BOE members voice concerns over village center
Dispute number of students project could generate
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer

EDISON - Township Board of Education candidates disputed the number of school-age children that might be generated from the construction of the Edison Exchange project.

The candidates expressing this include Raymond Koperwhats, William Van Pelt and Michael Winters.

The project would create a mixed-use development with both residential and commercial uses near the Edison train station.

Studies fielded by the firm InterCap Holdings, which is overseeing the 44-acre project, state that the development will generate 1.5 children for every 100 homes constructed. At an estimated 800 residential units in the plan, this would come to about 12 additional students.

The board candidates, including incumbents Koperwhats and Van Pelt, said during an April 1 press conference that their own experiences place that number closer to 1.5 per household, which would bring the total closer to 1,200 extra students. This, said Koperwhats, would be problematic.

"If that happens, we're going to have to have more schools in the south end of Edison. It's going to be unbelievable.We won't be able to handle that sort of thing. It will cost us around $11 million to educate these kids," said Koperwhats.

According to literature released by InterCap detailing the project, the figure of 1.5 school children per 100 homes was developed through two studies.

One was undertaken by the firm itself. The other was conducted by Rutgers University and was first published in the early 1970s but has been occasionally updated throughout the decades, with its most recent incarnation having been released in 2006. One of the authors of the study, David Listokin, a professor at the Bloustein School at Rutgers, said that examinations of how many school-age children a development might generate can be difficult because populations and trends can often shift. Further, he said that specific locations might impact data one way or another, thus necessitating both a local and a generalized approach.

He noted, though, that in his research, he found that the number of schoolchildren generated depended mostly on the type of home that was built as well as the type of development the home was located in. Listokin said that single-family detached homes tend to generate the most school-age children, about 1.15 to 1.2 per household. The next highest would be single-family attached homes, such as townhouses, which generate an average of about .3 school-age children per unit. The lowest number of school-age children generated would be, according to Listokin's research, multifamily attached homes, such as duplexes and condos, usually generating an average of .11 school-age children per unit.

Also, page 9 of the 42-page report states that residential developments near areas of mass transit, such as Highlands in New Brunswick and Franklin Square in Metuchen, tend to generate about .02 school-age children per unit. Listokin said that this is because families with children generally want larger houses, which tend not to be available near mass transit centers.

"It would be self-selection. People with larger household sizes with more schoolchildren tend to be in the more spacious units, single-family, which has more bedrooms," said Listokin.

Bob Garrison Jr., a principal of the firm Garrison Architects, which also acts as the district's architect of record, said that when examining demographic information specifically with Edison in mind, they tend to use the Rutgers study as a guide.

"We actually use the Rutgers study when calculating the students per household, because the census data they generated, that's good data, so I believe," said Garrison. "The Rutgers data is the most current data we use, so I would rely on what [Listokin] said."

EDISON Garrison wanted to note that he looks forward to working with InterCap in the future as the project progresses further.

"We look forward to working with [InterCap CEO and chairman Steve] Goldin on this project and how it relates to the plans for this school district going forward. We did have some communication with his office, and the school board is very interested in working with him and also the mayor in this regard," said Garrison.

Koperwhats said he came to the figure of 1.5 children per unit through what he has observed to generally happen in Edison.

"That's [1.5] generally the average when you look at other housing units in other places. There are about 1.5 kids per unit, that's generally how it works out. So we're looking at about 1,200 kids being generated in there," said Koperwhats.

He also disagreed that the specific type of home, as well its proximity to mass transit, would have any effect on the number of children, saying that where there are homes, there are children, and where there are children, there are additional school expenses.

"They're going to have kids; young people are going to have kids no matter where they live, it's as simple as that," said Koperwhats.

He was also critical of a suggestion fielded by InterCap to build a science and technology magnet school, saying that the problem would be children coming into the elementary school, not high school students, and thus it would address the wrong problem. He also expressed doubts about attracting such a school to Edison.

Plans for the proposed village center were revealed to the public after a series of forums and workshops in which residents gave their input on what they did or did not want to see in the development. The plan will feature a combination of commercial and residential units. About 124,000 square feet will be devoted to shops and restaurants, as well as a gym and a day-care center. About 250,000 square feet will be devoted to offices. Also included in the plan are a 200-room hotel and an amphitheater in the common area.

Also featured will be improvements to the train station itself, such as providing 1,000 parking spaces for commuters, to be held in a large parking deck.

The plan also includes 783 additional residences, of which 555 will be sold at market rate, 188 will be sold as affordable housing units as per state requirements, and 40 as "work/live" units. The residences will be located farther to the south of the development, while the more commercial elements will be to the north.

Before any construction can begin, the firm will need the area to be rezoned to allow residential uses.