A new Redevelopment Committee could be established in Pennington next week.
A resolution is being crafted for Borough Council’s Aug. 5 meeting at 7 p.m. which will create a Redevelopment Committee to work on ideas for redevelopment plans.
This comes as the Pennington seeks to designate the Blackwell property and the Route 31 property (Chill Properties LLC) as areas in need of redevelopment. Pennington previously designated the Pennington Landfill also as an area in need of redevelopment.
“We were talking about a hybrid situation where we would possibly create a Redevelopment Committee that would do the hands-on work in developing the redevelopment plan,” Mayor Jim Davy said.
“(The Committee) would effectively work with the property owners in developing the redevelopment plan. (The Committee) would take public comment and input, work with the Watershed Institute for example and whatever bodies that would be involved in helping to come up with the redevelopment ideas.”
The Redevelopment Committee would consist of two council members, two planning board members, Borough Administrator Gian-Paolo Caminiti, Davy, and Borough Planner Jim Kyle.
Public input would occur at the Redevelopment Committee. It would then be referred to the planning board and sent back to council for final action on each redevelopment plan.
“[We are] trying to maximize public input at every stage,” Davy explained. “In talking about this proposal this redevelopment body would engage in meetings that are noticed and the public can sit in the meetings and hear the plan as it unfolds, and ideas as presented.”
A smaller subset of the council and planning board is helpful to initially work on ideas for redevelopment plans, Kyle said, adding the entire council and planning board will be kept apprised of each stage of the redevelopment committee.
