Will Princeton Declare This Site As Area in Need of Rehabilitation?

PRINCETON, NJ – During the last Planning Board meeting, members discussed whether the site of Textile Research Institute (TRI) should be declared Area in Need of Rehabilitation.

This designation is based on the declaration that the site meets one of the six criteria in the local Redevelopment and Housing Law, Municipal Planning Director Justin Lesko said.

James Kyle, whose office was retained as special redevelopment planner for the municipality, made a presentation to council.

He briefly explained the difference between a rehabilitation and a redevelopment designation. “The main differences in the criteria that we use,” Kyle said.

He noted that there are a total of six criteria that are included in the local Redevelopment and Housing Law.

The criteria include deteriorated or substandard condition of the property; pattern of vacancy, abandonment or underutilization of properties in the area and contamination in the area.

“Everybody knows there's been ongoing contamination which is being remediated but it's not resolved,” Kyle said. He said the NJ DEP data gives a breakdown on the types of contamination that has occurred on the site.

“And that documentation sets forth the fact that many of the levels of that contamination far exceed any of the standards,” Kyle said. “And in fact, this entire area is within what we call a Critical Exception Area.”

Kyle said the contaminants in the area have been identified and it basically means that that there are issues with groundwater and there are no wells that are to be drilled in the area.

For the purpose of the designation, two areas were focused on – one that notes a pattern of vacancy, abandonment or underutilization of the delineated area and the second that points to environmental contamination that discourages improvements and investment in the area.

Planning Board member Phil Chao spoke about the “underutilization” criteria saying some people would consider the area open space and choose to retain it as it was. “If it was designated open space we would not call it underutilized, but because it’s zoned R5 we have to judge it in terms of the way it has been zoned.”

Planning Board Chair Louise Wilson said that if the Board agreed to the “underutilization” criteria, it did not mean they want to see the site covered with houses. “There are a number of ways of utilizing this lot that would be a high and good use,” Wilson said. ‘Are we bound to be looking at it against the assumption that it would be carved up into half-acre lots?”

Councilwoman Mia Sacks said that contamination at the site has prevented it from being developed.

“Underutilization is a subjective judgment. And having spent a lot of time in the past few years working to preserve key areas in Princeton, I don’t consider them to be underutilized,” Sacks said. In the past, various open space groups were in talks with Textile Research Institute to negotiate a purchase of the land, Sacks said.

Many residents who attended to meeting agreed with Board members saying that the land was not underutilized as Textile Research Institute operates a fully functional research laboratory.

“The property is dedicated as open space under the Green acres Program so at least for now it’s effectively a public park,” said Scott McCleary, General Counsel for TRI. “It’s incredibly well-maintained and nothing about it is in need of rehabilitation.”

David Graham, President of TRI said he was sad that TRI had nothing to do with the appraisal. “I think if we could have been involved, we would have given you more of the facts.” He noted that only a small area of the site was contaminated.

The planner will now write a memo to the council identifying concerns voiced by the public and Planning Board members about whether the site truly met the criteria for designation of Area in Need of Rehabilitation.

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