pedestrian walk-through on the first level that will bring pedestrians to retail space and a courtyard. People who live across the street in Franklin Square would still be able to easily access the retail space inside the courtyard. The second floor will have work/live units with several COAH units, while the third floor will have other residential dwellings.
Play-Area for Children.On the southwest corner of Building B, the developer anticipates an outdoor space complete with a resilient floor surface and free-standing play sculptures where children can play with adult supervision, along with a child-related shop nearby.
Between Building B and C. This entrance-way will have a boulevard island with a single kiosk signage element. This will provide space to add aesthetic improvements such as a treeline and decorative paving and crosswalks.
Building C. This building has 23 dwelling units, with three COAH affordable housing units. Similar to Building B, it will have space for pedestrians from Middlesex Avenue to walk through the center of the structure to the retail stores in the courtyard of the development’s interior.
Building D. This is a four-level building, with 36 total dwelling units and no COA units. The hardware store will be located here with an adjacent one-story greenhouse area and a lawn and garden center at the front. It will have a residential lobby near the public pedestrian space, and adjacent to it will be the entry to the bank. The bank will have three drive-throughs with an escape lane on one side. The third floor of Building D will have a skybridge connection to Building A.
Invisible Parking. There will be a total of 501 parking spaces provided for in the development. Of those, 258 spaces will be in the parking deck. In the deck, 33 spaces will be on the ground level and 225 spaces in the upper three levels. Outside and unrelated to the parking deck, there will be an additional 243 surface parking spaces throughout the development. The three upper levels of the deck will have 150 spaces reserved for the development’s residents at a ratio of 1:1 of spaces to residential units. An additional number of spaces would be reserved for business owners and employees.
“We have what I would call a new urbanism transit village,” said project architect Dave Minno. “Some of the characteristics of new urbanism are holding buildings along and close to existing streets and really highlighting that to create a pedestrian environment. Second, one of the principles of new urbanism is to reduce the visual impact of the automobile. Over half of the parking spaces in this project are going to be invisible because they will be embedded in the parking deck in Building A. Only a bird flying over may see the parking on the top level of the deck, but as a pedestrian or someone circulating through the site in a car, you are not going to see all that parking in the garage. It will be a wonderful shared pedestrian and automobile space.”
Although the borough’s municipal code requires more than 600 parking spaces for a development of this size, the developer’s traffic engineer John Rea explained why 501 total parking spaces would be sufficient.
“Let me explain shared parking and how it works,” Rea said. “This is a classic mixed use project, with residential units, restaurant space, retail space, a bank, and a hardware store. The general theory is that the different mixed uses don’t all generate coincidental peak parking. Midnight to 6 a.m. is when residential units generate peak parking, when presumably everyone is home. The restaurants’ peak parking demand occurs on Friday and Saturday evenings after 6 p.m., while the retail will have peak hours during the middle of the day Saturday between 12 and 3 p.m. So what happens is, because the different uses all don’t generate coincidental peak parking usage… the net effect is the cumulative peak parking demand is less than the approximately 607 parking spaces that are required by the borough code.”
According to the developer’s experts, the potential exists to sell some of the extra spaces in the parking deck to residents who want a second space, but the experts downplayed the number that would actually want to do so.
“The 2000 census in Metuchen showed that the average family in Metuchen had 1.3 cars in the household,” Rea said. “Do we realistically expect two cars per unit? That is probably not the case. We expect 1.25 to 1.5 cars per unit. Maybe not even that high. I don’t think we are going to have 2 cars per unit. Another study indicated a maximum parking demand for projects like this of about 1.68 parked vehicles per unit. I also don’t think people who park here will buy an extra space for the visitors they have occasionally.”
Planner for the borough Jim Constantine affirmed those views, and mentioned the move towards greater use of mass transit and shared vehicles.
“There was a condition in the resolution involving a recommendation I made about a one space per unit limit, and that came out of a study called Parking Matters done by the Environmental Protection Agency, which was a smart growth based study that said you don’t want to overbuild parking,” Constantine said. “It seemed like it was ahead of its time two years ago, but when you take into account peak oil pricing which we know is coming back and the greater use of mass transit, along with a huge recession, it may be right in line. And with the requirement of the Zip Car, or shared car, we now see that we have four zip cars and multi-year trials that are expanding along NJ Transit stations. In places like Philadelphia they have major car-sharing services with a high level of documentation. More than half the board members here weren’t at the first hearings.”
Fountain, Lighting, and Benches. At his appearance at the Senior Center in late July, Mayor Vahalla said that developer Renaissance Properties had included plans for a fountain in their original application before deciding to take it out. However, the fountain is now back in again, after Constantine asked Renaissance to explore features that would give the development a certain “wow” factor. The developer has proposed building a large fountain with rich paving and decorative lighting at the main plaza area to produce just such an effect at the development’s entrance. As cars drive in from Middlesex Avenue, they will enter in between Buildings B and C, and they will go around a crescent-shaped traffic-calming structure, which is where the proposed fountain would be located. All vehicle movements will remain the same around the site, but the fountain is meant to become a central feature of the development and provide an upgraded aesthetic improvement to the plaza. The entire perimeter of the retail space will be lined with decorative lighting hanging from cables to produce a visually appealing look at night (see example photo above-right). And along Middlesex Avenue, there will be a dual set of 12 benches facing each other, perpendicular to the sidewalk and not parallel to the curb line. The benches are meant to provide a better environment to sit, read a book, and casually hang out and wait for someone who is shopping.
Six large graphical banners and more trees. In the outdoor parking area of the development’s center, there will be six areas with large overhead banners that will be graphic in nature. It is anticipated they will be changed out on a seasonal basis and are to make the plaza area a memorable space. They will cascade across the parking lot the entire 120 ft. width of the parking area. There will be two to the right of the crescent, two to the left, and two more further down. In addition there will be shade trees along the perimeter of the buildings and along the center aisle of the parking lot in between those banners. The preliminary application did not include these trees.
No more curbs in the main plaza area. Previously, in the area throughout the center of Central Avenue, there were 14 pedestrian-handicapped crossings or curb-cuts. The developer deemed this to be cumbersome, especially to those with special physical needs. As a result, the developer has eliminated all of the six-inch high curbs for the plaza area that were previously part of the application. All curbing is now flush and seamless, so the disabled can flow smoothly throughout the entire plaza. Areas for parking are defined at the head of each space by bollards of concrete planters filled with flowers or shrubbery. The entire parking plaza is now a shared outdoor space for both cars and people, which is a concept that is popular in Europe but has not yet caught on in the United States.
Video Surveillance. At the Planning Board meeting, developer McDaid noted that numerous surveillance cameras were installed at many of his firm’s other properties, including ones that could see in low-light conditions. He suggested that various surveillance cameras would be installed at the District at Metuchen as well.
“We have cameras on multiple properties,” McDaid said. “We will have 32 cameras here. There are different cameras for different applications. Some areas will be darker than others, and we would need cameras that can see better in the dark. That is what we would need for some areas of Metuchen. With these we can monitor 24 hours a day on a computer remotely, and store back as far as 45 days. We normally store two to three weeks, but the further back you store, the quality becomes fuzzier. But usually we are notified within 48 hours of an issue. We are going to get to see where we have problems and where we don’t.”
At the meeting, McDaid demonstrated that it was easy to quickly discover potential issues in a development by showing various photo stills from cameras at his other properties. The photos included exterior and interior shots of intersections, building hallways, and stairwells, as well as specific images of one resident who had parked improperly and of another who had improperly left his gate open while disposing of garbage.
