WELCOME TO SKILLMAN VILLAGE REDEVELOPMENT PLANNING

The Township of Montgomery has procuring a 256 acre parcel of land known as the North Princeton Developmental Center (“NPDC”) from the State Treasurer of New Jersey, located in Montgomery adjoining Skillman Road and Burnt Hill Road. In addition, the Township has also acquired from the State the adjacent wastewater treatment facility on 7 acres, behind the State-owned Skillman Dairy Farm. The NPDC property, originally established in 1898 as the “New Jersey Village for Epileptics,” operated as a self-contained “town” that consisted of hospitals, housing, maintenance areas, schools, a power plant, a wastewater treatment facility and an on-site landfill. Later, it became the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute. Most recently, and until 1998, the property was the New Jersey Department of Human Services' psychiatric care facility "North Princeton Developmental Center".

There had been over 100 abandoned buildings on the Property in substandard, unsafe, unsanitary, dilapidated and/or obsolescent condition and only a limited number had any potential for restoration. Ninety-two of these buildings were abated and demolished summer 2007. The remainding handful of buildings have been boarded up in anticipation of possible reuse as part of redevelopment.Environmental remediation began in 2007 to clean-up various hazardous materials that were by-products of the former facility's operation, such as asbestos used to insulate piping and wastes from the powerhouse. Efforts are on-going to remediate environmental conditions at the site and repair or demolish the dam and restore the lake. The property’s environmental contamination must be remediated and brought into compliance with applicable laws and regulations. For more information, see Clean-up page.

At this time, Montgomery Township created a Vision Plan, has solicited and received qualifications from developers that describe their capabilities to redevelop Skillman Village, conducted a survey of residents' ideas, and is drafting a Redevelopment Plan. The Redevelopment Plan must be consistent with the Township’s vision, identify conceptual redevelopment plans and determine the optimal land use configuration and density of development based on developer interest, market conditions, traffic impact, the Township’s vision plan, Planning Area 4 guidelines of the State Plan, the capacity of the sewage treatment plant and the Township’s desire to recover its costs. The Township is seeking a developer who will assemble a comprehensive multidisciplinary team needed to address the multitude of issues required to redevelop the site.

Evaluation of redevelopment respondents is on-going and the Township is working towards developing a short-list of the most qualified developers to be invited to submit a proposal when the Township issues a Request for Proposal (RFP). It is the intent of the Township to enter into a contract with the selected redeveloper(s) or teams of redevelopers within 12 months of the Township taking title to the site.

Below are links to a wide variety of reports on the property, its history, and planning efforts to date.

03/08