By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton officials said this week the town has not determined how much affordable housing will be built on three acres on the Princeton Ridge that a real estate developer is giving the town.
Lanwin Development Corp., run by the family of real estate mogul Bryce Thompson IV, intends to provide the acreage in return for a zoning change to allow for a slightly larger cluster housing development in a different section of the 90.6-acre-property. The property is near the border with Montgomery, and fronts Herrontown and Mount Lucas roads, according to the town.
Municipal planing director Lee O. Solow has said the three acres that the town is getting can be built upon. He this week also indicated there are various ways the town could go about a development, such as partnering with Princeton Community Housing to have a 100-percent affordable housing development.
Another option is to partner with another entity on a project with half market-rate housing and half affordable.
“I think that the desire is often to do a 100 percent because you can maximize the number of affordable units with the least amount of density,” Mayor Liz Lempert said Tuesday. “But it’s the most expensive way … because you’re carrying the cost of the whole development.”
“That’s a decision by council,” she said when asked if all three acres would be used for affordable housing or some lesser amount.
“My sense is that there’d probably be some sort of townhomes development,” she said.
Her comments came after a meeting of a subcommittee of the municipal Planning Board that is working on the zoning issue. Some residents who live near the property attended the meeting and said they are looking for a bigger buffer, a 300-foot setback, from the proposed development. But Lanwin contends that given the constraints of the property, a buffer that big would come at the expense of home lots.
For her part, Councilwoman and Planning Board member Jenny Crumiller said at Tuesday’s meeting that she supports creating a 300-foot buffer.
