Kingston loses fight with Plainsboro Board approves 220-unit Mapleton Road development

Staff Writer

By CHARLES W. KIM

Kingston loses fight with Plainsboro
Board approves
220-unit Mapleton Road development


CHARLES W. KIM  An architect’s rendering of the 220-unit Villas at Tuscany apartment complex approved for Mapleton Road, Plainsboro, just south of the border with South Brunswick. CHARLES W. KIM An architect’s rendering of the 220-unit Villas at Tuscany apartment complex approved for Mapleton Road, Plainsboro, just south of the border with South Brunswick.

PLAINSBORO — Mapleton Road residents will be getting new neighbors to the south, more than 220 of them.

The Plainsboro Planning Board unanimously approved two applications which will result in the construction of 220 luxury apartments on the road just south of the South Brunswick border.

Planners approved the applications from the Princeton Forrestal Center late Monday night in front of some 60 objectors, primarily residents from historic Kingston.

Those residents voiced concerns about the traffic generated by the complex, as well as environmental concern

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South Brunswick Township Council members also passed a resolution on Dec. 12 asking the board to reconsider the development.

The apartment complex, tentatively named Villas at Tuscany, will be on the east side of Mapleton Road just south of the border with South Brunswick.

The complex will consist of 18 apartment buildings, an activity center and a swimming pool on about 23.7 acres of the 55.9 acre site owned by Princeton University.

The developer estimates the average rent will be $2,000-2,500 per month and that the tenants will be mainly young professionals and "empty nest" adults.

The remaining 30-some acres will be deed-restricted as open space.

Much of that dedication will be on the west side of Mapleton Road which runs along the Delaware Raritan Canal.

The applicant’s engineer, Kenneth Goldstein of Sadat Associates, Princeton, called the dedication the "stripping away of development rights" along the canal.

That site is part of some 500 acres formerly known as the Princeton Nurseries.

About 300 acres of the tract are located in South Brunswick but are not part of the proposal.

Although not part of the applications approved Monday, a large commercial development abutting the complex to the west is also proposed by Princeton Forrestal Center.

The applicant’s civil engineer, Mike Guliano, said that the apartments will average out to four units per acre, and that the complex "had exceeded" required parking spaces with a total of 616 available garage and regular spaces.

Traffic expert Richard Orth testified that the new development would not have an impact on local traffic significantly.

Orth estimated morning rush-hour trips out of the complex to be 125 during morning rush hours and 150 during the evening rush.

Orth said that only about 5 percent of the traffic leaving the apartments during rush hours will head north on Mapleton to South Brunswick.

"Those estimated volumes are not particularly significant," Orth said.

Orth estimated an average of 10 cars would use the local road during those peak hours, with more heading south to Seminary Drive.

"That would be about 25 percent," Orth said.

Orth based his calculations on a 1998 traffic survey of the regional road system and a personal check of several of the intersections. The checks he made showed no real difference from the study, he said.

Board members refused to accept rebuttal testimony to Orth from the opponents’ traffic expert, Erich Arcement, after Board Attorney Tom Reynolds cautioned that accepting the testimony would lead the panel "down a slippery slope" because he was not licensed in New Jersey.

The developers will improve and expand the Seminary Drive intersection with Mapleton Road.

The new four-way intersection will expand the number of lanes on Mapleton Road to three in each direction.

"These improvements will serve the proposed apartments and the full build out of Forrestal Center," Orth said.

That was little comfort to residents living near the development who fear that any increase in traffic will affect the historic nature of the area.

In October, a section of Route 27 near the proposed complex was placed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.

The section is part of a 10-mile stretch of historic King’s Highway, the first "evolved highway" to be included in the state register. Placement in the National Register of Historic Places is pending.