By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
The Westerly Road Church in Princeton Township is moving forward with plans to relocate to a Bunn Drive property in mid-2011, while subdividing and eventually selling off its current 5-acre property for development.
The congregation plans on building a 44,400-square-foot sanctuary on an 18.2-acre Bunn Drive property on the Princeton ridge.
The move would solve growing pains at the current site, said Edward Nyce, a church member and the relocation project manager.
The new facility would expand the church’s capacity from the present 260 seats to 540 seats, while providing hard-surface parking and additional room for Sunday school, church ministries and other functions.
Preliminary plans for the new facility already have been filed with the township, according to Mr. Nyce.
The current 8,000-square-foot church, a 1,000-square-foot office building and three small homes on 5 acres between Westerly Road and Mountain Avenue are “woefully small and inadequate for us,” Mr. Nyce said.
Minor expansions the church has undertaken since its construction in the 1950s have created an L-shaped building where different sections of churchgoers cannot see each other during a service.
Parking at the church during its evangelical, nondenominational services frequently overflows onto the surrounding roads.
That problem would be addressed at the new facility, according to Mr. Nyce, who said plans call for larger, hard-surface lots instead of the church’s existing gravel lot.
Regarding plans for the Westerly Road property, Mr. Nyce said a concept plan for the subdivision of the site will be presented to the Princeton Regional Planning Board on April 16.
After relocation the church plans to run utility lines on the current site’s 10 half-acre lots and handing over “clean lots” to whichever developer or developers take it over, Mr. Nyce said.
Four lots are planned for Mountain Avenue with the other six to be situated along Westerly Road.
The church already has communicated with some interested developers, Mr. Nyce said.
Proceeds from the development of the Westerly Road lots will go toward defraying costs of the Bunn Drive development.
The congregation hopes the 2011 relocation will be different from earlier, unsuccessful efforts in the 1990s and 2002 when the church looked into expanding on its current property or relocating elsewhere in Princeton Township.
In those cases the township either did not agree with the church’s need to relocate or the expansion plans were thought to threaten the Westerly Road property with over-development, according to Mr. Nyce.
The congregation is mindful of the environmentally sensitive nature of the Princeton ridge area.
Mr. Nyce said he has been in communication with the Joint Princeton Environmental Commission, the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association and the Princeton Township Shade Tree Commission. He said his church understands the position of many of the organizations and will continue to communicate with them during the planning process.
Many of the organizations generally oppose development of the Princeton ridge, which is considered environmentally sensitive.
Plans do not call for the clear-cutting of the site, but call for preserving 73 percent of the estimated 1,321 trees.
Of the Bunn Drive site’s 18.2 acres, 7 are considered wetlands and would not be developed.
The Bunn Drive site satisfies the church’s desire to stay close to Princeton and the people who make up the congregation.
More than 50 percent of the congregation comes from the borough or township, including many Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary students.
The church buses in 50 to 60 students from the university and seminary for weekend services, Mr. Nyce said.
The church has a sister congregation in West Windsor Township called Windsor Chapel, which was founded in the 1970s.

