By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
Plans for faculty housing at the former Merwick and Stanworth sites received a warm welcome from the public at their concept review at the Princeton Regional Planning Board.
Mostly happy with Princeton University’s faculty housing plans, which call for the construction of 326 rental units on the 25-acre site, several residents expressed concerns about the traffic impact, pedestrians or bicyclists, drainage and access to the completed site.
Debbie Morrison, a Cleveland Lane resident who lives across the street from the Merwick property was concerned with the placement of the current Merwick driveway that would be used as an entrance and exit for the complex.
She pointed out this is a main crossing for school children and pedestrians going into the downtown.
”Currently, Route 206 has three lanes of concrete, which visually creates a highway feel,” said Ms. Morrison, who was hit by a car at the intersection of Route 206 and Cleveland Lane in 2009.
Her husband, Jack Morrison, “loves the project” but also has concerns about the traffic impact of 128 bedrooms with residents.
”Merwick had 93 beds with convalescent people, and I’m sure they weren’t getting in their car every day,” he said. “The 170 employees at a peak time for Merwick would be spread out over three shifts so you are looking at 55 cars per shift, so to speak, so now we have 128 bedrooms with two working people.”
The 128 units would probably house about two people in each unit that would need to get up and go to work, so pedestrian crossing could be an issue with the increased number of cars, said Mr. Morrison. The project would be an increase from the patients and employees of the former at Merwick.
Units would be a mix of apartments, stacked flats and townhomes. Affordable housing units, 20 percent of the development or 64 units, will be available for the public; the rest of the development would be for university faculty and staff. There would be 1,100 feet of frontage along Bayard Lane. The development has 8.75 acres of open space planned with special attention paid to the large, mature trees that are a feature of the property.
”I love the project, I think it’s gorgeous and it fits in with the neighborhood,” said Mr. Morrison.
The project has a proposed network of bike and pedestrian paths, streets and sidewalks. There would be no vehicular access to John Street on the East Side of the property.
Another resident, Ingrid Reed, also spoke about accessing the former Merwick site, urging the planners to think about who will be living there and the way they would use those networks. She thinks the sidewalks are not wide enough for the types of pedestrian goals the project is trying to attain.
”It was not easy to be a pedestrian or ride a bicycle in that area,” she said, as a former patient at Merwick who used to walk there. “Think about the population that will be there, I’m sure there will be lots of strollers that will want to go into town. My access to Merwick was to cut through the Y and cut through the bramble and walk over the lawn to the front door. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people in that development try and find a shortcut and not necessarily going on the pathways shown in this plan.”
She also pointed out the sidewalk on Route 206, Bayard Lane, is very narrow and on a higher elevation from the street.
”This might be an opportunity, and maybe you thought this out, to have a more boardwalk wide sidewalk on Bayard Lane that would permit a variety of modes of walking and biking,” she said. “Here’s a real opportunity for Princeton to improve on pedestrian access and bicycle access that would be an example.”
Neighborhood resident Peter Madison spoke about how Oak Lane, the entrance and exit of the development, comes out right across from Cleveland Lane and offered the suggestion of making it a one-way entry or a right turn only exit.
Molly Nelson and Hendricks Davis spoke about the drainage concerns of Leigh Avenue and runoff issues on John Street.
Parking in the development will be allowed on roadways that are 24 feet wide, some of the existing roadways in the Stanworth site that will remain are 21 to 25 feet wide. New roadways 28 feet and 34 feet wide will be built in the Merwick site. One would be an extension of Stanworth Lane at 28 feet wide with parallel parking on one side and Oak Lane, 34 feet wide with parallel parking on both sides. Existing garages will be used in addition to on-street parking on the private roads within the development
The project will require a couple of variances. One for banking 36 parking spaces and another for setbacks from building to building and the length of the buildings because the existing footprints will be used. The university wants to bank land on South Stanworth Drive for 36 spaces if needed in the future.
Existing infrastructure and pipe sizes will be upgraded to LEED Silver certification.
The development will have two Tiger Transit stops.
The developer, New York-based Georgetown Company, wanted to maintain sense of community and keeping the Merwick woods and establish a playground for the new community and the John Witherspoon neighborhood.
No details for stormwater management were available.
Georgetown Properties will own the buildings, will collect the rent and be responsible for the buildings and site maintenance. Terms of the land use, are still under negotiations; the university will remain owners of the property, said Michael McKay, vice president of facilities.
