Public’s views sought on future use of property.
By: David Campbell
The Princeton Regional Planning Board will begin a series of public hearings next week on how best to use and develop the University Medical Center at Princeton property off Witherspoon Street.
Members of the board, along with Princeton Planning Director Lee Solow, held a news conference Thursday announcing the dates for the hearings and urging that members of the entire Princeton community not just immediate neighbors of the hospital take part in the deliberations.
The dates scheduled for the meetings are April 21 at 7:30 p.m., May 26 and June 16. All meetings will be held in the main meeting room of Princeton Township Hall.
The board has been charged with weighing Master Plan changes leading to possible rezoning of the nearly 12 acres off Witherspoon Street which, except for the hospital’s parking deck off Henry Avenue, are zoned exclusively for hospital and medical-related uses.
The board is expected to weigh alternatives for use and development of the land once the Medical Center moves out of Princeton, and evaluate key issues related to different uses of the campus, board Chairwoman Wanda Gunning said. Issues that will be considered include development density, open-space and affordable-housing opportunities, traffic impacts and neighborhood compatibility.
Planners are aiming to ready parameters for possible Master Plan amendments by mid-July, with hearings in the fall, Ms. Gunning said. She stressed that no meetings will be scheduled during the summer weeks, when many people are out of town on vacations.
Board members on Thursday joined Ms. Gunning in urging the wider Princeton community to lend its voice and insight to the upcoming meetings. Ms. Gunning said, "What goes in here will affect the whole community," suggesting, for example, that an alternate use could ease traffic impacts throughout Princeton.
Board Co-Vice Chairman Peter Madison said, "We really would like to invite the whole community to be involved in this. With proper planning, the reuse of this Medical Center site will be a wonderful opportunity."
Planners said the redevelopment project is bigger in scope than the one under way now in downtown Princeton Borough, which includes the new municipal garage, plaza and mixed-use development. They stressed that community input will help shape the redevelopment plan that is ultimately approved.
In January, the trustees of Princeton HealthCare System, the hospital’s corporate parent, voted to explore building a new state-of-the-art hospital campus on a site of at least 50 acres within two to six miles of the current location. The new facility would cost about $250 million, with revenue from the sale of the 11.76 acres of hospital property which includes the Franklin Avenue parking lot and the Harris Road houses to be invested in a new campus.
In February, the Princeton Health Care Task Force, an advisory body created by Princeton officials that held a series of public forums of its own, issued its final report recommending the Planning Board get to work on possible zoning changes for alternate uses of the current hospital site.
PHCS has also expressed interest in selling Merwick Rehab Hospital & Nursing Care facility off Bayard Lane. On Thursday, Planning Board member Marvin Reed, who headed up the task force, said that planning for use of that site will also take place, but that the Witherspoon Street campus takes priority.