By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
The battle over the Princeton Battlefield isn’t over say opponents of a plan to construct housing on a land owned by the Institute for Advance Study that was approved by the Regional Planning Board last week.
Opponents say they have three actions to challenge the institute’s plan to build faculty housing on the site it owns adjacent to the Battlefield Park.
”There are a lot of legal barriers to the project,” said Bruce Afran, attorney for the objectors, the Princeton Battlefield Society, which says the site is where a key piece of the Battle of Princeton took place.
”We will challenge the right of the institute to build any residences in light of the 1992 settlement agreement in which they gave up that right,” said Mr. Afran, who said they would challenge the Planning Board approval in court “within days.” “(And) by (Friday) we will file an application with the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) to declare wetlands present and bar the construction.”
As of Monday afternoon, Mr. Afran was preparing paperwork to assert that a 1992 agreement between the institute and Princeton Township prohibits the institute from building on the land.
”In the 1992 settlement IAS gave up the right to build residences on this piece of land and they agreed to build residences only on a part of their property far removed from the battlefield,” said Mr. Afran. “In that agreement IAS agreed not to build houses anywhere else. We’re asking the court to hold that they gave up the right to build residences on the battlefield site.”
The 1992 agreement gave IAS the right to build 276 homes in the middle of their property, “thousands of feet away from the battlefield,” said Mr. Afran.
In 1997, the institute gave up the development rights on the site after selling them back to Princeton Township for $14 million.
”They sued the town in massive litigation,” said Mr. Afran. “The whole point of paying them $14 million was to stop the subdivisions. Now that they took the money, they are coming back and saying let us build.”
”Mr. Afran mischaracterizes the settlement agreement between the institute and the township,” said Christine Ferrara, senior public affairs officer at the institute on Monday afternoon. “At least one of the Planning Board members who was involved in the settlement at the time expressly noted at last Thursday’s meeting that Mr. Afran’s interpretation is wrong, and the board’s unanimous vote in favor of the institute’s plans demonstrates their disagreement with his claim.”
On a different tack, Mr. Afran agrees the institute has a letter from the DEP that authorizes the construction because the DEP didn’t find wetlands on the site, but he says scientists found wetlands in October 2011 and in 1990s.
”We’re going back to the DEP and asking them to reopen that letter of interpretation based on misrepresentations by the institute as to whether the wetlands are there,” he said. “Wetlands will bar the project.”
In 1992, when the institute wanted to build in a different area of its property, an environmental survey they commissioned showed wetlands in the 20.7-acre parcel where the new faculty housing was approved last week, he said. The original survey was attached to the early 1990s Planning Board application, he said.
”When they changed their plans, they did not disclose it to DEP,” said Mr. Afran.
The Battlefield Society hired its own environmental expert, which was the same one the institute used for its survey in 1990, he said, and the expert had the same findings in 2011 found in 1990.
”We will be moving to set aside the DEP permit on the ground it was obtained by misrepresentation and going to court to block the construction because it will destroy the wetlands,” said Mr. Afran.
In addition, said Mr. Afran, an endangered owl has a habitat in the wetlands and the wetlands drain into the Stony Brook.
”All wetlands that drain in to a river are protected under state and federal law and you cannot live there,” said Mr. Afran.
”The institute’s plan, as approved on March 1 by the Regional Planning Board of Princeton, is based on contemporary wetlands studies that have been reviewed and approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection,” said Ms. Ferrara.
The institute received unanimous preliminary and final major subdivision approval from the Planning Board on Thursday to build faculty housing 15 homes on 7.3 acres of a 20.7-acre parcel adjacent to the battlefield park.
”We are pleased the Planning Board has approved this much-needed housing,” said Peter Goddard, director of the institute. “We are also pleased it will give us the opportunity to work with people to improve the signage and interpretation of the battlefield.”
Calling a possible legal challenge “extremely unfortunate,” Mr. Goddard said a challenge would “waste time and money.”
In addition to moving forward with the housing plans, the next step for institute administration is to reach out to the Battlefield Society and the Crossroads of the American Revolution and others to improve the battlefield, said Mr. Goddard.
The Princeton Battlefield Society was not so keen on working with the institute “under these circumstances,” said organization president Jerry Hurwitz.
Some historians say the counterattack against British troops during the Battle of Princeton in 1777 took place on the proposed housing site.
Planning Board testimony included a report that concluded Gen. George Washington divided his force into three columns, one of which marched on the back road to Princeton, known as the Saw Mill Road.
But along the way, the American troops encountered British troops who were marching to Trenton from Princeton and that’s when the battle occurred. A map included in the Milner Associates study shows the American counterattack on the disputed 20.7-acre parcel that now has approval for the faculty housing.
Eight townhouses and seven single-story homes would be built some 200 feet from the battlefield off Maxwell Lane.
The single-family houses would be 12- to 25-feet high, flat-roof, single-family homes with three bedrooms designed by three different architects. The lots would be less than a half acre.
The single-family houses would be closest to the battlefield.
The plan, as approved, provides for a 200-foot buffer zone alongside the Princeton Battlefield State Park, with an additional 10 acres adjacent to the park scheduled to be conserved permanently as open space.
The townhouses, which would be constructed first, would be starter homes for new faculty or age-in-place residences for the emeritus faculty that who want to stay at the institute.

