PRINCETON: Task force to study hospital site

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   A task force will recommend zoning changes that affect how a future builder could develop the former University Medical Center of Princeton on Witherspoon Street.
   The task force was proposed by Mayor Liz Lempert after the Regional Planning Board last month rejected developer AvalonBay’s proposed 280-unit apartment building for the site.
   The group is expected to start meeting next week, as the Princeton Council will vote Monday to appoint the members that will include Ms. Lempert, Council President Bernard P. Miller and others.
   Ms. Lempert, in a phone interview Wednesday, said any changes would not affect the density of a development there or eliminate having affordable housing units on site. Among other things, the task force will discuss whether to require any project to be broken up into more than one building, as opposed to the single structure that AvalonBay had proposed.
   The vacant property still is governed by borough and township zoning rules, since parts are in what used to be the two towns. One change that likely will come out of the task force will be to simplify things by creating one zoning district for the entire parcel. Any and all zoning changes would have to be formally voted on by the council.
   Forming the task force is being done with an eye toward a new application being filed for the project.
   Officials said they have not heard from Health Care System CEO Barry Rabner or other hospital officials about their next steps — although AvalonBay might not be completely out of the picture.
   The newly constituted Planning Board needs to formally memorialize the rejection of the developer’s project at a future meeting, perhaps as soon as next week. Once that vote occurs, AvalonBay would have 45 days within which to appeal the board’s decision to Superior Court, and if successful, then be able to develop the site based on current zoning regulations.
   AvalonBay Vice President Ronald S. Ladell did not return a phone call seeking comment.
   In a statement Wednesday, Princeton HealthCare System said, “Avalon Bay is considering its options and is expected to make a decision on its next steps shortly.”
   Borough Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller, who will serve on the task force, said she hopes the zoning would invite a development that’s “more in scale” and “more keeping with the surroundings.”
   For her part, Ms. Crumiller, also a Planning Board member who voted against AvalonBay last month, said she thought the hospital had been a bad neighbor in the community.
   AvalonBay’s plan, drawing strong opposition from residents, called for demolishing the former hospital and erecting an apartment building in its place. The project conformed with the zoning for the site, although the Planning Board voted 7-3 to reject it Dec.20.
   Ms. Crumiller felt that by choosing AvalonBay, the hospital had sold to the highest bidder.
   ”And they told us that’s not what they were going to do,” she said.