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 last 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.
Under questioning by Afran, Brown said a general permit would be needed from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to construct the entrance road into the proposed development because of wetlands. A general permit would not be granted if the affected area included vernal habitat areas.
Vernal pools or habitats are small areas of wetlands that occur a few months of the year. They provide a habitat for certain plants, amphibians, insects and reptiles, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. They can occur in upland forested areas, as well as seasonally flooded meadows and floodplain swamps.
Asked about a reduced flow of water to the forest because of the development, Brown said he had not studied the issue because he had not been asked to do so by his client. Such a study would not be required, he said, adding that he is not a “vernal pool expert” and that he had not been asked to conduct a study on it.
Bill Brash, the applicant’s tree expert and consulting forester, said that when he walked the area where the development is being proposed, he observed several native species of trees, such as red oak, white oak, sugar maple and ash trees. It would be easier to keep out invasive species of plants if that area is developed, he said.
The planning board ran out of time to complete the application, so another public 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.
At the January 2020 meeting, the objectors plan to present their own engineer, forester, biologist and planner to offer testimony on the pending application.
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 the development of affordable housing.
The remainder of the tract, which would be 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 has chosen 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 many years ago.
Princeton’s zoning ordinance allows for density bonuses for providing more than 70 percent of a parcel as common open space; for providing more than 1,000 linear feet of walking paths; and for dedicating the three-acre lot 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.