Most neighbors back plan for TRI site.
By: David Campbell
The Princeton Township Zoning Board of Adjustment unanimously approved a plan for senior housing and parkland on Textile Research Institute lands off Carnegie Lake that board members called innovative and responsive to neighbors’ concerns.
The lengthy meeting Wednesday night veered temporarily to talk of bioweapons and alleged trespass by a snooping neighbor with a camera but was put back on track by board Chairman Carlos Rodrigues.
An attorney for the Princeton Riverside Neighborhood Association sought to persuade the board to make its approval conditional upon further soil testing by TRI, which its architect’s attorney, Mark Solomon, agreed to do.
While the zoning board was concerned about future use of the TRI facility if the company ever vacates a new owner would have to seek approval from the board to set up shop under TRI’s pre-existing nonconforming use in the residential zone board members agreed the plan was a benefit to the community.
"I think this is a very creative and good use of the property," board member Barbara Felton said of a plan by architect J. Robert Hillier.
Board member Kerns Powers said, "I think this clearly shows Mr. Hillier is sensitive to the concerns of the neighborhood."
Jodi Tolman, president of the nearly 100-member neighborhood association, said the neighbors’ goal was to see TRI’s 18-acre property preserved in its entirety but, short of that, wanted to work with Mr. Hillier to ensure a design consistent with the "health, safety and well-being" of neighbors.
"As you can imagine, our community is very concerned about this proposal," Ms. Tolman said. "Mr. Hillier has been nothing but responsive to our concerns."
The neighbors have expressed interest in buying the land as open space to preserve it from development.
Neighborhood association attorney Craig S. Provorny created a minor stir at the meeting Wednesday night, which was a continuation of a hearing begun Feb. 26, when he questioned TRI President Gail R. Eaton about the company’s use and disposal of chemical agents used in research.
Mr. Provorny asked Ms. Eaton if the firm handled biological or chemical agents for military weaponry the TRI president said it did not and showed slides of a disposal area at the firm’s headquarters and questioned Ms. Eaton about what was shown there.
An attorney for TRI, upon seeing the slides, countered by asking which of the neighbors present trespassed and went "snooping" on private property to take the slide photos.
TRI has the option of selling its entire 18-acre lakefront property to a developer who could cover the site with 28 single-family McMansion-style houses on small lots allowed under township zoning, Mr. Hillier told the zoning board.
Instead, TRI is seeking a zoning variance for an expansion of its pre-existing nonconforming use there in order to permit the research firm to remain on 5 acres and subdivide the remaining land. The site is within an R-5 residential zone.
While proposed townhouses are permitted by zoning, removing land from the non-conforming TRI site to build on them constitutes an expansion of that nonconforming use and so a "D" variance was required.
Under Mr. Hillier’s proposal, 5 acres off Prospect Avenue and Riverside Drive East would be converted into parkland solely for passive recreation, preserved in perpetuity under a conservation easement through the Delaware & Raritan Greenway.
After accounting for the 5-acre TRI site, the remaining 8 acres would be developed with up to 28 age-restricted luxury townhouses, with a conservation easement fronting Carnegie Lake and flanking the townhouses as a buffer along Prospect Avenue, the park and the land retained by TRI.
Mr. Hillier said the plans, which include innovations like parking under the townhouses to preserve the view and a design that maximizes green spaces, were developed with input from neighbors.
Ms. Eaton has said the institute is undertaking the land deal to create an endowment to enable it to continue its research. Mr. Hillier has said the deal is worth around $5.4 million.
The architect told the board Wednesday that 36 people have already asked to be put on a waiting list for the planned senior-housing units.
The application still faces a site plan review by the Planning Board.