Balance sought in size of new borough homes

Planning Board committee aims to soften restrictions proposed by Borough Council.

By: Rachel Silverman
   In an effort to fine-tune an ordinance proposed by the Princeton Borough Council last May, the members of the Princeton Regional Planning Board’s Zoning Amendment Review Committee recently discussed restricting residential home sizes — and they proposed new recommendations on how to do so.
   Although the new recommendations regarding home square footage are slightly more relaxed than the figures introduced by Borough Council almost a year ago, the committee’s proposal would still, if approved, implement markedly stricter building controls in the borough.
   The ordinance, which was born out of concern about the construction of large "McMansion" homes, has resulted in an ongoing neighborhood debate on home-size controls.
   While some community members argue in favor of stricter size regulations, others claim such limitations would lower property values and unfairly impinge upon homeowner rights.
   "We’re trying to preserve certain neighborhoods and balance that with concerns about property value," Planning Director Lee Solow said.
   To that end, the Zoning Amendment Review Committee proposed a series of recommendations Thursday — recommendations that will make their way over to the Planning Board for a May 5 discussion.
   "We want to increase the building cap size, the size of which varies zone to zone," Mr. Solow said. "But it’s still a dramatic decrease from what’s currently permitted in the zones," he explained.
   At present, single-family homes can reach anywhere from a minimum of 5,400 square feet to a maximum of 15,000 square feet, depending on the residential zone.
   "There were no cap sizes to begin with," Mr. Solow explained. "The permitted coverage percentages are the only real control."
   Under the ordinance introduced by Borough Council, these numbers were reined in significantly to span a more narrow range of 3,000 to 7,000 square feet.
   Now, the Zoning Amendment Review Committee wants to bring these figures back up slightly, increasing the caps in each zone by about 1,000 square feet.
   According to Mr. Solow, these freshly tweaked figures have resulted from weeks of careful consideration and deliberation.
   "We had three meetings with different neighborhood groups," Mr. Solow said. "We had people calling to say ‘I read about the ordinance, how does this affect me?’
   "There’s not an exact line you can draw," he admitted. "People in the neighborhood would probably like to see no changes.
   "We don’t want a cap too big," Mr. Solow continued, citing the balancing act at play in creating the new requirements. "If someone needs to add a small addition to their home because their lifestyle has changed, we’d like to allow that," he said. "But the original ordinance had very few controls on the size of homes."