By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
An amended ordinance creating a mixed-use zone on properties including Merwick Rehab Hospital & Nursing Care was favorably received by the Borough Council on Tuesday night, largely because it is designed to encourage age-restricted housing.
The council, which had rejected an earlier draft of the ordinance on April 8, voted unanimously to introduce the ordinance, preparing the way for public hearing and final vote at a future session. No hearing date has been set. Council members who had voted against the first version because it lacked any reference to senior housing, said the amended ordinance was an improvement because it included a density bonus for projects including such housing.
If adopted, the new ordinance would create a mixed-use zoning district on the Merwick, Stanworth and YMCA-YWCA properties, which are all located on the east side of Route 206 between North Stanworth Drive and Paul Robeson Place.
The Stanworth property, which is owned by Princeton University, contains approximately 154 faculty and staff housing units. The Merwick property is under contract with the university for purchase and university officials have said they intend to build university housing similar to the Stanworth housing. Merwick is owned by the Princeton HealthCare System which intends to move the facility to its new Plainsboro campus.
The new zoning standards, which limit density to 14 units per acre, would allow developers to increase the density of a residential development if age-restricted housing is built. The density bonus, which is among the changes made to the ordinance since April 8, would allow developers to build an additional market unit for every age-restricted unit constructed, with a maximum of 30 bonus market-rate units allowed. The age restriction, referring to persons 62 and older, could apply to no more than 30 units in the entire zone and those units would have to be clustered.
A temporary “Princeton preference” for half of the age-restricted units constructed would apply to the following:
• Current borough and township residents or their parents and children;
• Persons who were residents of the borough or township within the five years prior to the adoption of the ordinance;
• Current active emergency service volunteers;
• Current employees of the borough, township, public library, school board or any joint borough and township municipal agency.
The Princeton preference for sales and rentals of these units would last through the date the developer issues all final construction documents and receives one-half of the construction permits for the development.
Members of council who spoke on the issue of the density bonus for senior housing termed it an important improvement.
Councilman Andrew Koontz referred to the senior housing provision as “icing on the cake” that would have a very positive impact on the borough. Deputy Mayor Margaret Karcher and Councilman Kevin Wilkes said they were hopeful that the university would eventually decide to take advantage of the density bonus.
Ms. Karcher said she suspects the university will at some point take a look at the other housing it has in town to see if some families in smaller units can be moved to larger units and move empty-nesters in these larger homes to smaller units such as those it plans to build at the Merwick site.
Mr. Wilkes had cast one of the votes against the version of the ordinance that was voted down in April. During Tuesday’s meeting, he said he was “very excited” about the fact that the new ordinance had the potential to bring a development to the Merwick site with nearly 24 percent age-restricted housing.
Councilman Roger Martindell, who voted against the previous version of the ordinance on April 8, praised the new language as “an activist stand” for senior housing.
”That activist stand articulates a commitment to provide for senior housing within walking distance of our central business district,” Mr. Martindell said. “And it gives to persons who have connections with our community a preference to any senior housing built.”
However, Mr. Martindell said he didn’t think the new ordinance went far enough to encourage the university to develop senior housing on the Merwick site and suggested that it require a lower density of units per acre than 14. He tried unsuccessfully to have the ordinance tabled for that purpose before joining the unanimous vote to move the measure to a second reading and public hearing.
Councilwoman Barbara Trelstad, who cast the other vote against the version of the ordinance introduced in April, said Thursday that with the density bonus and the university providing more information on its plans for the Merwick site, she was persuaded to accept the new version of the ordinance.
”The university was able to answer several of the questions I had as to what would become of the Merwick building itself, which they had not been able to answer the meeting before, Ms. Trelstad said.
The answers Ms. Trelstad referred to were given by the university’s vice president and secretary Bob Durkee during Tuesday’s meeting.
Mr. Durkee said the university would allow Princeton HealthCare System to continue using the Merwick property up to the time the university was ready to begin developing it and that it would build the number of state Council On Affordable Housing units generated by the market rate units it built.
During the April meeting, Mr. Wilkes had said he wasn’t satisfied with the Merwick property remaining vacant for 10 years, which a university representative told the council was a possibility.
Ms. Karcher and Mr. Koontz cast the two votes in favor of the earlier draft. Ms. Karcher said in a phone interview in April that she took issue with the university’s comments on the future of the Merwick site, but felt the timing of it was beyond the Borough Council’s control.
”I felt that was not actually a part of zoning,” she said. “My feeling was yeah, I’m concerned about that, but I think people tend to work in their own best interests and I believe the university and the medical center will work in their best interests and I don’t think it’s in anybody’s interest to have the building sit there unoccupied for 10 years.”
Mr. Martindell had echoed statements made by residents who said they wanted to see senior housing included in the new zoning district, during the April meeting. His statements received applause from members of the public before he voted against the ordinance.
”How many more years are we going to live here and talk about it (residents’ need for more senior housing),” Mr. Martindell said. “Frankly we should be ashamed of ourselves that we don’t have the guts to deliver ourselves to the people of our community.”
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, the Borough Council adopted ordinances that will increase fees for fire safety permits, fire safety inspections, construction permits and other aspects of construction projects. Both ordinances were introduced on April 22.
