Medical Center ends battle for offices on Harris Road

Nearly a decade of strife with neighbors and Princeton Township comes to end.

By: David Campbell
   Bringing to an end almost a decade of strife with neighbors and Princeton Township, The Medical Center at Princeton has decided to cease using the houses it owns on residential Harris Road for professional offices.
   "I believe that we have taken an important step in healing our relationship with the community and developing a spirit of cooperation," Medical Center President Barry Rabner said in a letter last week to Princeton Township Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman Carlos Rodrigues.
   "After careful consideration, we have determined that we are able to achieve our goals of providing outstanding patient care and being a good neighbor without using the Harris Road houses for hospital functions," Mr. Rabner said in the letter.
   As a result, the hospital is withdrawing its application for a use variance for the properties and plans to remove its remaining offices from the residential neighborhood by May 1, according to the letter.
   Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand said the decision signals that the hospital under Mr. Rabner’s leadership is taking community concerns to heart, and called the hospital president’s letter, which the township received on Feb. 14, "the best Valentine I got."
   "Conversations with the neighborhoods and other members of the community have really made an impact on the hospital’s leadership," Mayor Marchand said. "It really has been a wonderful and refreshing interaction. It’s a very nice trust that’s being established between the hospital and the community."
   The mayor added, "I’m sure the Medical Center’s decision wasn’t easy for them."
   Mr. Rodrigues said the hospital’s decision was "an important outcome" and "a very positive indication that they’ve decided to turn the page in their relationship with the neighborhood, and are looking for other means to satisfy their needs."
   Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed called it "a commendable decision" on the part of the Medical Center.
   "We’re hopeful that this means that we will be able to keep the residential nature of that block intact," said Mayor Reed. He said the hospital’s two Harris Road houses that are within the borough’s borders never have been occupied as offices.
   Former Moore Street resident Jenny Crumiller, who helped organize neighborhood opposition to the office use, said, "It really does feel like a new beginning for the hospital and the community now to me."
   Ms. Crumiller said the decision will spare the hospital "an uphill battle" to retain the offices there, and relieve the zoning board of a "big burden" as well.
   Harris Road resident Susanna Monseau called the hospital’s decision "very positive," but said she will remain cautious until the offices are actually moved.
   "I’m looking forward to having neighbors across the street, but given the history, I’m just waiting to see what will happen," Ms. Monseau said.
   Jefferson Road resident Virginia Kerr, an attorney who represented neighbors in the legal fight with the hospital, said, "I’m pleased," but declined to comment further.
   The Medical Center will use its Harris Road properties for long-term housing for nurses and doctors who wish to live in close proximity to the hospital, and as rentals to "interested members of the community," Mr. Rabner said in his letter.
   The hospital president said the move will require "significant expense and effort" by the hospital.
   Medical Center spokeswoman Carol Norris said the hospital is drafting a budget for the move and did not have specifics about cost, but noted it will involve "very complex logistics."
   The purchasing department will move to office space in Lawrence Township, while the marketing and public affairs department and the foundation department will move into the hospital, Ms. Norris said. To accommodate the move, some departments in the hospital now will be relocated elsewhere in the hospital or moved to the Lawrence Township site, she said.
   Mr. Rabner expects to announce plans to move the offices at the zoning board’s meeting on Wednesday, he said in his letter.
   The use of the houses for professional space was the cause of controversy since the mid-1990s between the township and neighbors, who were concerned about encroachment by the hospital.
   In September, the Medical Center informed the zoning board it had reduced its office use to two of the 12 properties it owns on Harris Road, for its purchasing, marketing and public affairs, and foundation offices.
   That same month, the zoning board granted the Medical Center’s request to postpone a hearing on a use-variance application until this month to permit the hospital to complete its long-range strategic planning process.
   In 2001, a state appellate panel upheld a Superior Court decision requiring the zoning board to consider a new application by the hospital to maintain its Harris Road offices and determine whether the office use is inherently beneficial to the community, as the hospital has claimed.
   The inherently beneficial designation, which Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg upheld in 1999, would help the hospital win an exemption from zoning restrictions.
   The hospital initiated court proceedings after the zoning board ruled against it in 1998 and ordered the offices moved.