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Application postponed on proposal to build homes in Princeton

The fifth in a series of public hearings on Lanwin Development Corp.’s proposal to build 30 single-family homes on a 90.6-acre tract on Herrontown Road at Bunn Drive, which was set for the Princeton Planning Board’s Sept. 19 meeting, has been postponed.

A new date for the public hearing has not been set. The  Princeton Planning Board held the first in the series of public hearings on the application in April.

Lanwin Development Corp. is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval for the property at 725 and 823 Herrontown Road and 915 Mount Lucas Road.

The tract, 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.

Lanwin Development Corp. has proposed subdividing the land into 30 building lots of about a half-acre each. It will set aside a 3-acre lot on Mount Lucas Road that would be dedicated for affordable housing.

The remainder of the tract – 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 4 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 percent of a parcel as common open space; for providing more than 1,000 linear feet of walking paths; and for dedicating the 3-acre parcel on Mount Lucas Road for affordable housing.

As a result, the developer can create the additional 10 lots over the 20 building lots that could have been created under a conventional subdivision plan.