By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Council wants to stay one step ahead of Princeton University by rezoning the former Butler tract graduate housing complex before Nassau Hall definitively determines how it reuses the roughly 33-acre site, officials have said.
In comments over the past two weeks, council members have made clear that only residences should be built on land that the school is in the midst of clearing. Councilwoman Jo S. Butler said Thursday that there is an “urgency” to act this year to give the town a “seat at the table” when the university crafts its campus plan, the planning document laying out how the school will grow from a facilities standpoint. The university is due to complete the plan by the end of 2017.
But Ms. Butler said if the town delays, it would be too late to influence the growth of a university that is intending to add more students. The school in February said it planned to add 500 more undergraduates and admit more graduate students over a number of years.
Ms. Butler said that by delaying, the town also would leave itself vulnerable if the university ever filed a development application based on current zoning regulations that it could build under. At the moment, residential and education uses are permitted, said municipal planning director Lee O. Solow on Thursday.
Princeton is in the midst of demolishing the former graduate housing complex. The university has said that the site is “likely” going to be used for residences, although it is not clear yet if that is for students or faculty. Kristin S. Appelget, director of community and regional affairs at the school, said Thursday that the type of housing would be determined through the campus plan.
Officials have confronted the issue about Butler tract in recent weeks. At that council meeting on March 14, when officials were discussing goals for this year, Councilman Bernard P. Miller stressed the need to get “out in front of whatever decision process the university is going through in their strategic planning.”
He said it was important to “make certain that it is clearly understood, on both sides of Nassau Street, that it is the intent of the municipality that that be a residential district, not an educational district.”
If the council were to rezone the property, Mayor Liz Lempert and Councilwoman Heather H. Howard would have to recuse themselves from that decision given their conflicts of interest with the university. Ms. Howard works for the school, and Mayor Lempert’s husband is a tenured professor.
At the March 14 council meeting during the council discussion on the Butler tract. Mayor Lempert said she thought it would be “good for us to do the work we’re going to do this year.
“But I think if we do it by November, December,” she continued, “we’re still likely to be six months ahead of the university releasing anything.”
Ms. Butler, however, has balked at waiting until the end of this year to act. She gave no precise timeline for council action but said she and other members want something done before then.
At the same meeting, residents who live near the Butler tract came out to support rezoning the property.
Sally Goldfarb, one of the residents who spoke two weeks ago, said Thursday that she and her neighbors want to make sure that any future development there is residential only.
Town administrator Marc D. Dashield this week talked of having a neighborhood meeting to hear what the residents’ concerns are. Officials, though, are balking at his suggestion of having that meeting as much as two months from now.
“I want to make sure that when the university finally gets to put pencil to paper on their campus plan,” Mr. Miller said, “that it’s clearly understood that it’s the intent of the municipality that that be a residential site.”
