Jane Buttars of Princeton
The Princeton Ridge is again threatened. Robert Hillier has proposed building 146 condo units north of the Princeton Shopping Center on Bunn Drive. This land has, for almost 50 years, been designated by experts as “environmentally valuable” and a “critical habitat” for many species. Both the Princeton Environmental Commission and the Stoneybrook Millstone Watershed Association have insisted that no further development be undertaken, and Princeton’s own Master Plan recommends protection.
How can we condemn environmental abuse away from home and campaign for “environmental sustainability,” when we don’t recognize the function of open lands in our own backyard? It is folly to destroy areas long determined necessary to preserve our human habitat while not exhausting possibilities of converting already developed sites.
Preserving these lands is important not only for the residents living downstream from the Ridge near Harry’s Brook, whose basements already flood due to Ridge geology, but for all of us in Princeton and the surrounding area who recognize the value of keeping sensitive areas free, and who may be affected by a precedent set in this case.
Hillier is requesting a variance to allow zoning for people 55 and over (only one per household), presumably because the 62-and-over zoning already in place will not be profitable enough. Doesn’t this indicate that the purpose of this construction is not senior housing?
The presence and opinions of citizens are crucial. Please attend the public meeting of the Princeton Township Committee on Monday, November 12, at 7 p.m., in the Municipal Building at 400 Witherspoon Street and demand that committee not only retract its age-restricted “senior overlay ordinance” that allows building on the Ridge, but that it forbid any further development of this area.
Jane Buttars
Dodds Lane
Princeton
