By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton regional Planning Board is facing looming deadlines to vote on major separate redevelopment projects involving Princeton University and AvalonBay before automatic approvals kick in.
The board agreed Thursday to devote three meetings on Dec. 6, 10 and 13 for AvalonBay, the Maryland-based builder that has proposed constructing a 280-unit residential building at the former Princeton hospital site on Witherspoon Street.
The deadline for the board to decide the application is Dec.15, a date that AvalonBay senior vice president Ronald S. Ladell said Friday would not be extended.
”What’s the rush?” asked Alexi Assmus, a member of Princeton Citizens for Sustainable Neighborhoods, a group opposed to the project. In a phone interview Friday, she said projects of this scope take much longer to go through the Planning Board process. She said “many” residents want a chance to weigh in during public comment before the board.
Ms. Assmus’ group also has two lawyers and a professional planner working for it.
Meanwhile, Princeton University’s $300 million arts and transit neighborhood, calling for a new train station, the proposed Lewis Center for the Arts and street and other improvements, had an initial board hearing Oct.18 and second one scheduled for Nov.1 that was postponed because of Hurricane Sandy. The Planning Board, which has until Nov. 30 to act, has a hearing scheduled Nov. 29.
”The Planning Board has made it clear that they have every intention of completing action on our project by the end of December and we remain confident that they will do so,” said University Vice President and Secretary Robert K. Durkee in an email Friday.
The university actually filed its application with the Planning Board before AvalonBay did, and that application was deemed complete before AvalonBay’s.
But what happens if the board cannot get to both in time? Planning Board attorney Gerald Muller said Friday that the board would be within its rights to reject both projects, should AvalonBay and the university refuse to extend their respective deadlines and the public has not been given a chance to comment. AvalonBay and the university could challenge such a decision in Superior Court, however.
Yet there are other deadlines fast approaching. The current planning board will cease to exist after Dec.31 when consolidation of the two towns takes effect. Members of the future planning board would have to be appointed in January, although some or all the current members could be named.
Mr. Muller said that based on legal advice from Bill Kearns, attorney for the Transition Task Force, the future board would be treated as the current board. He said that should there be a legal challenge, he doubted that a judge would rule that the two applications need to start over from scratch just because a new board was created.
Dec. 31 is also key because that is the closing date specified in the contract between AvalonBay and Princeton Healthcare System for the sale of the former hospital and other property, according to a Superior Court lawsuit Princeton Healthcare System brought against AvalonBay in May. Neither Mr. Ladell nor the hospital would comment Friday on that deadline.
The suit dealt with a dispute in which AvalonBay wanted to charge a parking fee for users of the remaining medical office buildings to park in the garage.

