By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Developer AvalonBay scored a mini-victory Tuesday when a judge agreed to a faster schedule to resolve its lawsuit that seeks to construct a 280-unit apartment building at the former Princeton Hospital.
During a conference call with lawyers, Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary C. Jacobson scheduled a hearing for April 29 in Trenton. Lawyers involved in the case said the judge indicated she would not guarantee that she would make a decision that day or before a May 1 deadline that AvalonBay has set for a resolution.
AvalonBay, a major national developer headquartered in Arlington, Va., has said the suits needs to be decided by that date or it will back out of its contract to acquire the property from Princeton HealthCare System. A spokesman for AvalonBay could not be reached for comment.
Planning Board Attorney Gerald J. Muller said Thursday that his side had wanted more time instead of a “very compressed timeline” within which to work.
AvalonBay sued last month to overturn the Princeton Planning Board’s vote in December to reject the project, which calls for demolishing the old hospital and constructing an apartment building in its place. The project calls for having 56 affordable housing units as part of the total, an issue that the judge was cognizant of in making her decision to speed up the case.
AvalonBay has sought to play up the affordable housing issue in its court papers.
At the hearing next month, lawyers for the town, the Planning Board, AvalonBay and a local citizens group will appear before the judge. She granted the Princeton Citizens for Sustainable Neighborhoods, which fought AvalonBay, a right to intervene in the case, said Rob Simon, the group’s lawyer, on Thursday.

