Judge to order township to reconsider assisted living sites

Lawsuit filed by owner of 22-acre tract off The Great Road

By: Courtney Gross
   A Mercer County Superior Court judge is expected to order the Princeton Township Committee to file a notice and reintroduce an ordinance approved last year that removed assisted living as a conditional use in residential, education and business zones.
   The result of a lawsuit brought by retired attorney and independent property developer Timothy Sheehan — who owns a 22-acre site off The Great Road East — court officials said Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg should issue an order detailing the court’s decision next week.
   That order should essentially side with Mr. Sheehan, effectively mandating the committee rehash a process that was not deemed effectively administered when it took place last April.
   "I am very hopeful that senior housing in the township of Princeton will become available for all senior citizens that want it and are entitled to it," Mr. Sheehan said of the expected court decision.
   On March 9, Mr. Sheehan appeared before the Mercer County Superior Court arguing the township had not notified residents when it removed assisted living and nursing homes as a conditional use on its zoning plan.
   Calling the removal a zoning change, Mr. Sheehan said that during the ordinance approval process residents should have received advance notice by mail detailing the revision instead of the solitary notification that appeared as a legal advertisement in The Packet.
   Although the court did not agree the removal of the conditional uses was a complete zoning change, Township Attorney Edwin Schmierer said it did call the process "confusing" and mandated the township repeat the notification process and reconsider the ordinance.
   Even so, Mr. Schmierer said, the court’s decision is somewhat unclear. If the township were to give notice to every property affected by the zoning revision, Mr. Schmierer explained, it would have to notify nearly 5,000 households at a cost of practically $25,000.
   To determine how many residents the township must notice to reintroduce the ordinance, Mr. Schmierer will ask the court to reconsider and clarify the decision.
   "Candidly, we were surprised," Mr. Schmierer said. "We didn’t understand the basis for her saying the action was confusing. … We really don’t understand her ruling (and) we’re hoping she did not intend on us spending $25,000 for removing an asterisk from the code," he said of Judge Feinberg.
   Last year, the township had removed an asterisk on its zoning chart that would have permitted assisted living in its residential zones — including within Mr. Sheehan’s property — as a "housekeeping measure," Mr. Schmierer said.
   The asterisk, which was brought to the attention of the township by several of Mr. Sheehan’s neighbors, was removed following a review process by the township that created several senior housing overlay zones in 2001, Mr. Schmierer said.
   Those zones effectively address the township’s senior housing needs, and the asterisk was an oversight during the zoning process several years ago, he added.
   Mr. Sheehan, who spends half his time in Massachusetts, contended the township had been inconsistent with its explanation for the asterisk’s removal — at first claiming it was done at the request of neighbors then stating it had been an oversight.
   Part of Mr. Sheehan’s case also claimed the ordinance was inconsistent with the Princeton Community Master Plan and that it violated the federal Fair Housing Act by removing senior housing options in Princeton.
   In response to the court’s tentative order, Mr. Sheehan said he would be attending township meetings to persuade the committee to allow types of senior housing throughout the township and not just in specifically designated areas on the municipality’s outskirts.
   "I hope that (senior housing) will become available in the same zones (seniors) have raised their families in, and they will not be relegated to these marginalized zones in the township," he said.