Ivy Club addition gets zoning board OK.
By: Jennifer Potash
Ivy Club, the posh private eating club for Princeton University undergraduate students, can look forward to more stylish soirees after the Princeton Regional Planning Board approved a two-and-a-half-story addition to the club’s building.
The Planning Board voted unanimously Thursday to grant minor site plan approval with a variance for side yard setback to the club.
Also at the meeting, Princeton Health Care Task Force Chairman Marvin Reed presented the volunteer group’s report on the University Medical Center at Princeton.
The Ivy Club addition, in the EZ zone, will add 5,300 square feet of above-ground space, plus a basement.
The addition’s design hews to the Tudor-style architecture, said James Bradberry, the project’s architect. The addition will provide a multi-function space that could be used as a lounge, to host small parties or theater productions, Mr. Bradberry said. The "crypt," or new basement space, at about 2,200 square feet, will serve as a library for the club members, Mr. Bradberry said.
One Planning Board member questioned if the addition was a step toward increasing the Ivy Club’s membership.
"The university is adding 500 students at a new college, and I presume the club is hoping some proportion of that added student enrollment will become members," said Bill Enslin, the Princeton Township Committee’s representative to the Planning Board. "I find myself a little incredulous that there’s no membership increase being planned here."
Elizabeth Rasher, manager of the Ivy Club, said the club’s board of trustees voted to cap the membership at 140. She said the club currently has 139 members.
Some Site Plan Review Advisory Board members had objected at an earlier meeting to the size and scale of the addition and suggested it be reduced in size or shifted slightly away from the property line.
To reduce the addition or shift the location, Mr. Bradberry said, would create "an undifferentiated façade" on the western side of the building.
The project also will include a new patio area.
As part of a series of public presentations on the Princeton Health Care Task Force’s report, Mr. Reed, who is a member of the Planning Board, briefed the board on the task force’s recommendations.
Members of the Planning Board will begin to discuss the recommendations at a Master Plan Subcommittee meeting 9 a.m. March 29.
In other action, the Planning Board heard a report about upcoming plans to smooth a dangerous curve on Cherry Valley Road and unanimously voted to support proposed improvements to the intersection of Cherry Valley Road and Route 206.
Princeton Township Engineer Robert Kiser said the changes would abolish left turns from Route 206 onto Cherry Valley Road. Motorists would use a new connector road behind the Sunoco gas station in Montgomery Township, Mr. Kiser said.
Princeton and Montgomery townships worked with Mercer County to relocate a stormwater culvert under the hazardous section of Cherry Valley Road to realign the road, Mr. Kiser said.