Controversy over whether existing buildings should be reused or replaced with less "massive" development.
By: David Campbell
The Princeton Regional Planning Board’s discussion Thursday night on how best to redevelop the University Medical Center at Princeton came down to the issue of density, and whether existing buildings should be reused or torn down for less intense development.
Guiding the discussion were two divergent visions for the Witherspoon Street site, one being developed by landowner Princeton HealthCare System, the hospital’s corporate parent, the other put forward by the nonprofit citizens’ planning group Princeton Future.
Board member Wendy Benchley said she liked Princeton Future’s idea of breaking up the hospital "super block" in order to get away from the "massive feel" of the site. "Once you have that huge hospital building looming over, it sets the tone for the property," Ms. Benchley said.
She said mixed use not straight residential is ideal, but said Princeton can’t support too much new retail, and she questioned the wisdom of hospital proposals for day-care and fitness centers there. She said the existing garage should be preserved to keep parked cars off the street to take the pressure off the neighborhood.
Board Co-Vice Chairman Peter Madison said he did not favor Princeton Future’s proposal to break up the hospital block with new streets, arguing that it would waste valuable land that could be put toward parkland, age-restricted housing and affordable housing.
He said he opposed greater residential density where the hospital’s Harris Road houses currently stand an idea board Co-Vice Chairwoman Gail Ullman floated during the discussion but said dense use of the central hospital block, in line with what PHCS has proposed, is favorable.
Mr. Madison said the lower the density, the fewer the opportunities for affordable and senior housing.
But board Chairwoman Wanda Gunning said she was concerned about a hospital plan ending up "monolithic" and isolating neighbors.
The Planning Board is weighing possible Master Plan amendments that in turn would lead to rezoning of the hospital’s land for reuse and redevelopment. Thursday night was the third public hearing held by the board. The first and second were on April 21 and May 26.
PHCS is working with the board to plan for the future of the site, which totals 11.76 acres. The hospital and adjacent medical buildings are on land zoned exclusively for hospital and medical use. That zoning would have to be expanded to permit alternate uses. The board aims to ready parameters for possible Master Plan amendments by midsummer, with hearings sometime in the fall.
PHCS wants to build a new state-of-the-art hospital campus on at least 50 acres within two to six miles of the current location. Details about where the new 300-bed hospital might be built could be disclosed before the end of June but possibly later, PHCS spokeswoman Carol Norris said this week.
The health-care system is working with architect J. Robert Hillier of West Windsor-based Hillier Architecture to devise a plan that would then serve as a blueprint for potential developers. PHCS has held three informal neighborhood meetings, with the third on Tuesday night, to present and revise design schemes and bounce ideas around with the community.
At the meeting Tuesday night, PHCS announced that, responding to concerns raised by residents, it has hired Mountain Lakes-based firm TRC Raymond Keyes Associates to conduct workday and weekend traffic surveys of the hospital site.
Mr. Hillier envisions reusing the main eight-story hospital building for a maximum of about 280 resident-owned units to be marketed to buyers 55 and older, with some office and limited neighborhood retail uses as well as a fitness center and day-care center on the ground floor. The concept includes adding new stories to an existing one-story section and tearing down the two Medical Arts buildings on Witherspoon Street to create a public park.
Mr. Hillier has also discussed the possibility of using the hospital site for some form of continuing-care retirement community, and he has proposed building up to 23 townhouses, condominiums, duplexes or flats of up to three stories tall on PHCS’s Franklin Avenue parking lot. He is also weighing transferring some of that new residential density to the main hospital block.
In contrast to Mr. Hillier’s proposals, Princeton Future has floated six reuse options that largely entail tearing down the main eight-story hospital facility and inserting roads to break up the hospital "super block." Proposed are from 111 to 306 residential units in varying design layouts of townhouses, courtyards, senior and garden apartments, limited commercial development, and public parkland.