Princeton Planning Board, Developer Sued Over Humbert St. Project

PRINCETON, NJ — Three property owners have sued Princeton Planning Board for granting approval to a townhouse project on Humbert Street.

Donald Greenberg, Mary Anne Greenberg, and Dan Brown have sued Princeton Planning Board, Simplify Living, Inc., and Princeton Realty Investment Group, LLC. They are challenging the approval of the three-unit townhouse development.

The Greenbergs own property located at 10-12 Humbert Place and Brown is the owner of property located at 29, 6 and 8 Humbert Place.

The lawsuit was filed on Feb. 7 in the Superior Court of Mercer County. The property owners seek to overturn the planning board approval, claiming the actions were “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.”

On July 1, The Princeton Planning Board voted yes on the site plan for 23-25 Humbert Street, with additional conditions and variances to be met. Read More: Princeton's Humbert Street Project Moves Forward

Metuchen-based Simplify Living Inc. will build three-unit multifamily townhomes on the site. The units will have two stories, a basement and will include off-street parking spaces per unit.

Two of the three units will face Humbert Place and the other will face Humbert Lane. The three townhouses will have a parking space each in the rear of the property and additional space on the north side of Humbert Lane.

According to the lawsuit, "Humbert Place is a private, variable width gravel shared driveway that runs along the northerly property boundary of the Subject Property." The property owners said they’ve been using Humbert Place for decades and that the planning board’s decision “infringe upon plaintiffs’ rights to use Humbert Place for ingress, egress, and parking.”

Humbert Place is encumbered by an access easement dated May 7, 1992, according to the lawsuit, “as well as plaintiffs’ prescriptive rights in that roadway.”

Although the plaintiffs own property on Humbert Lane, they live elsewhere — the Greenbergs at Lytle Street and Brown in Basking Ridge, according to the lawsuit.

The property owners are also seeking “damages, attorneys’ fees and costs of suit.”

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