Princeton Mayor Calls for Stronger Building Codes Ahead of Avalon Bay Project

Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said the state needs to strengthen building codes so that sprinklers are required in attic spaces as Avalon Bay prepares to begin a project to install a development on the site of the old Princeton Hospital, the Princeton Packet reports.

A fire at an Avalon Bay complex in Edgewater on Jan. 21 destroyed the structure and left 500 people without homes.

Lempert said protections need to be put in place to ensure a similar thing doesn’t happen to multiple family homes in the future. The Avalon Bay construct in Princeton will house 280 units, according to the report.

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, who joined Lempert, Bergen County Executive James Tedesco III and Edgewater Mayor Michael McPartland at a press conference this week, said the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs told him it will review state building fire codes before it approves plans for the project, according to the report.