By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton officials this week avoided discussing how the town plans to use and potentially redevelop a parking lot on Franklin Avenue that Princeton University will give the town in a few years.
The lot was identified in a report the town did earlier this year on potential locations for affordable housing. With the municipality in litigation over its affordable housing requirement, officials cited legal reasons for not discussing how they would use the land.
Councilwoman Jo S. Butler said Monday that she could not “speculate about the use of that property.”
As part of the agreement the two sides reached in April 2014, the university pledged to provide annual financial contributions and other assistance to the town, including the lot. The property is located across the street from the former Princeton Hospital, the site of the AvalonBay 280-unit housing development that is under construction.
The land could be the flash point of a major controversy in town as some say the lot should be turned into a park, while others say housing should be built there. The subject again came to the fore last week when Leighton Newlin, the head of the local housing authority, on Saturday endorsed putting a mixed-use retail and housing development there.
In a phone interview Monday, Council President Bernard P. Miller called it “premature” to be talking about the property. The university will turn over the land once its Merwick Stanworth faculty and staff housing project is completed, as the site is used as a staging area for vehicles. Mr. Miller said the transfer of the land to the town “probably” would be in 2017.
