Concept for 100-unit development to go before Planning Board.
By: Jennifer Potash
The owner of Palmer Square aims to move one step closer this week to breaking ground on its long-delayed Hulfish North luxury housing project at Palmer Square.
The developer will present a concept plan for the 100-unit development at Thursday’s Princeton Regional Planning Board meeting.
The plan reflects changes the developer and Princeton Borough reached in a developer’s agreement signed last year.
The development will increase by three units, or more than 5,000 square feet, from 97 to 100 units comprising 81 apartments and 19 townhouses.
David Newton, vice president of Palmer Square Management Corp., said the design has changed from a vertical approach, with an all-townhouse development, to a horizontal mix with a more apartment-heavy mix. The shift to more apartments was based on changing market demand, he said.
A major concern by many borough residents, including those who live in the adjacent John-Witherspoon neighborhood, was that the development would result in an imposing blank wall along Paul Robeson Place.
The design, by West Windsor-based Hillier Architecture, seeks to relieve these concerns. The façade along Paul Robeson Place will have balconies, elevated walkways and wider openings that will serve as thruways from Paul Robeson Place to Hulfish Street and Palmer Square.
The townhouses will be mostly located along the street frontage on Paul Robeson Place.
Palmer Square also proposed the same number of parking spaces including in its original proposal 421, with an additional 18 parking spaces created by tandem parking. The borough adopted an ordinance last year that does not allow applicants to count tandem, or shared parking spaces, toward meeting a parking obligation. Princeton Regional Planning Director Lee Solow said Palmer Square will need a variance for nine spaces and will have to submit a parking plan with the final application.
Another area of discrepancy may be Palmer Square’s affordable-housing obligation.
The developer and the borough agreed that 10 affordable units would be provided among all of Palmer Square’s residential properties. But new state Council on Affordable Housing rules require 12 to 13 affordable units.
Palmer Square first gained approval for the Hulfish North development in 1990.
For several years, the borough and Palmer Square wrangled over a host of issues including the affordable-housing contribution and design issues for the development. For most of 2002, Palmer Square met with the Landscape Review Subcommittee of the Planning Board to bring the development into compliance with the conditions the Planning Board set in 1990 when it approved the plans. The subcommittee recommended the changes and sent the plans back to the full board for final comment.
But those changes, coupled with the other amendments made in accordance with the developer’s agreement, prompted planning officials to seek a new site plan approval.
After the Planning Board and the public have the opportunity to comment on the concept plan, Palmer Square would file more detailed plans for site plan approval.