The Princeton Regional Planning Board will get a look at plans for a three-story dormitory Thursday night.
By: David Weinstein
Concept plans for a new dormitory are scheduled to be presented by Princeton University officials at Thursday night’s meeting of the Princeton Regional Planning Board.
The need for the three-story dormitory is a result of the university’s ongoing renovation of existing undergraduate housing on campus. With room for 206 undergraduates, the 80,000-square-foot facility would make up for an approximate 200-bed loss resulting from the conversion of existing bedrooms to bathrooms and laundry rooms.
The dormitory, university officials said in their concept plan, is not meant to accommodate a recently approved 500-student increase at the university by the Board of Trustees.
The building would form the western edge of an ellipse of academic and housing buildings west of Washington Road on the university’s campus.
Forming the eastern end of the ellipse will be the Lewis Sigler Institute for Advanced Genomics. The Planning Board approved that new academic building in early December, at which time university officials said they would define the southern boundary of the campus with the ellipse of new buildings.
The dormitory completes that ellipse.
According to a plan filed with the Princeton Regional Planning Office, the proposed dormitory is about 800 feet from Washington Road, though access to it would be from Elm Drive, an internal campus road.
No variances are required for the project.
The area of disturbance is about 2 acres of land bounded by Elm Drive to the west, the 1940 and 1941 dormitories to the north, Scully Hall to the east and Poe Field to the south.
New pedestrian sidewalks are part of the proposal, and would connect the dormitory to other buildings in the area.
Township zoning and engineering officials said, among other matters, that they will seek answers regarding how emergency services would access the building and how loading and unloading would occur at the building.
Township officials said they also will require detailed grading, landscaping and utilities plans when the university submits its formal application for the new dormitory.