PACKET EDITORIAL, May 15
By: Packet Editorial
The last time the Princeton Regional Planning Board updated its Master Plan in 1996, there were but a few parcels of land remaining in Princeton Borough and Princeton Township identified as potential sites for major development.
One was the 38-acre Weller tract, an old farm located off Snowden Lane and Herrontown Road. Another was the 43-acre site of the former Our Lady of Princeton convent at the corner of Drakes Corner Road and The Great Road. A third was the 53-acre R.W. Johnson estate on Rosedale Road. A fourth was the 165-acre Coventry Farm running along both sides of The Great Road.
If the Princetons were going to attract new, tax-generating entities in the years to come, it would likely happen at these locations or perhaps at the Gulick Farm off Princeton-Kingston Road or the Nassau Builders property off Herrontown Road. Beyond these half-dozen or so large properties, there was precious little land left to accommodate growth. Whatever development might take place elsewhere in the borough or township would be incremental at best.
Well, it looks like incremental development may be the only kind we’ll be experiencing in the future. In the span of the last five years, the regional landscape has changed dramatically.
The Weller tract was bought by Princeton Township for $1.8 million in 1997 and is about to become a park thanks, in large part, to a $1 million donation from township resident Stanley Smoyer in memory of his wife, Barbara. This coming Saturday, the playing fields, bike paths and open spaces that make up the Barbara Smoyer Park will be formally opened to the public.
Our Lady of Princeton, contemplated for a time as the potential site of a continuing-care retirement community, today houses the Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart, a boys’ school that purchased the property for $8 million.
The R.W. Johnson estate was the next property to be gobbled up by a consortium of public and private entities brought together by the Delaware & Raritan Greenway, a regional land trust. About one-third of the $7.4 million purchase price will be paid by private donations; the balance will be picked up by township and state funds. In addition, the Hun School will pay about $1.35 million for three houses on the property. Like the Weller tract, the R.W. Johnson estate will be turned into a public park.
Last week came word that Coventry Farm will likewise be preserved. Again, the D&R Greenway was at the center of the deal, promising to come up with $9.5 million in the next six weeks to pay the Winant family, which has owned the land since the 19th century, and developer J. Robert Hillier, who proposed to build a cluster of age-restricted townhouses on the property. Township, county and state funds all will be tapped to purchase Coventry Farm, but the majority of the money is being raised from private contributions some of them, according to D&R Greenway Executive Director Linda Mead, "in six and seven figures."
What is truly remarkable about the disposition of these properties is the dramatic shift in land-use policy that their preservation represents. Until recently, the permanent removal of a multimillion-dollar property from the tax rolls would have been cause for serious concern among local officials and property taxpayers alike. Today, it is cause for celebration, not only in the Princetons but throughout the region.
What’s more, citizens are actually contributing voluntarily either in the form of big-ticket individual donations or through municipal open-space taxes they overwhelmingly approved in referendum to the purchase of these properties, trading off the prospect of lower property taxes for the enjoyment of open space.
This beneficence may be short-lived, of course. If the economy were to worsen, open space could suddenly lose its considerable appeal. But as the land available for development grows more and more scarce throughout central New Jersey, it’s pretty clear that the days of the mindless chase for ratables are over and that, as we celebrate the preservation of yet another precious piece of Princeton Township property, may be the best news of all.