Princeton, NJ –Another new housing complex, with a significant affordable housing component, is expected to take a big step forward at Princeton Council on Monday, February 13. Council will introduce an ordinance authorizing the acquisition of the Franklin Avenue lot currently owned by the Princeton Housing Authority. The price has been set at $1.7 million.

The lot is adjacent to two other lots already owned by the municipality. The combined site is the proposed location of a new apartment complex to be developed by the town in partnership with a private developer and to eventually include 160 units – an equal mix of affordable and market rate units.

A public hearing will be held on Monday, February 27.

SIGNUPSCRIPT

Lots of other newsworthy items are on the February 13 Council agenda, including presentations on a potential area In need of rehabilitation at 601 Prospect Avenue, the 18-acre home of the Textile Research Institute; and on Princeton University’s updated mobility plan by Charles Tennyson, director of transportation and parking services. See meeting details and Zoom link below.

But the Franklin Avenue progress coincides with the recent focus on school demographics and the projected additional number of district school students that will be generated by the new housing mandated in part by affordable housing agreements.

On February 7 the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education received a summary of its most recent demographic analysis. According to the consultant, the Connecticut-based S/L/A/M Collaborative, or SLAM, the overall district enrollment will rise from the present level of 3,721 to 4,154 in the 2027-’28 school year, an increase of 433 in the five-year period.**BULLSEYE

The SLAM report, which can be accessed by clicking here, estimates that the Franklin Avenue project will add 80 public school age children to the mix. That number, as well as the overall number of 433, is more like a trickle than a horde of new students. At its February 7 meeting the Board of Education members did not seem shocked by any of the projections but deferred a comprehensive discussion and public comment until its next meeting, Tuesday, February 21.

But the SLAM report immediately raised some questions, which will only be amplified as new housing projects such as Franklin Avenue come into the public spotlight.

The lingering questions include how the SLAM methodology differs from that of the consultants preparing the financial analysis for the municipality’s PILOT report for the two new apartment complexes at either end of the Princeton Shopping Center. The town’s analysis estimated that Winn Development’s “Alice” apartment house at the northern end would generate approximately 16 public school children and that the Avalon project at the southern end would generate about 28 public school children.**STANDARD

The demographic study by SLAM estimates that these two projects would add a total of 80 from the Winn project and 57 from Avalon Bay’s new building. Interestingly, SLAM projects more students coming from the Winn project than the Avalon project, even though Winn will have fewer units than Avalon, 125 to 200. The total number of children at these two developments, as projected by SLAM, is 137, more than three times the number projected by the town’s consultant, 44.

Another unanswered question is how SLAM’s projections are different from the 2018 demographic study conducted by a Cherry Hill firm. That consultant predicted that enrollment would rise from a 2017 level of 3,769 students to 4,298 in 2022 – an increase of more than 500 students in a five-year period, even more dramatic than the current SLAM projection.

In fact, according to the PPS website, the district-wide enrollment in 2021-’22 was 3,631, less than the enrollment in 2017. Did the number of people fleeing from Princeton during the pandemic exceed the number of people fleeing to Princeton during that time? More questions, sure to be addressed as the town continues down the path of creating another new housing project to meet its court-mandated affordable housing obligation.**BULLSEYE

Monday, February 13

7 p.m.: Princeton Council via Zoom.

Click here to view full agenda.

Click here to access the 300-page agenda packet.

Council will hold three public hearings: an ordinance to authorize the acquisition for $1 of 34 acres of passive open space located between Ridgeview Road and Cherry Valley Road – part of the so-called emerald necklace of preserved open space along the town’s northern border; an ordinance to extend refuse collection hours; and an ordinance amending the solid waste and recycling regulations.

In addition to the Franklin Avenue ordinance, two other ordinances will be introduced: one concerning compensation levels for certain personnel of the municipality; the other amending a 2021 bond ordinance.

Tuesday, February 14

3:30 p.m.: Princeton Council closed session. The agenda concerns “matters involving contract negotiations and/or requiring confidential advice of counsel regarding potential acquisition of open space.

5:30 p.m.: Princeton Housing Board Reorganization & Regular Meeting, via Zoom.

Master Plan discussions by sub-committees addressing Housing Element and Sustainability/Green Building; Land Use and Mobility Sub; and Land Use and Community Facilities.

7:30 p.m.: Princeton Board of Health, via Zoom.

Wednesday, February 15

6 p.m.: Human Services Commission, via Zoom.

6 p.m.: Princeton Public Library Board of Trustees, the Newsroom, 65 Witherspoon Street.

To view the agenda, click here.

6:15 p.m.: Princeton Housing Authority, via Zoom.

Thursday, February 16

9 to 11 a.m.: Princeton Sewer Commission, via Zoom.

7 p.m.: Princeton Planning Board, via Zoom.

On the agenda: Applications for Palmer Square Management, requesting an extension for its Griggs Corner project at Hulfish and Witherspoon streets; All Saints Church, for a minor site plan with conditional use at 16 All Saints Road; and a continuation of Princeton University’s major site plan with variances for Hobson College on Elm Drive.

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