By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — Plans by the Princeton Theological Seminary to replaceaging student housing on land off Canal Pointe Boulevard has neighbors and town planners concerned about a provision to cut down 14 acres of woodland on the property.
The seminary is seeking township approval to replace 25 older buildings with three large modern dormitories, which would be set along Loetscher Place in the back portion of the 54-acre property. The total number of apartments will remain at about 200, according to current plans.
The plans also call for the removal of nearly half of the woodlands on the property in order to construct a detention basin, day care, pool building, soccer field and recreational center.
The seminary appeared last week before the Site Plan Review Advisory Board, which recommended that it meet with township professionals about the plans for the woodlands, township land use manager Sam Surtees said.
”We’re not 100 percent on board with the removal of those trees,” he said.
Neither is Judith Tallerman, of Wrangle Court, whose condominium is located across the street from a grove of trees that would be partially removed under the current plans.
The leafy trees, located about 30 feet from her home, are beautiful in the summer and protect her and her neighbors from snow, wind and other weather conditions, she said.
”We feel that to take them down would really be horrendous… Those of us who live in this building and a few other people in other buildings are extremely upset about it,” she said.
She said she recognizes that she and her neighbors have no right to the land, but she hopes that the seminary will consider their position.
”(The students) stay a few years, that’s it, whereas we are permanent owners here,” she said.
John W. Gilmore, senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Princeton Theological Seminary, said the school is in the process of reviewing the comments from SPRAB and neighbors of the property.
”We try to be good stewards of God’s creation, so it’s important to us that we do everything we can to minimize the number of trees that will be taken down, but we need to take some down,” he said.
The seminary hopes to begin construction on the new student housing next summer, he said, if proper approvals can be obtained from the township and the seminary’s own board.
The new apartments would replace buildings acquired by the seminary in the early 1960s, he said.
”They’re not of the quality that we feel our students deserve,” he said. “We want to replace them with modern units.”
The seminary also plans to team with a developer to construct commercial apartments on a portion of the land that currently contains the older buildings.
The timing for this portion of the plans is yet undetermined and dependent on the economy, Mr. Gilmore said.
The seminary is expected to appear before SPRAB at least once more, next at a meeting scheduled for Sept. 14, Mr. Surtees said. The plans are later expected to go before the township Planning Board around the end of the year, he said.
Mr. Surtees said that anyone with questions about the plans are encouraged to contact him at the West Windsor Township Division of Land Use, at (609) 799-2400. The plans are on file to be reviewed at the Municipal Building, he said.
ksnodgrass
@centraljersey.com
