The Borough Council narrowed the definition of assisted living facilities
By: Jennifer Potash
After nearly a year of review and discussion, the Princeton Borough Council adopted an ordinance narrowing the definition of assisted-living facilities that would be allowed to be established in the borough.
The council voted 5-1 Tuesday to adopt the ordinance, which would define assisted living as a “facility for the frail elderly and other persons with physical or cognitive impairments.”
Council President Roger Martindell voted no.
Jean Ross, a Princeton Borough resident and lawyer who has worked in human resources for 25 years, has raised concerns that small, supervised group homes, for one to five mentally ill people, would not be permitted in the borough under the proposed ordinance.
Mayor Marvin Reed said group homes would not be affected by the ordinance, as that type of housing is separately defined by state statutes.
Ms. Ross, who was not at the meeting, sent a memo to the council members urging them to oppose the ordinance.
“I believe that the (ordinance) is unnecessary for its intended purposes and insufficient for legitimate purposes,” she wrote. “It threatens acceptable and non-controversial uses for this type of community residence, violates laws against discrimination and frustrates established public policy.”
Based on the concerns raised by Ms. Ross, Mr. Martindell said the council should continue the public hearing and have “substantive discussion” on the ordinance.
The ordinance, which revises an existing definition of assisted living, was prompted by a proposal in 1999 to convert the Quarry Street nursing home to a residential facility for troubled youth and also by changes in the state’s definition of assisted living. The changes by the state broadened the definition to include facilities for medical and psychiatric treatment, Mayor Reed said.
Mayor Reed said densely populated borough neighborhoods are not the appropriate place for treatment facilities for individuals with emotional, social or psychiatric disorders.
“We don’t want medical or psychiatric facilities being built in a residential neighborhood under the guise of assisted-living residences,” he said.
A handful of borough residents attended the meeting to show support for the ordinance.
“We do not want to have the mentally ill or psychiatric patients in the area,” said Kathleen Edwards of Green Street. “It seems like the John-Witherspoon neighborhood seems to get these places more than any other place in the borough.”