TO: Planning Board, Council and Mayor of West Windsor, NJ

My signature below indicates I am a resident of West Windsor Township, NJ (WW) and that I request that my views below be included in the administrative record of the 2017 public process of reviewing the rezoning of the Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC) property (former American Cyanamid).

The rezoning should not be granted for the following reasons.

The Concept Plan ("Plan") submitted by HHC represents gross bad planning in the amount of new housing and unnecessary new retail that will burden the town's school system and inhibit rehabilitation of numerous already-vacant retail sites. Vacant sites include Mrs. Green's (former "Acme"), the Ellsworth site, and others. These sites have been vacant for years and should be addressed first.

HHC insults the intelligence of WW with blatantly, and arguably deliberately misleading characterizations. A prominent example is the "Village Center" located at the western township line. Is one not supposed to notice that? Further, in public comments by HHC's Adam Meister in publication "Real Estate, NJ" of April, 2017, HHC states "We think [the Plan] provides value to the community." It should be obvious to anyone that the Plan does not add value to the community, but places huge burdens on it, to the benefit of the developer, HHC, who will profit from capital gains on the sale of subdivisions, made possible by dragging down the value of lifelong, indeed generations-long investment by WW residents in the surrounding areas and schools.

HHC has been a "deadbeat" property owner, allowing the land to decay, and demonstrating HHC's unfitness not only to develop the property, but also even to own it in its present form. Ironically HHC has used this behavior as an excuse to justify its request for rezoning and expanded development. This further insults the intelligence of the residents of WW.

The Plan will of course have enormous negative effects on the school system and traffic which are well known and have been widely expressed.

HHC has no legitimate need to rezone the land, as it already provides for development of research, office and manufacturing. There is also a robust free real estate market in which HHC is free to sell the land should HHC be unwilling or unable to develop or rehabilitate it, or afford to pay tax on it.

The Plan submitted should not be treated as a "first offer" or "starting point" for negotiation, but rather should be dismissed out of hand as if it were never offered. It appears likely HHC are engaging in a classic negotiation strategy whereby one starts out with a proposal that is "twice outrageous," then, in the interest of "compromise" offers to "meet in the middle" with a proposal that is "merely outrageous." The appropriate response to this is not negotiation, but rather to reject the application with advice to come back with something that even approaches reasonable.

The rezoning should not be granted.

Sincerely,

A Resident of West Windsor Township, NJ (undersigned)