The Township Council approved an agreement with the West Windsor Parking Authority that will move the next phase of remediation study forward on the former compost site on Alexander Road, where both parties hope to create a surface parking lot for West Windsor residents.
Under the terms of the agreement, which was approved at the January 18 meeting, the Parking Authority will provide the upfront costs of around $200,000 to move along with the process, which is expected to ultimately provide up to 500 parking spaces for West Windsor residents on the Alexander Road site, which borders the Princeton Junction train station.
The township would reimburse the Parking Authority through money it receives from the state.
“We’ve applied to the state, and we’re fairly confident that we are going to get those monies back to the Parking Authority,” said Business Administrator Robert Hary during the council’s January 10 meeting.
West Windsor officials announced last month they were applying for $200,000 in grants through the state Department of Environmental Protection for the third phase of remediation investigation. According to officials, the township could receive the funding within the next three months and may even be able to move ahead with parking on the site in six months.
The township had previously been awarded two brownfield grants under the Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund (HDSRF) from the DEP to fund the first two phases of investigation into the remediation of the township compost site.
The money for the third phase would cover “more detailed testing of the site that will result in development of a remedial action work plan,” he said.
The agreement with the Parking Authority is the “first step to allow that joint venture to proceed,” said Hary. “Subsequent to this, if all goes well during Phase 3, I would expect another resolution to go before council to actually formalize the shared service agreement to have the Parking Authority lease and manage that facility.”
Township Attorney Michael Herbert said during the council’s January 10 meeting that New Jersey Transit has indicated it will privatize all of its own parking lots throughout the state, which will drive up parking costs in those lots substantially. The township’s own lots would charge “substantially below what New Jersey Transit would charge,” he said.
West Windsor officials began remediation investigations in 2008, when Windsor Compost, which had operated the facility until December, 2008, moved operations to Cranbury and Hamilton.
Site remediation comes in four phases — preliminary assessment, site investigation, remediation investigation, and remediation action, the last of which involves the actual cleanup of the contamination and is usually the most costly.
State funding covers 100 percent of the first three phases of the process. West Windsor may be eligible for funding for some portion of the cleanup, which is determined by the end use of the site.
