After years of delay, Elm Court II breaks ground

Sixty-eight-unit addition to be named in honor of Harriet Bryan

By: Marjorie Censer
   Municipal, county, state and federal representatives celebrated the groundbreaking of Elm Court II on Monday and announced the apartment building’s new name — the Harriet Bryan House.
   At the ceremony, Princeton Community Housing representatives poked fun at the delays that kept the project — first proposed in 1998 — from being built for many years, but said Ms. Bryan, chairwoman of the Elm Court II Committee, was the one who kept them believing that the project would come to fruition.
   Elm Court II is an expansion of Elm Court, the apartment building off Elm Road that houses low- and moderate-income elderly and disabled Princeton residents. The original development of 88 units was built in 1985; the new building will add 68 units.
   At Monday’s event, Ms. Bryan described the process as a board game — one of big steps forward and small steps backward.
   Princeton Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman noted that the project has now seen three borough mayors — and construction on the site has barely begun.
   "How does one say thank you to such a tenacious group?" she asked.
   U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) arrived at the event in a suit he said he’d been wearing for more than 30 hours. Congress took a vote early Monday morning after a long night of discussions, and Rep. Holt caught a train back to New Jersey for the groundbreaking.
   "Princeton got out ahead on this a long time ago," Rep. Holt said of the affordable housing. "Other communities should take a lesson."
   He said the vote the Congress took early Monday cut federal funding for many programs he values — underlining the need for organizations like PCH to keep finding ways to provide affordable housing, despite shrinking federal support.
   "It is really necessary that you keep fighting," he said.
   Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes also praised the work of PCH and said affordable senior housing in West Windsor allowed his wife’s grandparents to remain nearby.
   "My son is getting the unique opportunity to get to know his great-grandmother," Mr. Hughes said. "We want to make those intergenerational approaches real and sustainable."
   Officials donned hard hats and used chrome shovels to start digging. Work on the site has already begun, said Sandra Rothe, executive director of PCH, and the building is planned for completion in early 2007.