By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
Defining potential historic districts in Princeton Borough has reignited a battle between those who support the idea and those who oppose any sort of formal historic designation for neighborhoods or homes.
Opponents say the designation would make it difficult to do repairs and preserve homes while adversely affecting their property values.
Proponents say it will prevent the demolition of homes and the loss of treasured history.
”The Historic Preservation Review Committee is proposing revisions to the historic preservation element of the master plan to add specific sites to existing districts, as well as add sites to the proposed districts,” said Derek Bridger, borough zoning officer, at a Feb. 6 master plan subcommittee meeting. “The reason we are doing this is it was brought to our attention when the proposed Morven historic district was brought before the Historic Preservation Review Committee.”
A subcommittee researched the areas on the proposed list and added sites in specific districts, said Mr. Bridger.
Scott Sipprelle, a Hodge Road resident whose property is on the list, spoke on behalf of 23 additional homeowners in the Morven tract that the neighborhood is not in danger and any proposed changes should not move forward.
”It’s our belief that the neighborhood is not endangered; in fact it couldn’t be further from that,” he said. “This district probably represents one of America’s best examples of the community interest and the property owners interest on the issue of preservation actually taking place, you can walk around these neighborhoods and see the incredible respect and care and even reverence the homeowners put into these homes. We buy these homes because we love history and want to preserve them.”
He said owning an older home, such as his own Westland, former President Grover Cleveland’s estate, is very expensive.
”It is our belief a historic district in the affected area would be counterproductive and against the interests of preservation because it would freeze in place a lot of the changes and create tremendous owner uncertainty to own these homes and invest in these homes,” said Mr. Sipprelle. “They break down, they fall apart, they crumble, they rot, the roof leaks, you need to change things and the historic preservation code which describes a process that many of us fear is an aesthetic or architecture police would create tremendous uncertainty for the owners in buying these homes and reinvesting in them.”
He noted “our homes are not set into a historical time period,” and the homes have evolved over history, citing changes he made to his own home as he renovated it and a historic designation would create a chilled market for these home and make them unattractive to future buyers.”
Another resident spoke about how many homes a majority of the borough would be impacted by the districts should the measure pass.
”If everything goes in to the master plan, all these people could be living in a historic district,” said Beth Covin, a Hodge Road resident who has been outspoken against the plan for years. “This has stopped being about the people on Hodge and Library Place; this is everywhere.”
John Howlner, representing those in favor of historic preservation in the Western section, urged for the adoption of the districts and said a group has been trying to do this since 2006. He said the plan presented by the Historic Preservation Review Committee is based on fact and that historic districts help property values, with values in districts either staying the same or increasing.
The Historic Preservation Review Committee is recommending the inclusion of specific sites within each proposed historic district that have been identified in the master plan. The proposed districts have been in the master plan since 1996, the last time it was revised, said Marvin Reed, a Planning Board member who heads the Master Plan Subcommittee. Designations require research and evidence to justify the designation, he said.
The group that specified sites which range from homes to eating clubs to university buildings did not add any new sites, they used existing documentation of proposed districts, said Nora Kerr, chairwoman of the Borough Historic Preservation Committee.
”We’re not trying to push the boundaries. We are trying to make what we have in tune with the Municipal Land Use Law of the state of New Jersey,” she said. “The districts were already listed, there were no historic sites listed. We fleshed out the descriptions of each suggested historic site in the suggested historic districts and we fleshed out the description of the four existing historic districts, in line with what some of the other towns in New Jersey have done.”
The suggested site list is a compilation of properties identified from the following sources: the National Historic Landmark Program, the National Register of Historic Places, the New Jersey Register of Historic Places, the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Officer’s Opinions and Determinations, the Princeton Historic District’s Inventory-Nomination Form, the Report of the Princeton Architectural Survey, the Historic American Building Survey, the Bassett Survey, the Historical Society of Princeton’s Historic Sites List and the Borough of Princeton’s Historic Preservation Review Committee’s files.
The list identifying specific historically significant homes and buildings is a step forward in the creation of a historic district and recommending it to the Borough Council.
Any historic designation would be considered land use and be developed in either the Planning Board or the Borough Council; it would go to the Planning Board to determine consistency with the master plan after it was introduced and then need to be voted upon by Borough Council.
Mr. Reed takes the historic designation very seriously.
”A lot of the properties that are on this long list, historic register, state register are basically a nice recognition of a property. Therefore the homeowner puts a plaque on the outside for all visitors to see,” he said. “But in actuality, when once we create a historic district and put a designation, all the properties within that district come under special review procedures and it gets to be a lot more than whether you have a plaque on the front door or not.”
Julie Nachmann, a Planning Board member, suggested the group separate the proposal into two issues, those that are already historic designations and the suggested properties.

