To make up for park and recreation land being diverted from probably the most densely populated space of Princeton, city officers are proposing to protect land alongside the Princeton Ridge within the wooded northern a part of the municipality.
Native officers are in search of to buy two parcels of land alongside the Princeton Ridge off of Cherry Valley Highway and one parcel of land off of Mt. Lucas Highway to make up for Princeton Township mistakenly constructing its municipal complicated on land that was preserved by way of the state’s Inexperienced Acres program. The purchases will price the city a minimum of seven figures, an official stated Monday night time at a discussion board for public touch upon the proposal.
Princeton Township constructed most of its new municipal complicated in 2002 on simply over three acres of land that had been supposed for use for parks and recreation as a part of Neighborhood Park beneath the state’s Inexperienced Acres program. Previous to 2002, the township’s places of work had been positioned throughout the road within the Valley Highway constructing, which is now owned by the Princeton Public Colleges. The township’s diversion of the parkland for its municipal complicated and parking zone was found greater than twenty years later in 2023 when the municipality was finishing its most up-to-date open house and park stock.
The state’s treatment for diverting land is to require the municipality to protect different properties. Below state laws, the municipality should protect 5 acres of land for each acre that was diverted. In different phrases, the city should purchase about 15 acres of land to interchange the land it took for the municipal constructing and parking tons.
Cindy Taylor, the city’s open house supervisor, stated the city’s draft plan and the general public remark interval are a part of a two-year course of to treatment the state of affairs.
Taylor stated the city intends to purchase and protect two parcels of land alongside the Princeton Ridge within the north a part of Princeton off of Cherry Valley Highway close to Province Line Highway. The properties are contiguous with 153 acres of land the municipality purchased in 2021. The realm is a part of an initiative known as Princeton’s “Emerald Necklace” that goals to attach open areas within the municipality and past. The parcels embody mature forests and have been designated as a medium-high precedence within the New Jersey Conservation Blueprint.
The city additionally desires to purchase land within the northeastern space of the Princeton Ridge off of Mt. Lucas Highway which is a part of a 90-acre tract that was focused for conservation in Princeton’s 2011 open house and recreation plan. The land contains 100-year-old forests and is a part of a contiguous ecosystem with Herrontown Woods and the Autumn Hill Reservation. The parcel is designated as a medium-high and medium precedence within the New Jersey Conservation Blueprint.
In the course of the public remark interval for the assembly that lasted simply over half an hour, some residents questioned why all of the properties being preserved are positioned within the north as a substitute of within the extra densely populated areas of city nearer to the municipal complicated, and raised questions on fairness and park entry.
John Road resident Annie Dunham requested that the portion of Neighborhood Park that’s used for advert hoc municipal storage be rededicated to recreation house. She stated autos and different objects are positioned close to the platform tennis courts and the picnic pavilion, together with a trash car, plow components, and a shed. Municipal Administrator Bernard Hvozdovic Jr. stated the gear in all probability serves the recreation on the location.
Dunham burdened that it is very important discover alternate open house within the neighborhood since all of the preserved house is being diverted outdoors of the park and within the northern area of the municipality.
“This census block will meet the standards for an overburdened group as a part of the environmental justice initiative for equitable entry to high-quality recreation areas,” Dunham stated, including that the officers ought to attempt to discover no matter leisure areas they will for the Witherspoon Jackson neighborhood because the land was taken from the park in that neighborhood. She advised transferring the municipal public works yard that’s within the neighborhood in order that the property is also used for open house.
Hibben Highway resident Jo Butler additionally stated city officers ought to protect open house nearer to the middle of city. She advised that the city protect the two.1-acre area on the nook of Hibben Highway and Mercer Road.
“I really feel like I ought to have gone to my tennis drill tonight as a result of I really feel like the selections have already been made and this can be a little bit of a waste of time,” Butler stated of the assembly. She stated the Hibben property was on the previous Princeotn Borough’s record of potential open house purchases and was recognized within the open house and recreation aspect in 2011. Officers beneficial on the time that deed restrictions be obtained for the property, which is owned by Princeton Theological Seminary and is now a part of the seminary’s properties which might be a part of the realm city officers designated as an space in want of redevelopment.
“We’ve been very profitable at buying open house outdoors of the previous borough and on the ridge earlier than. I feel a few of this (ridge) land shouldn’t be prone to be developed any time quickly. And I feel that this (Hibben) property may very well be developed quite quickly. So to me, it’s a extra pressing alternative,” Butler stated. “I feel as we proceed so as to add inhabitants and housing in Princeton, it could even be good to have extra leisure house nearer in.”
Butler stated she isn’t positive whether or not the two.2-acre area is large enough for an athletic area, however that it may very well be used for a soccer area or pick-up video games for residents. The city doesn’t have sufficient sports activities fields, she stated.
One other piece of property on Stockton Road has some undeveloped land within the rear that might turn into a part of Marquand Park, Butler stated.
Hvozdovic requested Butler whether or not the seminary can be a prepared vendor. He stated the property house owners the city is proposing to purchase land from are prepared sellers.
“Have been they on the market or did you go discuss to them?” Butler requested concerning the Princeton Ridge properties the city desires to purchase.
“Nicely, form of a little bit of each,” Hvozdovic stated. “I might similar to to notice, simply because we’re shopping for these for the diversion doesn’t foreclose different open house purchases sooner or later.”
Butler requested what Hvozdovic meant by “shopping for” and requested if the city already has dedicated to purchasing the Princeton Ridge properties. He stated the city is on the appraisal stage for buying the properties. “Whether or not it was a diversion or not, we in all probability would have checked out these properties simply due to their ecological worth anyway,” Hvozdovic stated.
Travis Webber of Birch Avenue expressed considerations concerning the improvement of the realm round Neighborhood Park South and stated a petition was circulated within the Witherspoon Jackson neighborhood in latest weeks relating to improvement considerations.
Princeton resident Sophie Glovier of the Watershed Institute stated her group has been working as a part of a consortium to assist the thought of the inexperienced emerald necklace in Princeton. She stated the acquisition of the Princeton Ridge properties is a “far-sighted funding for the group.” The properties have excessive conservation worth, she stated, and have distinctive wetlands.
Princeton resident Christopher Barr, who lives on Ridgeview Highway and is the manager director of the Ridgeview Conservancy, stated the parcels chosen by the city are extraordinarily essential due to the mature forests, local weather resistance efforts, carbon seize, stormwater runoff mitigation, wildlife, and biodiversity. “They’re an essential piece of the inexperienced legacy that I feel all of us wish to depart for the subsequent generations,” Barr stated. ‘The parcels which were recognized for conservation are essential linkage properties.”
Barr stated the Mt. Lucas property within the northeast nook of Princeton is certainly one of three properties owned by the Lanwin Company. The corporate is proposing to construct 29 properties on these properties.
Patrick De Almeida of Race Road requested how the diversion occurred with out permission. “It looks as if an enormous mistake,” De Almeida stated. “And the way a lot is that going to price us? As a result of if we had requested permission 20 years in the past, I assume the land would have been so much cheaper to buy than it’s right now.”
Hvozdovic stated he didn’t have a solution.
“Nobody sitting at this desk was right here, so I can’t reply the way it occurred,” Hvozdovic stated. “It mustn’t have occurred, nevertheless it occurred, so we discover ourselves right here. How a lot it is going to price us we don’t know but as a result of we’re not on the level of truly buying the property.”
De Almeida requested whether or not the quantity can be within the hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
“The properties collectively that we’ll be changing will definitely be seven figures if you add all of it up,” Hvozdovic stated. “However we do find yourself with extra property on the finish of the day. So we’re shopping for open house. However sure, it’s going to price greater than it could have definitely 20 years in the past.”
De Almeida requested whether or not there was data relating to the regulation agency that was concerned throughout the planning course of to create the brand new municipal complicated and parking zone. The lawyer for the city on the assembly, Priscilla Saint-Laurent of Mason, Griffin & Pierson, stated there isn’t any additional details about what occurred aside from what has been offered. “So what we’re doing is transferring ahead and everybody right here is seeking to right no matter situation was offered at the moment, and we are going to do,” Saint-Laurent stated. He did say the agency again then was the identical agency representing the city now, which is Mason, Griffin & Pierson. De Almeida advised the municipality comply with up and decide what occurred.
Patton Avenue resident Scott Sillars, who’s married to Margaret Griffin, daughter of Mason, Griffin & Pierson co-founder Gordon Griffin, praised the city for the way it’s dealing with issues.
“I’d wish to commend the administration and the open house group for sustaining such an aggressive and thorough stock of open house priorities and what we’d wish to buy sooner or later, try this when an unlucky state of affairs like this arises it doesn’t complicate our means to maneuver ahead with open house purchases that we had in thoughts within the first place,” Sillars stated. “Thereby, the delay in our means to entry open house funding and Inexperienced Acres funding sooner or later is minimized as a result of we have already got a good suggestion of what our plan on acquisitions, we’re going ahead.”
Sillars additionally stated in his opinion, the truth that the city has to make use of the funds to ameliorate the issue is separate from plans to amass open house from third events. “Had this case not arisen, we might and we wished to amass the identical quantity of open house from different pockets,” Sillars stated. “In any occasion, we might have nonetheless needed to exit and lift the identical sum of money. Due to this fact this isn’t actually an extra quantity of funding that we’re going to must exit and discover.”
Residents who couldn’t make it to the assembly Monday night time can ship suggestions to engineering∂princetonj.gov or mail feedback to Cindy Taylor, Open Area Supervisor, Municipality of Princeton, 400 Witherspoon Road, Princeton, NJ 08540. Ship a replica of feedback to the New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety by emailing Maude Snyder at maude.snyder∂dep.nj.gov or sending feedback by mail to Maude Snyder, NJDEP, 401 East State Road, seventh Flooring, Field 420, Trenton, NJ 08625-0420.
Public feedback will likely be accepted till April 17.
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