Former Princeton Nurseries tract in South Brunswick and Plainsboro to be preserved.
By: Jill Matthews
SOUTH BRUNSWICK An agreement to preserve 187 acres of land in Plainsboro and South Brunswick in the Princeton Nurseries Historic District, reached after five years of negotiations, was announced Wednesday.
The announcement, made at the former headquarters of Princeton Nurseries on Mapleton Road, was attended by Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection; Robert Durkee, vice president and secretary of Princeton University; Frank Gambatese, mayor of South Brunswick; Peter Cantu, mayor of Plainsboro; Jim Amon, executive director of the Delaware & Raritan Canal Commission; Linda Greenstein, 14th District assemblywoman; and a host of other officials.
Princeton University donated most of the land 127 acres the majority of which is adjacent to the western portion of the Princeton Nurseries and extends from Mapleton Road to the Delaware & Raritan Canal. The university also donated other, smaller pieces of land near the nursery. The donated land is part of the property the university acquired almost two decades ago from Princeton Nurseries.
In return for its donation, the university has almost doubled its amount of office research space on Route 1 in South Brunswick that is part of the Princeton Forrestal Center, from 78 acres to 150 acres. The university currently has no plans to develop that property, according to Neil Acevado, a representative of Princeton Forrestal Center.
"The preservation project reflects goals that the university established for Princeton Forrestal Center when it began in the 1970s, and for the lands that we acquired from the nurseries in 1986," Mr. Durkee said. "These goals can fairly be described as a commitment to smart growth before the term became a central part of the regional planning vocabulary and to development that simultaneously enhances the economic vitality and the quality of life in our region."
As part of the preservation project, the state, under its DEP Green Acres Program, also purchased 60 acres of Princeton Nurseries land, including the former headquarters building, from the Flemer family, who owned it. The state paid $2.8 million for the property and will manage 7 acres as an addition to the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park, with the headquarters building used as an interpretive center for park visitors.
Of the 60 state-purchased acres, the remaining 53 are co-owned by the DEP and South Brunswick, with the township managing the land as a passive recreation park. A $300,000 endowment from the Flemers, along with $100,000 from the university and additional funding from the DEP and South Brunswick, will be used to develop a preservation plan that will include the rehabilitation of warehouse buildings, the historic propagation house and eight greenhouses on the property. Those buildings will be used for public education and recreational purposes.
"All of these elements a visionary landowner, the right policies at the state level all of those can wither on the vine without an effective partnership among different levels of government and community organizations," Mr. Campbell said. "All of the elements of the partnership were critical to making this a success.
"It is truly going to be a jewel among New Jersey’s historic resources and a wonderful addition and enlargement of the park, right here among communities who need it the most," Mr. Campbell said.
While the majority of the 187 acres falls within South Brunswick, approximately 26 of the 187 acres are located in Plainsboro. The 23 acres in Plainsboro were previously preserved as deed-restricted land in the mid-1990s as part of the approval for the university to build Barclay Square, a high-density housing project off Mapleton Road. Although the land was deed-restricted, it was still owned by the university until it was donated to the state.

