By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton will buy land on Lytle Street to expand Mary Moss Park and potentially provide up two units of affordable housing that Habitat for Humanity of Trenton or some other developer would build.
The Council on Monday voted 6-0 to have the town attorney draft an ordinance acquiring the two lots from local developer Roman Barsky for $525,000. The sum includes the cost for Mr. Barsky to raze a 19th-century house located on one of the lots; the other lot is vacant.
He could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Barsky and the town have been in running talks about the land deal, one that has evolved in recent months. Originally, the town was going to buy the two parcels for the park without any affordable housing.
But a coalition led by local activists Kip Cherry and Daniel Harris intervened at the 11th hour to delay the deal, so that they could find an alternative amid concerns that the historic structure should be preserved, renovated and turned into housing.
Town officials said renovating the house would cost far too much for far too little in return.
“Renovating that building, at the end of the day when you looked at how much it was going to cost, you just couldn’t make it work if it was going to be affordable housing,” Mayor Liz Lempert told reporters Monday afternoon at her press conference. “A combination of the amount of work that needed to be done on it and also the size. The numbers didn’t add up.”
Last week, the residents presented the town with a compromise proposal that met three objectives. It called for the park to be expanded, the housing to be built and some historic architectural elements of the house to be preserved, Ms. Cherry said in remarks to the council.
Although the house will be demolished, the porch and features of the façade will be saved, stored and built into the new affordable housing.
“I thank you for all your patience with us,” Ms. Cherry told councilmembers.
Tom Caruso, executive director of Habitat, addressed the council and said his organization would not start the project until it raised all the money first. It is not clear yet if the site can accommodate one or two affordable units.
“This is a wonderful example of the citizens, the governing body and the nonprofit sector working for the common good of all of us,”said former Princeton Mayor Jim Floyd at the meeting.
For his part, Council President Bernard P. Miller cautioned against people getting their expectations up that two units will be built. He said Habitat still needs to determine what could go there. It is also not finalized that Habitat will develop the property or some other builder.
The town has talked of renovating the .5-acre-park by removing a small pool located there and putting in a “spray ground.” That renovation is separate from adding the additional land through the purchase.
