An attorney for objectors to Lanwin Development Corp.’s proposal to create a 30-lot subdivision at 725 and 823 Herrontown Road and 915 Mount Lucas Road – which is currently pending before the Princeton Planning Board – grilled the applicant’s engineer and tree expert at a special planning board meeting this past week.
At the Nov. 14 meeting, attorney Bruce Afran cross-examined engineer Geoffrey Brown and tree expert Bill Brash about the impact of the proposed development on the ecologically sensitive 90.6-acre parcel.
The parcel, which is located on the north side of Herrontown Road, is bordered by Herrontown Road, Herrontown Lane and Mount Lucas Road in Princeton, and by the Montgomery Walk townhouse development in Montgomery Township.
However, the planning board ran out of time to complete the application, so another hearing has been set for Jan. 23, 2020. It will be the seventh in a series of public hearings on the application which began this past April.
Lanwin Development Corp. is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval for the proposed development.
Lanwin Development Corp. has proposed subdividing the land into 30 building lots of about a half-acre each. It will set aside a three-acre lot on Mount Lucas Road that would be dedicated for affordable housing.
The remainder of the tract, which is about 67.4 acres, would remain as open space.
The applicant could have applied for permission to develop 20 building lots, with minimum lot sizes of four acres each, but it would have consumed most of the 90.6-acre tract. Instead, the applicant chose to use the cluster option.
The cluster subdivision design would avoid disturbance to major portions of the environmentally sensitive areas to be preserved as open space.
The houses will be built on about 18.5 acres of land that had been cleared for farming.
Princeton’s zoning ordinance allows for density bonuses for providing more than 70% of a parcel as common open space; for providing more than 1,000 linear feet of walking paths; and for dedicating the three-acre parcel on Mount Lucas Road for affordable housing.
As a result, the developer can create an additional 10 lots over the 20 building lots that could have been created under a conventional subdivision plan.