27 Lakeshore Dr
West Windsor, NJ 08550

West Windsor Township was incorporated in 1797 encompassing seven hamlets: Port Mercer, Penn's Neck, Clarksville, Princeton Junction/Berrien City, Grover's Mill, Dutch Neck and Edinburg. By the 1800's, this prosperous farming community was prized for its central location between New York and Philadelphia. Today, West Windsor is a major center for research, retail, and corporate offices with a population of approximately 21,500 residents within its 27 square miles. One of the state’s fastest-growing residential areas, West Windsor faces competing demands: how to develop more housing, yet retain some semblance of its history as a bucolic farming community dating to the Revolutionary War.

The two most frequently cited reasons for moving to West Windsor are top-ranked schools and easy access to New York, Philadelphia and the Route 1 corridor between Princeton and New Brunswick. In recent years, these factors have lured East and South Asian immigrants, who now make up 26 percent of the population — a statistic that Mayor Hsueh, a Taiwan native, takes credit for. Two housing communities serve the over-55 set, and a few apartment complexes cater to young professionals, but a majority of the population is families with children.

“We’re interested in smart growth,” said Sam Surtees, West Windsor’s manager of land use. “We want to focus the growth while still trying to preserve as many contiguous acres of farmland to allow the farmers to continue farming.” To this end, much of the southern end of town is earmarked either for recreational use or farming. When property becomes available there, the town is able to compete with developers because of the sizable sums amassed from its open space tax, the first such dedicated tax in the state. Residents might wait as long as three years for reserved parking at the Princeton Junction train station. Across town, families can pluck fresh strawberries at a U-pick farm.

Large tracts of land give West Windsor a rural feel, and an emphasis on quality of life has forced developers to include bike paths and trails, and street-frontage landscaping. There is an open-space program that officials have aggressively applied to preserve about half of the township’s land. On the other, there are 1,196 homes going up in the northwestern corner — many on less than a quarter of an acre — in response to a state Supreme Court ruling in 2001 that found West Windsor had neglected its affordable-housing obligation.

Within the town’s borders is the 2,200-acre Mercer County Park, the home of the United States Olympic Rowing Team, which frequently takes part in international races on Lake Mercer. There is also the 123-acre West Windsor Community Park, which offers playing fields and bike trails as well as the 10-acre Waterworks, a multipool facility that serves as the town’s summer gathering place. Residents can join for $375 per family. Only 8 minutes from Princeton, and 54 miles from New York, cultural offerings are plentiful. West Windsor now has its own Art Council, that offers free music and art events.

Schools
West Windsor consistently ranks among the highest in the NJ school system. There are 2 high schools, 2 middle schools, and 6 elementary schools. Private schools include Peddie School, Lawrenceville Academy, Hun School, and Princeton Day School. Most of Mercer County Community College lies in West Windsor. Here’s the link for the school district: http://www.west-windsor-plainsboro.k12.nj.us/

And the township government: http://www.westwindsornj.org/

West Windsor Master Plan (Nov, 2009)
A continuum of community planning work has made West Windsor one of the premiere suburban communities in New Jersey. Due to the guidance of Master Plan policies that formed the framework for sustained decision making coordinating public and private development over three decades, West Windsor has emerged from being a largely rural agricultural community to a suburban community with the beneficial attributes of a planned community. West Windsor can demonstrate the benefits of decisions flowing from previous Master Plan goals and policies that are embedded in its land use controls. The positive cumulative results of planning-based decisions can be observed as one travels through West Windsor and sees park-like landscaped berms which shield homes from major roads, a greenbelt network centered on the community's water regimen, a permanent farmland preserve, retail, commercial and office development along the Route 1 corridor with award-winning site design features and affordable housing which, despite judicial skepticism, has emerged and is creating very pleasant residential environments.

West Windsor has used transfer of development credits to permanently preserve the Cranbury Golf Course. The deliberate directed use of cluster development design created open space linkages through the heart of its residential neighborhoods. In recent years, an ambitious Timed Growth program was instituted in a Master Plan amendment with the aim of matching the pace of road improvements with the pace of development. Though the ordinance implementing the Timed Growth program was struck down by a Superior Court decision, it stimulated a lively conversation across New Jersey about the tools needed to deal with the problems of suburban development.

The Master Plan envisions the community's economic base will be focused on high tech business and research development businesses and their related spin-off companies located along the Route 1 corridor. Research and knowledge are part of the municipality's logo and industrial leaders in high-tech such as the Sarnoff Corporation have found West Windsor a fruitful place to grow a business. Nurturing the growth of other technology-based businesses will take proactive marketing, state assistance, the support of Central Jersey's colleges and universities and local cooperation.