Good evening and welcome. This is a special meeting of the Princeton Planning Board on Wednesday, June 25th, 2025. Pursuant to section 13 of the Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of the time and place of this special meeting has been given by filing a copy
with the clerk of Princeton on the 10th day of June, 2025. Notice of this meeting has been posted to the municipal website, princetonj.gov/calendar. Notice that all regular and special meetings of the Princeton Planning Board will be held electronically via Zoom was
transmitted to the Princeton packet and the Times and was filed with the clerk of Princeton on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. During tonight's hearing, members of the public will have an opportunity to
comment and ask questions. Public comment will be heard by the board after our attorney, staff, and planning consultants have finished their presentations and have been questioned by planning board members. Uh when the hearing is open for public comment, those wishing to speak should
virtually raise your hand by clicking on the reactions or raise hand icon at the bottom of your Zoom screen or if participating by phone by pressing star9. Our staff will transfer each speaker into the participants area with the board at which point you can
activate your camera and unmute yourself. Mr. Muller will then swear you in and ask your name. And we ask that you identify your street name as well, not the number, just the street name. Oral comments will be taken in the order in which hands were raised. We ask with
respect that members of the public express your views in three minutes or less. will have a countdown clock to help speakers keep track of time. Please note that speakers who exceed three minutes will be interrupted. Inappropriate public comment containing
obscenity, hate speech, or relating to matters not before the board will be muted. Um, thank you all for attending tonight and for your interest in the subject at hand. Miss Phillip, will you call the role, please? Mr. Bakimer.
Nat, we don't hear you. Nat, maybe I I just got it. Okay, great. Miss Capazolei, Mr. Cohen here. Mayor Frida here. Mr. McGawan,
Miss Na here, Mr. O'Donnell here, Miss Pearlmutter here, Mr. Taylor here. Miss Wilson Anderson here. Mrs. Wilson here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Um any
announcements from staff or fellow board members? Not seeing any. Um subcommittee reports. I believe we have well we had a landscape subcommittee meeting. Julie is the chair. She is not
attending tonight. Um, David, you want to uh jump in and give a report on the fly here? No. Could we table it till next time? Yes. Yeah. Sure. No, I wasn't thinking about the fact that Julie would not be here tonight and I would have
Yeah. tried to plan for that. Sorry about that. Um, okay. Uh, next up we have a resolution of approval. This is related to Princeton Edens LLC. It was a preliminary and final major
site plan related to signage. Princeton Shopping Center, 301 North Harrison Street, file number P2424-506P. Any questions or comments about this? If not, would someone like to move this resolution?
I'll move it. I'll second. Uh, thank you. I'm sorry. Who seconded? I didn't see the second. Oh, thank you. Paly, you were absent that day. Oh, okay. That was for the second hearing, just for the wayfinding signage. I'll
second. Thanks for jumping in with a second, Miss Na. I appreciate that. Seconded by Owen O'Donnell. Um, call the role, please, Carrie. Mr. Bodakimer. Yes, Mr. Cohen. Yes, Mayor Freda. Yes,
Mr. O'Donnell. Yes, Mr. Taylor. Yes, Miss Wilson Anderson. Yes, Mrs. Wilson. Yes. Motion carried. Um, next up we have um a public hearing.
Uh, jury, can you speak to appropriate public public notice? I know we have jurisdiction since notice and publication are in order and the board does have jurisdiction. Thank you very much. Um so this is the master plan uh
2025 fourth round housing plan element and fair share plan for the uh years 2025 through 2035. Um, and we have a presentation um,
uh, that a few of our staff and consultants will give. I just want to kick things off by saying um, that a whole ton of work went into this plan and um, the board has discussed it. That's not to say people might not have
more questions, follow-up questions, etc. Um but we hope to um you know hear from every member of the public tonight who wishes to speak. Um I it looks like we have um 32 attendees um in the
attendees room. Two people have raised their hands already, but we're before we hear from the public, we will um we will hear from our staff and professionals starting with Mr. Mueller. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um this this is
a hearing a formal public hearing on a master plan element, the housing element and fair share plan was which which is required by the municipal land use law and an array um of uh statutes and regulations dealing with affordable housing. Um
as the chair indicated uh people be sworn in. uh there'll be an opportunity by the board to um question them. Any objectors uh can um who are represented
by council um and want to cross-examine any uh other member of the public can do so. Um this comes this is part of the the long tradition we are now having in New Jersey of affordable housing. I was
people like to say it started in 1975 with the first Mount Laurel case. It really started well before that and certainly started well before that in Princeton. Um but it continued with the first Mount Laurel case. I won't get into the details of them. I can if the board would like but I'm I'm not sure
that would advance the discussion particularly. But there were a series of of cases in 75, second one in 83 which really gave teeth to the 1975 opinion. Um and then um statutory provisions in
terms of the uh fair housing act creating the council on affordable housing which has now been disbanded and most recently um starting in in 2024 um statutory provisions and regulatory
provisions dealing with how a forth the obligations for municipalities as to affordable housing and if they chose to participate in the um what's called the program for uh determination of affordable housing needs and there are
serious consequences if they don't in terms of um being subjected to a builder's remedy litigation. Um the the uh
housing element fair share plan um has to be um the subject of um basically uh review and discussion by the the council which uh has to endorse it and they've played as opposed to other elements of
the house of the uh master plan play a more unique role in that because they endorse And a lot of the provisions deal deal with um negotiations with developers. They they have a central role to play in this and
they will be reviewing it um for endorsement. I believe it's tomorrow. Um Justin Yeah. Um and then the planning board itself still as it always has will be the body that approves it. Um now here's the time
frame which is of critical importance. The board has to adopt a housing element and fair share plan by June 30th which obviously is just around the corner. uh if it does not do so, it could be it loses its immunity from builder's remedy
litigation and could be subject to that which basically is litigation which permits developers to take any sites um in the municipality claim they are suitable for affordable housing ask for a much higher density than may be
otherwise uh appropriate and and may very well get it. Basically, if there is a billless remedy, it that's granted, it's going to wind up providing for highdensity housing in the areas of the township that are least least suitable
for it. So, that's to re-emphasize that the board really needs to adopt a plan by June 30th. Um, can it propose amendments? It can, but if amendments because the board always has the power to do that.
But having said that, if the board adopts amendments and they are substantial as opposed to typos and just relatively minor clarifications, um the the uh housing fair share plan would have to be renoticed. There'd be a
new hearing and we would then be into July. um and the town and the municipality would be vulnerable. Um if the board thinks that there are amendments in terms of well maybe maybe some additional sites would be
appropriate they they can do that they could propose that the way to h that I strongly recommend it they be handled is as recommendations that come in a separate document from the housing element and fair share plan and during
the course of implementation of the housing element and fair share plan. It may be that the council and uh planning board will decide, you know, we should review one of those sites further. The flip side of that though is not that if a board does not like a site, they
should recommend that it be um uh excised from the program because there's been negotiations, good faith negotiations with developers and I think if that is done that would precipitate immediate litigation and the uh the municipality would be very vulnerable to
that. So that's basically where we stand on that. Um and uh I I I could give a lot more detail, but I know Elaine and Justin are that's near barely awake more than mine. So that's basically what I
have to say at this point, although obviously along with Elaine and Justin, um I'll be available for comment by board members. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mueller. Um Nat Bodyimer, you've got a question. Yeah, I just wanted to see if I could re
restate what I heard from Jerry back uh as far as the July 1 timeline, make sure I understood it. So, what I heard is if we don't have an adopted fair share plan by July 1st, we are then by June 30th. June 30th.
Yeah. Okay. that we are vulnerable to uh at that point we would have no plan and any developer who wanted to propose a an affordable housing project at that site would would have a a a right to develop
what is the can you just spec well I'm going to come back they would we would not be in a position to tell them that they could not build affordable housing on the site so we would we would no longer have that latitude to choose where affordable housing is located in the in
they would not have the absolute they would not have the absolute right to build on that site. But um they would have to bring litigation, but as opposed to where we are now where where they're constrained from bringing the litigation, they can bring it and they're going to be in a good position
if we has have an affordable housing obligation and we do and we are not have not implemented it within housing element and fair share plan. So I think it's pretty far down the road to where you were going that but not quite there.
Is that clearer if I muddy things? All right. Well, I'm just a little bit worried that you're that that I'm conflating two things. So because of the negotiations that have taken place with the developers who have whose projects
are set forth in the plan, okay, not only would we be subject to builder's remedy approaches, but we would also be subject to litigation from the developers with whom the municipality has conducted negotiations. So both So it's both things. Yes, it's
both things. So, so, so, okay, fine. So, we're subject to litigation and I'm just trying to make sure that I understand the gravity of or, you know, or the the parameters of what we're vulnerable to if we don't adopt the plan before June
30th. Yeah. Right. Exactly. And I think those are very good questions and and it does address that key issue of what what gravity is the municipality subject to if it doesn't proceed with this and approve the housing fair share plan by the 30th which means basically by today.
It it does mean by today and I'm I'm glad you said that because um after the planning board adopts um a plan uh council has 48 hours to um endorse approve it, endorse it,
excuse me. Thank you. Um and it has to be filed with the state and the 30th is Monday. And so we we really are talking about doing this business tonight. Um and uh so
um that that's an important thing to to understand. Um are there other questions from from board members for Jerry before we move on to Elaine? Mr. Taylor, just to follow up on on Nat's comments,
Jerry, could you be clear in more detail with approval and compliance, what is the flexibility available to the council thereafter? You dealt with that a moment ago. Could
you restate or clarify what the freedom or flexibility is? So, as I've indicated, I think the board has very little flexibility and I think the council has very little flexibility as well because the question has come up. I
know in my office as we've discussed what happens in Princeton or other towns where the planning board adopts the ordinance but the governing body doesn't endorse it and we look at each other and we say beats me. Uh, I think adopts the
element, not the ordinance. I'm sorry. Adopts the element. is it beats me at that point. Uh we will the municipality would not have complied with the requirements that have been set forth in the regulations and laws uh starting 19
2024 and I think uh it would have that vulnerability what we talked about. Does that help John? Yes it does. Thank you. Okay. If I could add to that as well. One of the other deadlines that's
coming up is next March is when uh all towns including ours would have to have all the ordinances adopted that would affectuate the plan. Um those are normal land use ordinances or the processes at least. So those would still uh be introduced at council, come back to the
board for master plan consistency uh review and then go back to uh the mayor and council uh for a hearing there. And then obviously if those were were put into place um the applications uh the individual ones that uh we'll talk about the projects tonight would also still
come back to the planning board uh for a regular site plan review. So um this does not replace any of those uh uh you know levels of government between the planning board and the council. Uh it's just the kind of catalyst before those.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks for adding that, Mr. Leco. Um, Ela Clisham with the firm of Clark Kaden Hence, welcome. Thanks for um for all your work on this and thanks in advance for uh
letting the the public know um how the plan is constructed and whatever else is on your list of things to say. Thank you very much. Um hello to the board. It's nice to see everybody again. Before I get started, I'm actually going to kick this to Michael Sullivan, my
colleague and the principal in charge at Clark Kaitton, uh, to do just a little bit of setup work on the history of affordable housing and affordable housing in Princeton and how we got to where we are tonight. Okay, let's be efficient with our time, everyone. No, no. So, I'm not going to
just, just to be clear, I'm not going to give the I'm not going to give the history of affordable housing in Princeton, but I will that's what I was afraid of. But I do think it's important that there's a few things that we uh talk about that are uh sort of the guiding principles of this uh plan. Um
although now Princeton consists of a single municipality rather than the former township and former burrow, the legacy obligations of the previous housing plans which separated the burrow uh still exist and they maintained this artificial distinction. And uh in an
effort to move past this and create an affordable housing plan that really reflects the totality of the bar or the municipality as a holistic entity, um there's going to be some reccharacterization of third round plan obligations and fourth round plan obligations. Elaine's going to tell you
all about that. I'm not going to tell you all about that. But in doing that, there are many benefits that can be realized and we think it's important. Um, first off is the elimination of the bur former burrow's unmet need, which is an ongoing obligation at this point. It then provides the ability to claim
bonuses for those units that are coming out of unmet need and going into this combined uh uh plan. It also allows a a stronger ability, a broader ability for the municipality to plan for future housing locations determined to be the
most appropriate, not just for the former borrow, former township, for the entire municipality. Uh and this means in walkable locations, close to transit, close to jobs, it's close to essential goods and services, and close to those third places that we gather socially
that aren't work, that aren't home, where we convene and and the sense of community develops um and where I would imagine that folks are having conversations about the fourth round housing plan right now. So, um, uh, so this represents a comprehensive
municipalitywide approach to new residential development, which includes affordable housing that embodies sound planning principles, sustainable development strategies, and thoughtful urban design practices along with adaptive reuse without regard for the
divisions, the former divisions between the former burrow and the former township. So, I think that that's important to say that upfront. Uh, and while I've given you that overview of the guiding principles, which which I think this plan embodies, um, I'm now gonna hand it off to Elaine Kisham who's going to take you through, um, the
details, uh, of this and try to stay awake. Um, but, um, and then following Elaine, I believe Justin is going to be give you some more detail uh, on the sites that are going to comprise the plan. So, thank you. Great. Thank you, Michael. That is really important
context to understand. So, I appreciate that, Miss Clisham. So, I get to dive into the numbers. Um, so I do want to spend a couple of minutes talking about what Michael just made reference to, which is that long ago, the former burrow
had a two-part prior round obligation. The first part was what's called the realistic development potential or RDP, which is the part of the obligation that it was required to satisfy. And then the second part went into this amorphous
bucket called unmet need, which is the part of the obligation that the borrow had said, you know, we really don't have enough land to satisfy this, but we'll do these other things to try to generate new affordable units. And the thing about unmet need is as any units that
are generated through the unmet need mechanisms come online, no bonuses are available. So the municipality is at a disadvantage as long as these units are categorized as unmet need. But what I want to stress is that that unmet need
from the former borrow is not a new obligation that we're adding to the fourth round. It has been around since 1999 and all we're doing is reccharacterizing it so that we have greater flexibility as Michael referred to. we can take some bonus credits which
we were not able to do before and we reduce the actual unmet need that comes forward as an additional obligation to the fourth round. So just to run through the numbers very quickly the former bureau had a prior round obligation of 311 units and it said we really can't do
311. So it wound up with RDP, realistic development potential of 88 which must be satisfied and then 223 that the former borrow would try to satisfy. And in fact 15 units came online as a result of unmet need mechanisms to defay that
223, some of which would have been eligible for bonuses had those units been RDP units and not unmet need units. The 2019 settlement agreement with Fairshare Housing Center actually went one step further and it said, "We
recognize that the former borrow has this two-part obligation and that additional units will come online through these unmet need mechanisms and guess what? They must be credited to the former borrow's unmet need before they
can be used to satisfy any future round obligation. So here we have a 223 unit unmet need from 25 years ago that still needs to be satisfied first in 2025 before any units generated in the lands
of the former borrow can be used to satisfy the fourth round. When you think about the ramifications of that, it actually forces bad planning because it forces the municipality to place all of the units that are going to satisfy its fourth round obligation in the lands of
the former township. Very, very hard to do that without building some new units in areas of the municipality that I know the municipality does not want to do a lot of building in. It preserves this outdated distinction between the former burrow and the former township. And it
preserves an old obligation that it turns out can in fact be completely discharged. The municipality does have sufficient space to provide all of these units. And as long as the units are categorized as unmet need, no bonuses
are available. So the municipality has approached Fairshare housing center about removing that requirement and they are amendable to this and they are allowing all the existing units in the former burrow to be categorized not as unmet need where bonuses are not
available but as realistic development potentials. So the borrow the municipality can claim available bonuses and in return for that flexibility the municipality has agreed to bring the 88 units that still exist as unmet need
into the fourth round as an additional affirmative obligation again with bonuses available. So, we have the much higher realistic development potential of 223, but we're allowed 56 bonus credits now, which we were not allowed
before. And importantly, the 48 affordable family rental units that are coming from the former seminary are eligible for one for one bonus credits. So, those 48 units are actually satisfying 96 uh units of credit. The
remaining 88 comes forward into the fourth round. I do want to make one point on the record. Mr. Miller talked earlier about correcting minor typos and such. There is a a small um inaccuracy on pages 37 and 38 of the plan. The totals at the bottom of that table where
it says available bonuses 56. That number is correct. But if you actually add up the bonuses applied to each compliance mechanism, it adds to 60. So we are taking out four bonuses so that the individual lines add up to the total correctly but the municipality is not
losing anything. It was always eligible for 56 bonuses. So when what what exactly is a bonus credit to be sure that I'm clear it is an additional it's hard.
So in the prior round and third round, you were allowed to satisfy up to 25% of your obligation, not with actual units, but with bonus credits for producing certain kinds of units. So the prior round and the third round, they happen
to be family rental units. And one for one bonus credits were available for family and special needs rental units up to 25% of your entire obligation. In the fourth round, you are still entitled to 25% bonus credits, but the kinds of units that qualify are entirely
different, which is one of the reasons we thought it was important to keep the seminary units in the third round where they are eligible for one for one credits as opposed to a half a bonus for each one. So when you add the 88 units of unmet need and the fourth round obligation
together, you're not adding a new obligation, but making this change provides the municipality, as Michael said, with more flexibility to plan well, provides greater benefit to the municipality this two for one credit. You have more units where people don't
need cars for every errand, and perhaps some people who commute in might be able to live here near their jobs. and it acknowledges that the municipality overall does have enough room to satisfy its entire obligation without any adjustment. So fair share has agreed to
this and I understand that we're in the final stages of putting together a settlement agreement that reflects that. So shifting to what's actually in the plan, I'm going to do a very quick overview. The first part of the plan is what's called the housing plan element.
It includes the very boring history of affordable housing both in New Jersey and in Princeton and a lot of required census information which you would think would more appropriately belong in the um land use element or some other part of the master plan, but no, the Fair
Housing Act requires that it be in the housing plan. So that's where it is. It's kind of a demographic snapshot of the municipality right now with some projections about housing units and population and employment. The second section, which we're going to spend most
of our time on, covers the affordable housing obligations for each round and how the municipality has satisfied them or proposes to. And then the third section addresses the administration of the affordable programs, affordable housing programs in the municipality.
Um, it's important to say that a lot of what's in that third section is dependent on updated rules from both the um, New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and the Department of Community Affairs. And those updated rules are not finalized yet. So, when
they are finalized, we will probably need to go back and amend some of the documents in that section. Right now, the documents that the municipality adopted in 2020, things like your affordable housing ordinance, your mandatory set aside ordinance, the affirmative marketing plan, those are
all still in place and still valid. And so, we have left them alone until we know how they need to change. So, to go back to the second section, the obligation and how we satisfy it, the new law requires a review of all prior round and third round mechanisms and
their current status. So we have included that um it is actually very impressive how much progress the municipality has made on the commitments that it made in 2020. Almost all the compliance mechanisms that it proposed then are either completed, approved or
under construction. Plus one new mechanism is being added and the municipality is carrying a 44 credit surplus into the fourth round. So when we look at the fourth round, which is really the focus of this plan, the
municipality stipulated to the department of community affairs calculation of its prospective need of 276. So 276 that would include 25% bonuses. When we bring forward that additional
obligation from the former borrow of 88, we get to 364. Again, those 88 are eligible for bonuses. So, if we take 25% of that total 364 as bonuses, those are 91 bonuses, which brings the number of
units we need to generate down to 273. And then we add in the 44 credit surplus. Now, we're down to 229 actual units. And the plan proposes 249. So, we have a potential 20 unit surplus
if all of the units proposed in the fourth round portion of this plan actually come to fruition. So, I'm going to hand it over to Justin to talk about each of the sites in a little bit more detail, but that's an overview of what's in the plan itself.
Thank you very much, Elaine. Um, Mr. Leco. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Elaine. Um I am going to start by sharing uh my screen. Uh this is going to be mostly visual with me talking. Um and these are the new sites proposed to satisfy the prospective need
in the fourth round and I'll zoom in in a second. Um Jerry, this map is in the plan and the ones I'm going to show in the next 13 slides after this are in the appendix or or very similar ones are. Um though I think we probably should just mark this as an exhibit. Okay. So we'll
call this PB1. Yep. Um, so on page one of PB1, u you can see the 13 sites in red. Um, and I'll zoom in, but I just want to show the totality of the municipality first. Um, and they're really in something of a ring, uh, either in the core of the town or just
outside of it. Um, and let me zoom in just so you get a better better look. We're going to look at each one individually next. Uh, but so you get your bearings. You can see Nassau Street towards the bottom. uh Harrison Street where my cursor is uh Witherspoon Street
over here uh where my cursor is now. Um nine of the sites are in the former burrow though uh and and four of them are in the former township. Um though the breakdown of units and affordable units is closer to about half and half with about 40% 47% of the total units
proposed um in the former township and 45% of the affordable units shown here um in the uh former township as well. And I bring that up even though that's really just coincidental. Um there was no intention to balance these or make any specific numerical arrangements. uh
like like uh uh Elaine just said, we're really trying to get away from these uh distinctions in the consolidated town. Um but this is really just how things broke down based on the sites available and utilizing those good planning principles. Um and I'll I'll just mention them quickly. I know Michael
Sullivan went into them a little, but um most of the planning principles can be found on page eight of the text of the plan, which references goals of the master plan adopted by this board in 2023. That includes things like the land use goals of enhancing the existing pattern
of land use and increasing residential density appropriately to promote housing affordability and variety in housing. Um, additionally, mobility goals such as reducing inbound commuting through the development of additional housing um particularly where jobs and services are
located are listed on that page. Um, and uh as well as supporting economic development and natural resource conservation goals. Uh page 28 of the element also discusses the ways in which the plan is consistent with the state development and redevelopment plan.
So zooming back out and moving on to page two um of the exhibit, here are the new sites in the fourth round plan. Uh this is the first one. More information about these can be found uh beginning on page 60 of the element. Um I'm going to go over them kind of just higher level
right now. Uh first we have on on page two here uh the scattered site properties on Witherspoon Street owned by Bob Hillier. These are currently within the AHO7 with an active planning board application and uh these are an inclusionary development project with 69
total units 14 of which would be designated affordable um and something like 20 or 30 units currently exist uh on the sites. Uh this is both an infill project and an adaptive reuse one. Um, I I do want to note in the plan on page 62
that we need to add a parcel to the text and that would be block 1501, lot 82, which was erroneously left out. Um, you can actually see it here, um, filled in. Uh, this is part of the parking lot behind the former segregated school on Witherspoon and MLAN. Um, while we're at
it, we should also add in the condo units you see down here in the building on on the corner of Witherspoon and Quarry. These are block 1703, lots 87.0. 02 through 87.05 and we only listed the shared lots
surrounding them of 87.01. So again, just another error, but the intention was always there to include it. Um, we would also look to update these in the map on appendix E. Uh, moving across Witherspoon Street uh to page three of the exhibit. This is a
mixeduse mixeduse inclusionary development with 25 apartments, five of which would be affordable and a small commercial space. Uh there's currently a vacant two-story office building on the site uh at 145 Witherspoon um with surface parking in the rear. And that
building has been vacant for about four or five years now. Uh and you could obviously also uh notice that this abuts the Princeton Cemetery uh to the uh on two sides. So, next up on page four of the exhibit, we have the site of the Whole Earth
Center, Princeton Foot and Ankle, the currently vacant restaurant space. I think that used to be I'm going to mess up the name. I don't speak Italian. Uh, moving on. And then two buildings at 364 and 366 Nassau Street. Um, this is a
mixeduse project with a total of 130 units, 26 of which will be affordable, and the whole earth center uh store will stay on the site in a new space. Moving on to page five uh of the exhibit, we have the Jewish Center of
Princeton on Nassau Street highlighted in red. Uh, an affordable housing overlay was adopted on this site as part of the third round, though we have not seen any units uh produced to date. In this fourth round plan, we expect a 19-unit building with four affordable
units on the vacant portion of the lot on the corner of Nassau Street and Cedar Lane. Uh driving west on Nassau Street. Um on page six here, we have uh the lot at 245 247 Nassau Street. This site is behind J
Cles and roughly across from the IVN Hokei Haven Pizza Den um area. Uh this is also currently in an affordable housing overlay though similar to the last one we had not seen any um uh units produced there. Uh this site would
include one building with 90 units 18 of which would be affordable as well as commercial space. And this is currently an underutilized site with asphalt parking lots and buildings set back away from the Nassau streetscape. uh the commercial space proposed would join the
the Nassau Streetscape uh where it's currently uh just the entrance to the parking lot. Next up on page seven, we have two lots at 4042 North Two Lane Street and 32 Spring Street. This is right next to the Spring Street parking garage, uh caddy
corner to the mixeduse building with D'Angelo's Market and and a few other uh commercial spaces with apartments above. Um, one of the lots included is the uh former building of Cops Cycles uh and the gravel lot next to it. Cops, unfortunately, has been out of business
for some months now. Um, the other lot is currently vacant at 4042 North Two Lane Street. The proposal is for a 40unit building with eight affordable units and commercial space on the first floor. And page 66 of the plan erroneously mentions the total number of
units at 32. Uh, but that should be changed to 40. Um the typo just comes from the market rate units being 32 uh plus the eight affordable ones. Next up on page eight, uh we have two parcels on Spring Street. Uh to get your
bearings, Hamilton Avenue is to the north. Uh Barber Sigman, this is Spruce Street. You said, sorry. Yes, Spruce, excuse me. Um Hamilton Avenue is to the north. Barbara Box Sigman Park is over here. This kind of pizza slice. Um, and the Westminster
Choir College campus is just off the screen. Uh, there's already a 10 unit naturally occurring affordable housing building here at 86 Spruce uh, Street with a large underutilized surface parking lot behind it. U, there's also a recently renovated two-unit building at
92 Spruce Street. Here, the proposal is to add 30 units to the site in three buildings with the majority of the units over the underutilized parking lot. Uh there will also be a publicly accessible pathway from Hamilton Avenue to Spruce Street and then towards Nassau Street uh
where many people already cross through the parking lot. Moving on to page nine. Um these are two lots between uh uh State Road 206 and Mount Lucas Boulevard. Um this is a really interesting opportunity, not just
based on its location, which is uh really walking and biking proximity to so many things. um but also the elevation difference between the two roads. Uh the plan calls for a mixeduse development with 80 residential units, 13 of which would be affordable. Uh and
to get your bearings, there's currently a drive-through bank uh on the and a dry cleaner on the southern lot and an office building with parking lots on both sides on the northern lot. On page 10 here, uh we have 29 Fannet Road. Um don't mind the title below it.
We'll get to that site uh next. Um the plan calls for 85 for sale units, 70 uh 17 of which would be affordable and those would also be for sale. Um all of the units would be in stacked town homes and away from the environmentally
sensitive features of the site that you could see in green and yellow here. Um and this site would be incorporated into the Tur Harrison mixeduse village of which we received a smart growth award from New Jersey Future last year. Uh, another part of that mixeduse
village is here on page 11. This is the underutilized Nickson building at 457 North Harrison Street, uh, with an even less utilized surface parking lot um, in the rear of the site. This stranded asset would be replaced with a 191 unit
building with 40 affordable units. Uh, and this would add a connection to the Avalon and Pearl senior housing sites uh, to further connect the mixeduse village. Uh so you could walk, drive, bike from North Harrison Street to Terune Road, which is just slightly off
the the screen here. Um then the new road that's being built uh and get you all the way to the Princeton Shopping Center. And we're almost there. Uh just three more uh sites and these three will be 100% affordable sites and on municipal land. The first one shown here
on page 12 is the Chestnut Street Firehouse in red um just north of Nassau Street here. Uh we're working with Princeton Community Housing on a 16 unit development here which would adaptively reuse the historic Chestnut Street firehouse um and add a community space
commemorating firefighters in Princeton. Um it will also add in green space that does not currently exist and add public parking back on the street while also having tenant parking in the rear. Um, and that just reminds me, I haven't mentioned it really thus far, um, in
this presentation, but the plan mentions the mass transit connections that are pretty close to just about all of these sites. Um, be it the the two NJ Transit bus lines we have, the coach bus line or the MUN bus. Um, and those are obviously in addition to their locations like I
mentioned. um which would allow tenants, you know, both in the market rate and in the affordable units to walk places and bike places. Uh moving on, we have the uh Harrison Street garage and firehouse here on page 13, and this would include 34 affordable
units. Uh at minimum, the public works uses on this site would be moved to the municipality's River Road facility. And similarly, um, we have the John Street DPW site here on page 14. Um, and
the DPW uses here, including the heavy machinery and salt trucks that start and finish their trips uh at this site in the Witherspoon Jackson neighborhood um would be relocated to River Road. Uh, and just as a quick aside, the 1996
master plan said this facility would be relocated or recommended the relocation um by 1997. Uh, Princeton Community Housing will also construct and manage the 35 affordable units on this site in
multiple smallcale buildings. Um, and as you can see here, this does not include the community garden to the south of the site. That's not going anywhere. That's staying as it is. Um, and you could also see how close community park school and community park are to this site. So,
those are the 13 new sites. Um, they include 241 affordable units and 603 market rate units for a total of 844 units to fulfill our obligation until 2035. Uh, I'm sure there will be questions from the board and the public and I'm
happy to take them. Um, but Madam Chair, I'll I'll hand it back to you now. Um, though Mr. Muller may want to say something before we get into questions. Uh, thank you, Mr. Leco. Um, Jerry Mueller, do you have anything? No, I
think it's before we Okay. Very thorough presentation by uh Justin and Elaine and I have nothing to Okay, great. Um for the public um we now have 49 um folks who are in the attendees um
section and as I mentioned earlier we'll bring folks over uh one by one in the order in which hands were raised. Um I will um commence now to open the public portion. So if you would like to address the board now is the time to raise your
hand virtually by um clicking on the uh raise hand icon at the bottom of your Zoom screen. And um of course you should feel free to pose questions in addition to making your comments. We will um pause periodically
to address questions. Um we won't try to answer questions after each person speaks or generate a dialogue um you know sort of one by one. But we will, you know, take note of the questions and
and do our best to address them all. Um and uh around 9, maybe 9:15, we'll we'll take a 10-minute break. Um just a heads up about that. So um so with that, the public comment portion of the hearing is
open and Miss Phillip, will you or Mr. Henderson bring over Eileen Bird and Evan Hand Anderson. And then uh next after that will be Dana Molina and Chris Sturm.
Miss Bird, can you Okay. Um Miss Bird, can you um put your uh video on? Um I hope so. One moment, Mr. Anderson, you can um deactivate your video until
until your testimony begins. What you did was just unmute yourself. So, if you could mute yourself and and turn off your camera. Okay. Yep. If you could if you could raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the
testimony about to give me the truth? Uh, you're on mute, Miss B. Um, okay. Hang on. Mute. Yep. No, no, you're you're all good now. You're fine. And if you just state um where where in Princeton you live, if
you were living in Princeton by street, but not the address. Moran Avenue. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Um, I'll make this short. I support this plan and um I like that it prioritizes
affordable housing and um I appreciate the presentation that were given. Um so yeah, I support it. Check. Thank you very much. I appreciate the succinctness
and uh and your willingness to be here and express your views. Mr. Anderson, welcome. Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give the truth? I do. Please state your full name and spell your last name and the street you live on. Evan
Ander Anderson. A N D E R S O N John Street. Thank you. Go ahead. Go right ahead. Thank you. My name is Evan Anderson, Princeton resident, and I'm also a member of Princeton Future. Princeton Future is uh
pleased to see that Princeton has chosen to select locations for affordable housing in or near the downtown core coast of public transportation. As part of the next round of affordable housing obligations, Princeton has adeared to urban planning and smart growth principles consistent
with those described in Princeton's master plan, situating many sites on public property and currently underutilized infill. We endorse this approach. For me personally, I am delighted that a proposed 35 unit 100% affordable housing
complex located directly across from me on John Street at the current public works site is included in this plan. My family and I would welcome the increased diversity, inclusivity, and vibrancy that will be added to the Jackson Witherspoon neighborhood.
Princon Future would also encourage a town to consider including non-residential uses on the ground floors of some of these buildings such as food and medical establishments, daycarees, and other public places. There are many non-residential uses that
are perfectly compatible, adding to the streetscape while also providing convenience, appointment opportunities, and skills development. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Um Carrie, could you bring over Dana
Molina and Chris Sturm? And then after that, um we'll have Ben Roman and Andrew Gomery. Miss Molina, could you raise your right could you raise could you raise your
right hand? Do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give the truth? Now, can you you just you're oriented sideways to us. There you go. Thank you. Yep. Sorry about that. I got it. Sorry. You sure affirm test will be the truth.
I do. Dana Molina, M O L I N A. I'm at 57 Laurel Road in Princeton. Thank you. Um, sorry, my dog is choosing to play with his toy at this second. Um, so I am the vice chair of housing initiatives with Princeton, but I just want to say
I'm speaking on my own behalf. Um, I am incredibly pleased that Princeton came up with uh very creative ways to use underutilized spaces and that we're not taking away open space. Um, and that we're using underutilized spaces in the
town that are already impervious. Um, I think that it's creative in that manner. I do want to say that I I wish that we had had more units that were affordable to buy in this plan. I know that it's incredibly complicated to get the um uh
proposals forward that we did. I know that we can't make any changes, but we will have future rounds and I do really hope that we can have more um affordable buy possibilities in the future. I think that's really important for our town. Um
the last thing I'd want to say is that for some of the locations I think that transit is not just uh access to affordable um access to transit but also how we're going to integrate the units into the roadways. Um one specifically
which is close to me which is at Mount Lucas. I think it's fantastic to use that location. I'm super excited for there to be um housing used there, but that intersection has already been a disaster and I don't see anything in the plan as to how the intersection is going
to be addressed. And so I would like to know more how the planning board will be reviewing um access and how we can view the plans for for the housing that's proposed so that we understand how it integrates into the neighborhood. And and Justin, maybe you could just jump in
in terms of the kind of review that will be undertaken once the um property owner or developer comes in because that's a certainly a good question and it's something that we will be reviewing in detail later on, I'm sure. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm happy to jump in because I,
you know, I drive that intersection all the time. I know exactly what you're talking about. Um it, you know, I walk over there, too, and I know what you're talking about even more so. My daughter was just hit by a car in that intersection. So, I'm just like really in the crosswalk. She was Yeah. walking.
So, I'm just sensitive to how we're going to deal with even more cars. Absolutely. And that's something as I mentioned earlier, we'll work out the ordinances first before our March deadline of next year. And then we're going to have a full planning board site plan review. Um, and most of I'd say
just about all the time we have a for a a site like this, we would have a traffic engineer look at it on our side. We would have a traffic study from their side that we review. And we certainly uh would keep in mind uh, you know, we're not going to do anything unsafe just to
reach, you know, the the goals. We're gonna make sure we're gonna review these like we do any application, which oftentime means three-hour meetings and a couple of them and a couple revisions and all those sorts of things. And would those be posted to the public or is that
not um Okay, they absolutely will. Yes, once we get them, they'll be on our website. Super. Um and then the last question is just in terms I think some people really do care a lot about the aesthetics of the housing that's going in. I think a lot of people are very very supportive of housing and they're
not so supportive of some of the designs for the housing that has come in and I just wondered how that works um and whether there's any um like shredding if you will in terms of design. There's no spra anymore. So I just wondered how community involvement would you know at
least have comments to uh to design that would occur at the planning board level as well. Um we would still encourage all the developers like we do with all of our developers to come in for a concept review for the PL before the planning board if they would like. Um so we'll still do that too. Um plus our behind
thes scenes work when we meet with them. But uh the main way will be at the public planning board meeting and that's when the public would be able to see the plans at that meeting not before. Yes. Okay. I don't want to take up too much time. They are posted ahead of the meeting. Right. Oh okay. 10 days. Is
that the right uh do I have that time frame correct, Mr. Allesco? Yes, at least 10 days. We normally do them uh before that as well. So, okay, great. So, the plans are posted as well as um
memoranda from the um professional staff to the board um that flag certain kinds of issues. Um, and so those are pretty easy to find uh through our website, but if you have any issues whatsoever, you know, reach out to the
planning office and they can uh walk you through it. Okay, great. Well, thank you again. I know how hard you all worked for this proposal, so thank you for your hard work. Um, thank you for raising those those uh important issues. Thanks,
Mr. M. Could you raise your right hand? Uh, yes. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth? Yes, I do. Thank you. So, yeah. So, uh sworn or affirm, if you please state and spell your full name and give
your uh street name street. Okay. My name is Chris Sturm. C H R I S. Um and then S Tur R as in Mary. I live at 278 Riverside Drive in Princeton. Um I'm really pleased to have the opportunity
to comment on your plan. Um, I think it strikes a great balance between 100% affordable projects and inclusionary projects and my comments apply to both of them. Um, we have such a great need for more housing in New Jersey and in Princeton and both the affordable and
inclusionary units are part of addressing that solution. um like you, I um really feel for the people that serve me when I go to the doctor's office, when I used to take my kids to school, when I um have others
who who work in at the university, for example, and want, you know, want them to not have such long commutes. Um, I know young people who are living with their parents and want more options to move out of the basement and young families who are ready to buy their first home or to rent their first town
home and it's getting harder and harder to do that. So, more housing is is a part of that solution. And then, of course, there's many older adults who want to age in our town and need more options to do that. So, your plan addresses all of those needs. Um, and
the way that you've designed it, the locations are so thoughtful. You know, they're convenient, they're near transit, they're um, walkable, you're offering home ownership opportunities, and perhaps there should be more, but I know it's hard, and I'm happy to see those that are there, and you're
thinking about green space. Um, the one recommendation I would highlight is to make sure that when the designs come in, you're really orienting these um, details so that they work for the residents and for the pedestrians and as
and and not so much for the parking lots and you've done so much at the Princeton Shopping Center, but I look at that parking lot between the Alice and McAffries with, you know, without the pathway through the middle, etc. And I'm like, it could be better. So, I know that you you're thinking about that,
too. And I want to highlight that. Um the last thing that I want to mention is that I moved to Princeton almost uh 30 25 years ago because I wanted an inclusive community where there was more than one person of color in my child's
kindergarten class where people of all ages could afford to live here and there were workingclass people and wealthy people and everything in between. And I think this this plan continues Princeton historic legacy of being a diverse and
inclusive place that is um a wonderful place to live with great neighborhoods. And so I really endorse the plan. I thank you for all of your hard work. Um and that's all I have to say. Thank you very much.
Um yeah, hearing from uh multiple people about the importance of ped and bike amenities and um uh and safety and that is super important to know. So thank you
for reinforcing that for us. Um several more folks uh yet to speak. Mr. or Andrew Gomery Gomery, I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name. Um and then Jane Scott and then Daniela
Bonafede Chabra. Mr. Gary, are you still here? Yes. Yes, he he he's here. Mr. Mueller, you can if you could raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give will be the truth? I do. So want to
affirm. Please state your full name, spell your last name, and your street. Andrew Gomery, G M O R Y, Shady Brook Lane. Um, I just want to express my uh support of the plan. I think it's terrific. I've lived in and around this town for 50 years. I also want to thank
uh all the members of the various parts of the town government that have come together to to make this happen. I am both surprised and kind of shocked at the amount of underused and underutilized space that you all have managed to find. This is just incredible nook and cranny work. Every place you mentioned, I just sort of slapped myself
in the forehead and said, "Of course, what a great place to put this. I just think it's great that you've taken this approach, not segregated this off into a large tract somewhere at the edge of town. I just think it's terrific work. I want to express my uh just enthusiastic support and thank you all for the great
work you've done. It's terrific." Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, credit goes to council members for putting in a massive massive amount of work along with our professionals and staff um, consultants.
Um, as I said at the outset, a lot of what a lot of the work that that this entailed is um, beyond the scope and jurisdiction of the planning board because of the way the law now reads. and um and yet they have um done
um have worked really hard to adhere to the important master plan principles that were outlined before. So I I should not be talking now. I should let other people talk. Um are we at Miss
Scott now? I think so. Miss Scott, if you could raise your right hand. Do you swear? Swear Miss Scott in. Do you swear or affirming your testimony about to give be the truth? I do. Sus want to affirm. Please state your full name, spell your last name, and give your
address. Jane Scott, ST Battle Road. I too support this plan and I'm impressed uh with the variety of locations,
project sizes, and approaches that are included here. um some 100% affordable, many a mix of market and affordable uh and all um thoughtfully designed to make
the best use of these parcels within our our town center for the most part. I have a question which is hardly uh pressing because we seem to have enough units as it is without adding
this additional site. But I if there's time to give us an update on the Valley Road school building site at the corner of Valley Road in Witherspoon, I'd be curious as to whether that might be a potential site for housing in the
future. And with that, I'll conclude my remarks and thank the board for their excellent work. Um, thank you very much. Um, Justin You're frozen, Louise. We lost our We
lost our head. I'll I'll jump in as vice chair now. Uh either Justin or perhaps David, can you address the question about Valley Road School? I could jump in unless you want to Councilman Cohen, but uh basically it's it's owned by the school board. It
belongs to the school board right now. um we cannot put that in the plan and and force them to do anything with it. Um but I'm also very interested in that as I I look out the window every day at it. Um and I hope in the next couple of years we can do something with it.
Yeah. And I I'll just comment that um that site in a way dovetales with uh Westminster Choir College um which is so close to the schools, the high school and middle school and seems like an
ideal location for the school board to relocate um their offices. So that's a precursor to freeing up the the Valley Road site. Um, so there's a lot of um dominoes that have to fall into place to
make all that happen, but it's certainly in in consideration. Thank you. And I see that Louise is back now. So, yes, I uh I got a taste of the attendees room. I I was moved over there um
uh maybe instead of Miss Scott. I'm not sure. But nice to be back. And um well played Mr. O'Donnell. Thank you. Uh I think so I think the question about Valley Road has been has
been answered, right? Yes. Yes. Good. Um so next up um is do we have Mr. or Jean Rosen Bloom? Is that is that who comes up next?
Ah excuse me. I and and it's me, not mister. If if you could raise your right hand, do you swear or affirm that testimony about the case will be the truth? Yes, I do. So, sworn or affirm. Um, please state your full name, spell your last
name, and give your address. My name is Jean Rosen Bloom, G- N E Rosen Bloom, R O S N B Lu M, and I live on Grover Avenue. Um, and I I'm I'm here because I'm a member of the board of trustees of Princeton Community Housing,
and I wanted to express my and the trustees support for this plan. Um, it it's meets a critical need and it helps meet the obligations for the fourth round. Both very important goals.
Um, affordable housing is a critical need right here in Princeton, not just nationwide, although it's also obviously a need nationwide. Um, we have over 1,000
households on the waiting list for housing at Princeton Community Housing. That includes young families, people working in town, and long-term residents who want to stay here. Mr. Rosen Wil, is that is that just
Princ Princeton residents or is that uh people outside of Princeton as well? Um you know what? I don't know the answer to that question. Okay. Um I can certainly get that answer for the board. Okay.
Um Princeton's diversity is a really important part of what makes Princeton a great place to live and the town's plan. Um it strikes a good balance providing a range of housing opportunities and maintaining Princeton's character. Um
and I think the the previous commenters have highlighted some very important areas which which make it very thoughtful the plan. Um the gentle infill of affordable housing um will help provide housing for low and middle
inome residents close to transportation, other services. Um and Princeton Community Housing looks forward to working with the town to provide these needed housing opportunities and I thank the board.
Thank you. Thank you. Miss Rosen Bloom was um the the planning board too was very happy to see the town um partner up with um Princeton Community Housing on these projects. So um we look forward to seeing those plans uh come to us in the
notistant future according to the rules, right? Um, okay. Next up, we have um I don't know whether we moved anyone over yet, but next in the attendees room, Ben
Roman, Daniela, Bonafi, Jabra, and then Fabian Powo. I may be butchering more names tonight than usual even. And I see Karen Jernie as well. So, we'll we'll um uh we'll do
you first, Daniela, and then Miss Jazerni. Um Mr. Mueller, would you do the honors? Sure. If you could raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that testimony about the gift will be the truth? I affirm it. Thank you. Just
want to affirm. Um please state your full name, spell your last name, and give your address. Uh my name is Daniela Bonafer Chabra. That's um sorry for the length. B O N A F as infre e-
c h a b r a 44 Prince William Court and thank you for this opportunity. Um I'm speaking both as a almost quarter century uh homeowner in Princeton as well as um a trustee of Princeton
community housing as uh like Jean who preceded me. Um I just want to really applaud uh the local government for coming up with this uh plan which uh has a good balance of um um of infill and
other kind of projects 100% affordable as well as a mix of market rate and affordable and certainly so many in walkable or bikable situations. Um, I know this is a town from being here over 20 years that appreciates its its green
space and uh and it's uh country feel and not having as many people have to drive in from whatever distance to work here as somebody mentioned before me. U medical assistants, dental assistants,
bank tellers, our nannies, our garden landscapers, everybody works in our in our businesses. Um I think it will also improve um our environment. Um I also specifically applaud the uh how this is going to improve maintain and improve
the diversity in town. Uh we moved here specifically uh because it was an inclusive town and we appreciated the diversity that our children will grow up with. Um, and um, again, I want to remind everybody the incredible lack of
affordable rental homes to uh, low-income and and lower income families uh, in the state of New Jersey. And I think um, this will be a great contribution from our town, which happens to be a very lucky one. So, thank you for the opportunity and um,
thank you for all the work that went into this. Really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Um, next up I believe we have Karen Jazerni. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for the opportunity. My name is Karen
Jazerni. If you could, if you could do swear affirm the testimony about to give me the truth. It is so sworn affirmed. Again, if you could just spell your last name and your address. Uh, your street your street. It's J E Z as in zebra, I E
R N as in Nancy Y. And I live on Mount Lucas Road. And I serve I have the real privilege of serving as the chair of the board of the Princeton Community Housing Community Board. And so you've got a a run of all of us being enthusiastic
about this plan. It is thoughtful, creative, ambitious, and we are delighted for the opportunity to be able to participate in helping to meet this incredible need for housing in our community and to welcome new neighbors
to our many different um neighborhoods within the town. Princeton Community Housing is particularly delighted to recognize that the implementation of the kind of gentle infill concept that was included in the
um master plan which we endorsed a while back and we believe it's really going to provide opportunities for neighborhoods to thrive and that's part of what we are committed to. You may have heard us from time to time talk about the PCH
difference and that really is about helping our residents thrive in the communities in which they live. So the chance to do that um in some new spaces is a real opportunity for us. We are looking forward to the chance to work
with the municipality. We know that um people have interests and questions and ideas and we welcome them. And I we are working on getting an answer to that question before the end of the night about what the um makeup is of that thousand person waiting list so you have
a better idea of what that entails. But we just wanted to add our voice to the number of people who have really embraced this plan tonight and we're we're glad to be among them. Um, thank you very much, Miss Jazerni. And if you can't come up with that
number tonight, don't worry about it at all. Um, it is uh, you know, it would be interesting to know. Um, but it is um, it's not not, you know, part and parcel of the of the plan that's before us. And so I don't want you to feel as if, you know, you'll
have failed if you cannot find that number. I don't think that you can restrict those applications to Princeton residents anymore. Right. My hunch is that it's an an affirmatively market. All of our properties are affir affirmatively marketed and it's likely to be a broad range of people, not just
Princeton residents. But that's my hunch. So let's we we'll do our best to confirm it before the end of the night for you just so that you know too and the than the rest of the listeners. But thanks again. Be interesting thing to know. Great. Thank you very much. Thank
you. Bye. Bye. Bye. um Fabian um Paulo and I am very sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name. Uh welcome Mr. Mueller. Would you
Yes, if you could mute your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give will be the truth? I do. And my name is Fam Polo. P A L O T. And could you give your street? Yes. Grover Avenue. So I I live um right by the
shopping center. So first I'd like to say thank you for all your work. I support the plan overall. Um but I I just have one comment and uh one question uh specifically for the Princeton Shopping Center neighborhood. Um so I don't know if people realize but by my cons there are 680 units that have
either already been built or are in the process of being approved for right around the shopping center. That's within.3 miles. So that's a lot of units yet it doesn't seem to get a lot of attention. Most of the attention is devoted to the other side of town. And I really hope that the town spends a
little bit more time reaching out to neighbors, reaching out to this specific neighborhood to to make its vision for this neighborhood a little bit clear. I don't quite understand what you're planning. Um and I think there could be some useful feedback uh that I think we deserve to provide given the intensity
of the development. For instance, what's the plan for the ambulance building that's falling apart? What's the plan for Grover Park that is flooding and that we cannot cross every time it rains? No investment. What's the plan for mitigating traffic on Grover Avenue and Uing Street? There's a lot of mention of this, a lot of meetings, but
there's no concrete plan to address those and you are adding another 200 units. It's only going to make those issues more important to address and I hope it gets prioritized. Now for my question is it's related to the senate and bond drive office spaces. Um so I
kind of disagree actually with a consultant that they're falling apart. I think they are not one of them is not rented and it's kind of left to fall apart by the developer. There's a bridge that goes over the stream. They they started fixing it a year and a half ago.
They stopped fixing it. That means that nobody can get into the building. So if you're trying to rent it, that's not the best way to rent it if nobody can access it. That being said, your master plan, if I understand properly, say that you wanted to convert underutilized office
spaces into R&D uh companies, which made a lot of sense to me. You're adding residents and you're adding jobs that go with it next to it. So you have nice ecosystem at the shopping center where people live, can have really good jobs, and then can maybe have lunch at the shopping center. But it seems like you
are converting all those offices now into more housing. And so that's not clear to me where are people going to work then. There's no no companion now anymore in that neighborhood. So they can so who is going to have lunch at the shopping center and it seems that all those people are are going to work
outside of town which seems to go against the big plan of for this neighborhood. So if you could clarify where your vision is that would be helpful. Thank you. So I I guess I would I would have preferred mixed use, not just
residential for for those two office spaces. I think that would have made a lot more sense. That's kind of what I think West Windsor is doing a little bit by the by the train station and yes that I think would have worked better. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um I think that
um since the broader uh question of planning for that you know new sort of center of gravity if you will um it is not you know part of the plan itself. The board needs to put a pin in that and um you know take your
your comments and request to heart and maybe think in terms of um a forum or on a um future planning board agenda or a conversation with um um you know the
next time the Eden's folks come in. Anyway, your point taken about the bigger picture. Um, your point is taken about the bigger picture and as others have said, the pedestrian connections and all are um
um have been looked at very carefully as well as bike connections by the um by the municipality. And I think it it will make sense at some point to um have the kind of conversation that you're talking about. It's just not something that we
can really um uh drill down on tonight. Um but I but I but the but the suggestion about mixed use um in those locations um uh will um take that
into consideration. Thank you. Um m Oh, thank you, Mr. Cohen. Yeah, I just wanted to say a couple words in response uh to uh Fabian's point about
losing uh sort of office uh space in this part of town. Um, what I wanted to say is if you look at the census data that's in this housing element, you'll see that we actually
have about 20,000 net incomuters daily in Princeton. So, there are plenty of jobs for the people who will be living in this housing that's being built. Um, you know, we would love to see those
kinds of ratables out in that part of town. Um, I think, you know, we're having trouble attracting those kinds of users. Uh, and if we could, um, that would be certainly where we'd like to locate them. But but
I did want to assure Fabian um that we think a lot about the balance between housing and places of employment and in fact a big part of this plan is trying to remedy an imbalance where compared to
uh the ideal I see Elaine nodding you may remember the statistic but I think the ideal relationship is 1.5 jobs to housing or 1.5 housing into jobs and we have like 2.7 times uh the number of
jobs to housing. So, we really have an imbalance that we're trying to fix. Thanks, David. Um I hope Mr. Polo heard that because I think he Oh, yes, he is in the attendees area. So, good. I'm sorry. Um yeah,
thanks for adding that. Um, next up we have Ben Roman. Is that correct? Mr. Roman, if you could Oh, thank you for activating your camera and unmute yourself and Mr. Muller will swear you in.
Yeah, if you could raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give be the truth? Yes, I do. So, I want to affirm. Please say your full name, spell your last name, and give your address. I give your street. My name is Benjamin Roman. last
name is spelled R O M- an N. I live on Princeton Kingston Road. I am a uh owner of a single family home, a resident of Princeton for 10 years, um children in the private school, and I uh sorry, in public school, and I strongly
support um this housing plan. A lot of the proposed um sites for development are actually relatively in my backyard in Riverside neighborhood. And um like the idea Mr. Roman, we're
having a little trouble um hearing you. Maybe maybe bring the phone closer. It's not Sorry, I'm out on the streets of New York. Is that Is that better? Yes, I I think it is. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, I I'm
strongly in support of this plan that brings more dense housing um to to my neighborhood and um and I want to thank everyone in the town who's worked so hard to develop these plans. I I like the idea of a town that is that's
growing and that is diverse and where the people who work in our town um are able to afford to live here. So, um, thank you very much for everything done and that's all I've got to say. Thank you very much. Calling from the
city, the big city. Um, next up we have Seth Melman. Um, and then after that, Doer Hammond and Wendy Maker. Mr. Melman, would you um There you go.
You unmuted yourself. Uh, activate your camera, please, and Mr. Muller will swear you in. Yeah, it says the There we go. Let's see. There we go. Thank you. If you could raise your right hand, do you swear or
affirm that testimony about to give me the truth? I do. Just want to affirm. Please state your full name, spell your last name, and give your street. Uh, Seth Melman. Last name is Melman. M E L M A N. Uh, Adams Drive in Princeton. I have I first of all I just want to say I
was pleasantly surprised to see the plan as it was. I I didn't expect it to be so balanced. I thought it was a I was very happy to see the way it was. Sometimes things in Princeton don't always go in the right direction, but I think this plan seems to be in the right direction.
Uh a couple questions. Um, I tried to find the plan through the website and I could not find it. And I just wanted to know first it, you know, if someone could tell me exactly where on the Princeton government website I would find the actual document. That'd be my
first question. Second question was, um, would it have been possible for this this call, for example, to have have happened a week ago or two weeks ago? I'm just curious how we ended up sort of up against the gun um uh with the dates
and the timing. So those are my two questions. Okay. Thank you. Um Mr. Leco, I can um let you speak of course to either of both of those questions. Um uh especially first uh the finding of the
plan on the on the website. Um I know Mr. Melman, in terms of timing, uh the the way the law um was amended last year, um provided for an extraordinarily
compressed time frame for all 55 it is maybe municipalities in the state of New Jersey to prepare plans. Uh some of them are not doing so because they're suing the state um or didn't accept their numbers or whatever. But um the
um it's it's just I I I think everybody would have liked to to um you know start uh uh you know seeing the specifics um a little sooner, but it has been
uh just an incredible um lift to to bring it to us tonight. So, um maybe then I already stole somebody else's thunder, but um Justin, you could certainly add to what I just said, but um starting with locating the plan on
the on the website. Certainly. Uh and Mr. Melman, if you send me an email, I'd be happy to send you the link directly. Um my emails on the website, it's just my first initial and last name at princetonj.gov. Um, but for your knowledge and for everyone else's, um, we we've had it on
the, uh, we have a dedicated master plan page and we've added it to that. Um, we've had it on the planning boards page, which also includes a link to all the master plan, uh, elements, um, and other documents. Uh, it's in the green bar to the left of that and in the
middle of the page. Um, but then we one thing we always do before meetings is we put the links for whatever is relevant to that meeting on the calendar page too. So that's probably the easiest way to get it if you just go to the Princeton municipal calendar um or just you know Google Princeton municipal
calendar and then look for tonight's meeting um and there's a hyperlink right there that you can open it uh in your browser or in Adobe if you have it. And does it does it go directly to the document? No. Yes, the link does. Okay. Yes, it it
might take a minute to load because it's about 400 pages with appendices. Um but uh it'll go directly to it. Okay. Actually, if you go to the calendar and click on the meeting, there's a you have to click on more details in order to get
to the actual agenda, you know, items. So, there's a couple clicks, but yeah, I went to the NJ, you know, the regular NJ.gov gov site and that's I was trying to find it through there but I I will uh I will try this other method. Um but again it just seems to me you know I
know everybody would and again I'm sure this was hard to put together the whole deal. Um but it seems lots of times in Princeton we we seem to end up with these critical issues with very short times for the public to deal with it or to respond. Um, so, uh, but it, like I
said, in this case, I seem I'm very happy what with what the final result was. Um, I just would have loved to hear about it last week, but it's, you know, better late than never. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Melman. Thank you. Um, does your Hammond,
Mr. Hammond, if you could um unmute yourself, activate your camera. Welcome. Thank you. Um, Mr. Mueller, go ahead. You can raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give will be the truth? I do. So sworn or affirm or or affirm. Please state
your full name and give you street. I give you street doure d o s i e r hammond dj mm o n d on Lee Avenue. And uh thank you very much for the plan that you put forward. I also want to echo the comments that the previous gentleman
made though I think you've given some good answers to that. Uh, one question is when did it go up on the uh, website? When was this available? And and so I if you could answer that first that'd be great. 10 days ago. 10 days ago, Mr. It
was Friday the 13th. Great. Thank you. That's good. That 10 days 10 days is very good. Uh, I'd like to see that. I just want to thank you for um, doing a good job of planning, putting things in a lot of good places.
Um, I think that uh you were very good and creative in getting your bonus credits and that's fantastic, but the good thing about bonus credits is that, you know, makes it easier to do your job, but it also means there's less affordable units actually coming online.
And I think Princeton can do a lot more. 241 units in 10 years, if I understand it, is 24 units a year. That's okay, but I think the town could do a lot more. Uh that's not necessarily up to planning board uh more up to the council and what
they can do. But I think we need to work on getting more affordable housing given the cost of housing in Princeton. Uh I think you should look at trying to and I'm sure you have but continue to look at places like uh getting more than 20%.
100%'s great, 20%'s okay, but if we get 2530, 3540, up to 50%, and I think one of the proposed developments, which is still not happening yet, um is supposed to be 50/50, which would be great. Um, but we just need a lot more affordable
housing in Princeton. We should also consider having more downtown. Um, you know, I know that this has been a hobby horse of Princeton future for a long time, but I think it's worth looking at. Can we take a lot of those one and two and threetory buildings and add a few stories and get a lot more affordable
housing? Maybe 50/50 that's been proposed before. Um, doesn't have to be 50% but that would be great. But we just need a lot more affordable housing. We should also think if we've already met our obligation that we could think about doing Princeton preference and yes um
you know as many people have pointed out Princeton is different than a lot of towns in in New Jersey where u we forced a lot of people out of town who could afford to be here um and uh there's some way to bring them back in and that would
be great or to keep people who are being forced out now from leaving. So, I I want you to think about all those sort of things. I think we can do a lot better than 241 over the next 10 years, and I hope you're able to work on it. Again, thank you for finding all these good sites. Um, but, uh, we could do
more. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hammond. Um, Wendy Maker. Miss Mer, if you could There you go. Hey, Wendy. Um, if you could raise your right hand,
if you do do you swear or affirm the if you could please say your full name for the record. Um, Magger, M A G- Er. Do you do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give me the truth? I do. And could could you give your street? Yes. I
live on Cherry Hill Road. Um, I wanted to speak in support of this plan. Um, I usually because of my affiliation with Friends of Princeton Openspace see kind of the flip side of the smart growth
package which is preserving important uh lands for their ecoer in the edges of town. And um this municipality has been great about doing that, particularly in
recent years, but um it's always a little bit tempting to wonder what is the price we're going to pay. And so when I looked at this uh plan and read about it in the newspaper, I shared the reaction of other people who have
spoken, which is, wow, this is really good. And um I just wanted to say that and to thank everybody who worked on it and congratulate you on the manner in which you've explained it and um yay
looking forward to it. Thanks very much. Thank you so much Wendy. Um now I saw that Lance Liverman had his head up hand head up hand up earlier. I don't see that now but I see that Mr. many of uh Pineo Tom Pineo has been
brought over. So, um Tom, if you would There you go. Um Jerry, can you swear Mr. Pine in please? If you could raise your right hand, do you swear or affirm that testimony about the kill be the truth? I
do. So, sworn or affirmed. Please state your full name, spell your last name, and give you street. Tom Pine, P I N EO Van Deander Avenue. Thank you. This is the first time I've ever but in front of Lance, so um I hope
it's good. Uh I'm here to add my voice to the chorus of support for the work of the planning board, the council, our amazing staff, and the consultants. Uh while I'm sure there will be many more conversations over the implementation of the details, this plan lays out a really
strong framework for the fourth round. It's consistent with Princeton's master plan and the principles of smart growth and I support it. Um, many others have have have noted in detail what is really so good about this. I do however have a
couple of questions. My first question is about the balance between the private developer model and the 100% affordable model. It's not only pertains to the fourth round but for what is uh yet to be built in the third round. Um, I'd like to make sure that every opportunity
is given to explain to the community how the board arrived at this particular balance of inclusionary development and 100% affordable. While I applaud the level of outreach, I think even more could be done, especially as it pertains to the economics of affordable housing
and the choices we need to make for how to pay the financial cost required for providing them. A lot of ink has been spilled recently in the local press about the balance between the private developer route and the 100% affordable route. I don't have to tell you that
emotions run high on this subject and I think it would benefit the community greatly if this body perhaps in conjunction with council created an opportunity for a deeper dive into the pros and cons of the two pathways. My hope is that the plan has broad support and that Princeton can serve as a model
for how a deeply blue patch of America can get out of its own way and efficiently and effectively build the housing it needs. I fear that without further outreach and patient clarification, there will be continued vacuum of information, real or
perceived, into which confusion and perhaps mis misinformation will inevitably seep. We should try to avoid that. The right forum could also serve to bring more people into the conversation that all too often takes place at the echo chambers at the
margins. So my question is can we build engagement through respect, patient outreach and our common interest in the collective good? I hope so and I would be happy to be a part of fostering that effort. My second question is what framework exists for the plan to evolve
and and some comments have been made around this. This is a plan for the next 10 years and it's likely that in the coming weeks, months and even years plans will surface that are just as good or even better than some of the sites that are proposed here. Can we hear more about the mechanism that is available to
evaluate incorp and incorporate those? Thank you. Thank you. Um let let me I'd like to jump in with a Thank you, mayor. And then maybe um well anyone else of course um Mr. Cohen, Mr.
Leco, but um go right ahead please. U Mr. Freda, thank you. Uh Tom, thanks for your comments and thanks for all your involvement in the community too. Um but I will say like your questions about understanding what the different options
are as to how these units are provided, how they're paid for, what the different options are. I mean, it's a pretty common question and I know we've had some public meetings where we've chatted about that somewhat. Um, but I think we
could probably do more and whether it's the governing body or the planning board or I don't know exactly what, but I think at some point it would make sense to have a public session that just really outlines here's the way you can do it. Here's the options because it
would be good for people to understand if a developer's taking the risk. Here's the pros and cons. If the town's taking the risk, here's the pros and cons. And I don't know that we've put everything together in one meeting at one time. So, I'm happy to work with you and whoever to see if we can find somebody to help
put together that and just just give people the facts and people can draw their own conclusions. But thank you. Great. Thank you. And I I Mr. Cohen, any additional thoughts? Well, I just I wanted to actually punt to either Jerry or Michael
Sullivan to talk about amending the element because that's really what the question was about in terms of when other projects come up and uh it is a it's a legal and a planning process.
Yeah. Um yeah. So, as with any master plan element um you're entitled to amend it. Uh the difference between a housing plan element and like a circulation plan element is that when you do so, you're required to do so such that you do not
um upset the balance of the obligations that you have included in it. Um over the course of 10 years, uh the municipality will be required to monitor uh what gets built, how many units uh are achieved through uh development and
redevelopment. Um and while these are this is the plan and there will be ordinances to implement the plan. Um as these uh sites get worked out there may be shifts in the number of units where there may become a need for another
site. Um and but we don't know that yet uh because the site plans have not been approved or profered uh in a in a complete way. Um similarly if there are and I and I'll say this affordable
housing uh development is largely a private sector enterprise. It's usually developers who are interested in developing and can contribute to that. Um it's less likely the m a municipality is saying let's let's go find a site to
do a 100% affordable site. So if uh opportunities arise during the fourth round, um the municipality is well within their purview to consider these and whether they contribute to the fourth round or not. Um to consider
including them in in a plan um and if there are surplus uh units uh for the next round, God help us, but the next round um then those units could be credited there. um the way the Fair Housing Act uh amendments are set up,
they envision the fourth round and all subsequent rounds. So these they they've tried to draft a law that is going to persist without having any real u revisions or amendments uh for the rest of time. So, um there's opportunities
for amendments. There's opportunities to consider uh projects and um like like what's happened now the the reutilization of sites of offices that are vacant. Uh who knows what's going to be the uh unproductive sites of in the
next 5 years or the next 10 years. So those opportunities may arise and the municipality is well within their perview to consider those. uh but when they do uh it needs to be considered within the context of their obligations. Yeah, I just wanted to to add uh to what
Michael was saying. I agree completely. It's a long period of time uh and one never can tell what might happen to a particular site and a particular developer. And if um a site drops out of the program, the number of units are
reduced because of site constraints um certainly appropriate for the uh municipality through the planning board and the governing body to add additional sites. And if there's really an exceptional opportunity and the site isn't even necessary for the fourth round, there are ongoing obligations
after that. So I think Michael's everything he says is a right on point. And to Mayor Frereda's point about, you know, thinking it thinking of a a public forum of some sort where the
decision-making and what goes into it and how project different types of projects tend to pencil out to different types of developers, etc. I mean, that's a that's a really interesting overall topic. Not not one to um
you know, to drill down on tonight, but um but a worthy thing for um you know, to consider for for one of our meetings or or a council meeting or a joint meeting. Um um anything else uh uh anybody wants to
add? Uh Justin or anyone before we go to Mr. Liverman? Okay. Um uh thanks uh Tom Pineo for those um questions and we have um Lance Liverman with us now and then next up we'll bring over Venet and then
Ed Truselli. Um Mr. Muller, would you swear in Mr. Liverman? Thanks Jerry. Thanks Jerry seeing you. You swear affirm that testimony you're about to give will be the truth. Yes. So sworn affirm you say your full name, spell your last name,
and give your street. This is really weird, but my name is Ardan, A R DN Lance, L A N C Liverman, L I V E R M 327 Withers Street, Prince, New Jersey. Thank you, Lince. Thank you, chair.
Um, my comments are very um, shall we say to all of you, I want to thank you. you know, it's not it's not easy to serve in a public. It's not easy. Uh, as everyone knows, I've done it for years,
and I think that the plan that you've come up with is excellent, and I want to thank you. Um, I think that the mayor with the public forum is an excellent way to go. Um, I think that the more you engage
the community, the better we are at all this when it comes to affordable housing. So I wanted to represent poor poor Mark. I also want to say I didn't know um I was listening and I try to listen and not say anything but it's hard to do
that. Um but I tried my best not to say anything but I want to say that um I read a many comments uh about the mitigation about um flooding and and and the streets and all this and all this I'm sure is taking into consideration
when we looked at the uh plans for the affordable housing. So I'm not here to say anything but to say thank you and that and that's it. And thank you Louise for doing a great job. I remember Wanda Gunning used to sit at your seat and he
used to jump on me all the time and uh you're doing a great great job. You know, we don't hear Well, if I had one one 100th the knowledge that uh Wanda has. Um uh we'd probably all be better off. But
thank you for that. No, you're doing it. You're doing it. Give it Give it 30 years, Louise. No, believe me. Believe me, this is an excellent plan. We're moving forward and Princeton is so lucky to have all of you to serve. Uh thank thank God for all of
you. That's it. I'm done. Thank you. Thank you so much, Lance. Thanks. Thanks, Lance. Thank you. Um let's bring over um Venit and then Ed Truselli. And Madam Chair, I've been told Oh, and it looks like Venet's moving over. I was
just about to say uh how to move over. Good. Yeah, Ben. Um, if you could raise your right hand, do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give me the truth? Yes. Uh, name is Benique. Last name is Madan, M A D-N, and I live on Nassau
Street. Uh, first off, I just want to thank the board and all of our representatives for dutifully and thoroughly putting together a comprehensive plan. I realize how difficult these efforts are and there are all kinds of externalities and
legalities that most of us probably will not ever understand but that all of you do on our behalf and very much appreciate all that work that you put into this. Um my comments are specifically related to the intersection of Nassau Street and Harrison Street. Um
it's about a couple hundred yards from my home, so I've got significant experience with that intersection. I believe there's two proposed developments there. One uh on the site of the firehouse and the second with a whole earth complex there that would add a few hundred units to that
intersection. Uh what I would uh implore all of you to do is during a school day to try and traverse that intersection between 8 and 8:15 a.m. uh in a motor vehicle, on a bicycle, walking with
children and see how difficult the task that is. Uh that intersection in particular is already a very dangerous and difficult intersection to traverse. We've also got a number of 18-wheelers and large trucks moving through that
intersection at excessive speeds. Um, and I'm just concerned about the access uh of adding a few hundred units to that intersection, how the people in those units would be able to get on and off the roadways along with everyone else who's already in that neighborhood. You
know, we've got very limited uh ability to carry traffic specifically through that intersection. And also when you take into account the development that's already been done at the Princeton Shopping Center that's added what I think uh another person mentioned earlier 600 plus units that have aren't
fully occupied as of yet as far as I can tell from going down to the shopping center regularly. So my concerns are that's 800 plus units in what's got to be about a half half mile to a mile of roadway. Um, I just think that a proper
traffic and safety study needs to be done before we bring all of those units online because I'm just concerned for the township and its citizens about what might occur if we don't properly manage that. Thank you. Um, thank you very much, Mr. Cohen.
Yeah, I just wanted to respond, Venit. Um, I hope you're aware that there is a major engineering uh study of the Harrison Street corridor that's underway right now. It's been presented uh in
preliminary form to the council and um you know lots lots of improvements most of them further away from the intersection of Harrison and Nassau because that's so constrained but all
along in front of the shopping center um a road diet multimodal um provision you know better provision for pedestrians and cyclists and happy to connect you with uh the information from the study if you're interested. Yeah, I'd
appreciate that very much. And and in particular, I think if that intersection is excluded, I would hope that we at least take a look at it. It's not excluded. It's just much more difficult. There's there's less I know. There's less space. There's less physical space.
Yes, I completely get I walk through it and drive through it multiple times a day. I get it. And that's why I have concerns. Yeah. So, uh, I'm gonna ask you to email me, uh, same as Justin, doohenprincetonj.gov,
and I'll, uh, make sure you have the information. Yep, I'll do that right now. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Um, so let's bring over Ed Trouselli and then, um, the attendee identified as
Trish. And I'll just say right now if any if any of the rest of the folks in the um uh attendees room of which there are now 35 uh if you would like to address the board tonight now is the time to raise
your hand. Thank you. Welcome Mr. Trouselli. Well, thank you. Ed, if you could raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony about to give be the truth? I do. So one firm, please state your full name, spell your last name, and give you
your street. Sure. Uh, first name is Ed D, last name is Truselli, T as in Tom, R U S as in Sam, C L I. Uh, I'm a resident of Hopewell Township. Thank you. Thank you. Um, thank you for
the opportunity first of all to speak uh here tonight and um again I'll keep my comments brief, but I I just want to on behalf of the staff uh of Princeton Community Housing um express our support uh for this plan. It would be quite the headline if I had something different to
say given all the uh support you've heard from our uh trustees and I'm thankful for their their uh support this evening. I I think the one thing that comes out with the comments tonight is uh the thoughtfulness of of this plan. And what I mean by that is it's not just
a satisfaction of a legal responsibility. It it shows a little bit more uh thoughtfulness and and consideration of, you know, what Princeton is as a community and what it hopes to be. And um I've seen some other fourth round draft plans uh so far. It's
my hobby to kind of look at those things. Um, and this by far is a very thoughtful uh consideration of, you know, what Princeton wants to be and and and is today. So, I I just want to again express our our gratitude um for being
part of the plan and and I look forward we look forward to working together um with the community and uh with the municipality, you know, to make these things happen. Um and Ed, just just for the record, if you could identify a position with PCH. I'm sorry, Jerry. Yes. Uh I'm the executive director uh
for Princeton Community Housing. Thank you. And um there was a question earlier about the waiting list. Um the the reality is as Karen mentioned, Karen Jerni mentioned is that we do have to affirmatively market. So um we our
waiting lists are not simply limited to Princeton residents, but the the the fact is that the majority of our applicants have a relationship to Princeton. Either they uh do live here, they've lived here in the past, they work here. um they have family here. Um so the majority of our our applicants
are from I would say the greater Mercer County, Somerset County, Burlington County, Ocean County area um of New Jersey with some affiliation somehow to Princeton. So hope that helps. Thank you.
Again, it does. Thanks very much. Thank you very much. Um, and our final uh person uh with with uh remarks to say and I'll stay just say one more time if you would like to address the board please raise your hand
because after we hear from Trish I will close the public hearing if no one else has has raised your hand. Um welcome Trish. Mr. Muller will swear you in. You can raise your right hand. Yes. Do you swear? Do you swear or affirm the
testimony about to give me the truth? Yes, I do. So, I swear to affirm, please state your full name, spell your last name, and give My name is Go ahead. Sorry. I heard that so many times. Uh, my name is Patricia Deayo. Uh, that's D I
capital M AIO. And I live on Spruce Street. Um, I was I'm really glad to have attended this meeting to get a lot more context in terms of the complexity of all this planning and just and a little bit of
the history of of uh, you know, how how the town how Princeton is where it is today. So that so that was great. I mean, I think I'm a little remiss in uh, in my duties because I only, you know, just realized that all this was going on quite recently. I have a question. Um,
I'm not sure. I was quite surprised to read my own address in that document, which is 96 spruce. I'm not sure what, you know, I seem to be on the other side of that, you know, sort of red rectangle or whatever the shape is. And I'm
wondering if, you know, I'm just curious why 96 spruce is even referenced there because I think it has to do with 92 94 and then um 88 or whatever the the gray building number is. So, I'm a little curious about You're right, Trish. Uh, I
actually used to live at 96 Spruce Street. So, I Wow. Oh, wow. Oh, okay. But yes, your house is not in the affordable housing site. I can confirm that for sure. I knew I knew
there was somebody Cohen. Somebody told me, oh, there was somebody whose last name was Cohen. I as you know, who lived here I think several like at least two people before me. Oh, okay. So, good good to know you. Um because and I have a sort of a side question and it may not really be appropriate for this venue, but um we we had a little bit of a
surprise with the house 9294. So, David, now you know exactly which house I'm talking about. It went from being a twin of our house to them building another whole house in the backyard. So, that was kind of a surprise. Um Um and not an entirely
pleasant one, but okay. It was done. What what about um demarcations? Will they because there's no fence between us and them now? I mean I guess that's a detail of the planning because now there's going to be more built um I guess facing Wiggins. So uh kind of
a continuation of I think the um affordable housing that's already behind us. So will will there be a fence put up or or is that too much? I'm glad you're raising the question and it is timely. Yeah. Uh, you know, part of what we'll be doing, as Justin mentioned, is
writing the ordinances that enable each of these developments to happen and buffering requirements are part of the ordinances. So, we will, you know, definitely take note that it's a concern of yours and make sure that that's incorporated specifically into the
zoning for that site. Great. So, I guess to keep a breast of this final question is just to stay a breast of what the planning commission is doing. That's how I really will stay on top of Okay, great. Great. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I mean, I,
you know, when I see an empty lot, I don't think, oh, wow, we should build something there. I mean, I left Brooklyn to get out of density, but it's still not too dense for me. So, okay. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
Uh, Mr. Leco and Madam Chair and Mr. Mayo, I apologize for the typo. Um um Justin, your your um audio is bad now. Is this working better? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Uh and I was just saying, Madam
Chair and Mr. Mayo, I apologize for the typo. First off, I just looked it up and we could remove that 96 uh spruce reference on page 67,77 80 and appendix K.
Thank you. Quick correction. Um so uh seeing no other hands raised in the attendees room um I will close the public comment portion of the meeting now um and let's proceed with
um board discussion thoughts. Well, a couple of things I heard which which I do think um you know warrant um
mentioning in a um you know uh communication with council or you know comments slashrecommendations um that have nothing to do with the locations or numbers or anything else
but relate to um pedestrian and bike um connections and safety and amenities. Um to um you know suggest um a keen attention to those um things when
the ordinances um are written um or finalized. I know drafts um are already in the works um but they'll they're just drafts and they'll be refined over time and and um need to be adopted by next
March. Um and in a similar vein perhaps um you know in addition to um commending uh council for its um
attention to smart growth principles and master plan um principles etc. And in keeping with those and with affordability um objectives um uh incentivize or require
encourage to the greatest extent practicable um green building and resiliency um features in the site design um uh so as to save money for um residents.
both in market rate and in affordable units and also um just you know with this heat wave still affecting us um you know things like um you know providing for shade you know
perhaps water features I don't know there you know any number of of ways to to make projects encourage projects to be um uh climate adaptive and uh resilient um you know I think that if we if we can speak to those things as we
again commend um and find this plan um uh substantially um what consistent excuse me consistent with the
master plan I feel like it's much more than substantially consistent um but uh I think those are the words that we need to use according to to the law. But I those are my thoughts. I'd be interested in hearing anyone else. Oh, Mr. O'Donnell. Thank you. Um,
just want to say uh I think that the outpouring of support that we heard tonight from the participants shows the uh the intelligence that was put into the the uh the plan by everybody who worked on it. So, thank you all very
much for that. Um there was one there's a phrase that uh Doera Hammond used and I want to just make sure that um I'm clear on it. Um he used the word Princeton preference and as far as I
know that there is no true Princeton preference. Uh I just want to make you know throw that out there and see you know if anyone has uh can clarify that uh that phrase. Is is that a misnomer or
uh is that a phrase that should not be used? So I want to respond first. Somebody else may have something they want to say about it. But the only thing that we cannot do is we cannot if we
establish a Princeton preference for certain units, we cannot count them towards our affordable housing obligation. Okay? But there is no reason if we build more units than
are required for our obligation. There's no reason that we couldn't establish a Princeton preference for some. But it would mean, you know, that those would never count. And you know, it's it's something that's hard to do. Yeah. uh when you're trying to balance concerns
about growth, you know, growing too fast um with the need for housing. I mean, there are these sort of competing values. So, but I personally am open to having a conversation. You know, there was a letter in Town topics today
recommending not just a Princeton preference, but a preference for municipal employees to provide housing for them specifically, not just people who work in Princeton, but actual municipal employees. And I would love to see council take that up as a a
consideration to work towards. I did not realize that's interesting that if you establish a Princeton president um that they can never count toward your affirmative obligation. That's actually
Can I jump in here? That is technically true. We're talking about the difference between what the rules call present need and prospective need. present need which is the rehabilitation obligation is intended to
address substandard housing occupied by low and moderate income households who already live in Princeton. Prospective need is is intended to create new units for low and moderate income households who want to move into
Princeton. And that's how they make the distinction in the rules. So in theory, you could create new units and apply them to your present need obligation and establish a Princeton preference and it would satisfy your rehabilitation
obligation, but it would not satisfy your prospective need obligation. So right now for the fourth round, there's a rehabilitation obligation of 60 units. You could create new units to satisfy that obligation and allow Princeton
existing Princeton re residents to have a preference. They would not satisfy your 276 or 364 future obligation. Does that make sense? Yeah. Thanks for clarifying. Other questions or thoughts, comments
from board members or staff? Just a a a comment on um the comment that that Louisa made that uh has to be a finding by the board of that this is that the U housing element fair share plan is substantially consistent
with the master plan. I don't think that's that is certainly the case for for an application. But for another element of of uh of the master plan, I don't Oh, it's just a simple adoption. Right. I'm sorry. It's this is not a consistency review. It is an adoption,
right? Thank you, Jerry. That's a really important distinction, and it was uh foolish of me to go down that road. Sorry. My bad. Yeah. Now, I just had a comment also in terms of whether we the
board wants to propose any amendments which actually would amend the plan as Justin went through the plan suggesting you know yeah this something need to be corrected here and corrected there where it was clear in context what the intent
was I think we can do that with an amendment with amendments to the man to the the document before you and I would recommend doing so um I don't know whether Elaine I You're shaking your head and you agree. Yeah. Yeah. I have
that list. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. No, I I I wasn't suggesting with anything that I said before that um that those should be amendments to the plan. Feel like the plan is is stands um
you know on its own two feet and I don't have any suggested uh edits or changes other than those corrections type. Yeah. And you were not I wasn't suggesting you had suggested that you were not. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Mr. Cohen, I just wanted to um this
is kind of in response to the member of the public who wished that we could have brought the plan sooner. Um and I was tempted to say it at the time, but I I want to say it now. I shudder to think how few hours of
sleep Elaine and Justin have gotten over the last three months. I mean, the health impact, it's just it's just insane. And so, I really want to thank the two of you. Um, you know, you
deserve along with me, the Lions share the credit for putting this document together. um putting all this list of sites together and um I really I really appreciate both of you. Yeah. Yeah. And
ju just to add an accolade um just from a lawyer's point of view uh in my office when we first saw all these time frames we the reaction was you've got to be kidding. This really can't be done but they did it.
Um thank you David. I appreciate that. I will I will say also in response to the member of the public who was talking about well what if a great site comes along that isn't in the plan. We now know these deadlines every at the end of 20 2034
January 2035 the municipality is going to have to stipulate to its fifth round obligation by June 2035. We're going to have to have a plan. You can and probably should be thinking about generating new affordable units
consistently next week, not tomorrow then. So that by the by the time you know your obligation in October 2034, you'll be able to put you'll be able to say, "Oh yeah, we've got this, this, this, and this that will fulfill that." And it won't be the terrible time crunch
that it was this time since we had no advanced notice. Now we've got 10 years of notice. we can start accumulating units toward future obligations. Yeah, absolutely right. I've already calendared uh 2075
pretend to have bought my Greek island by then. Uh to Elaine's point, um I read a plan, as Ed said for fun, um of a North Jersey town pretty similar to ours, and their need was actually zero because they had been creating units throughout the past
10, however many years. So, their plan essentially just took the form of a victory lap. Um and then additional sites that they want to investigate going forward. Uh so, if we could proactively get ahead of things like that going into the next round, I think that'd be even more ideal.
Yeah, thank you. Um, other other thoughts, other questions? Um, would Miss Na, um, thank you. Uh, thank you, Elaine and Justin for putting together this
terrific plan. I just wanted to ask a clarification question about the Princeton preference that was discussed earlier. Um, so if that such a preference can be applied to units that
are quote unquote under rehabilitation, is that something that the town council um has to determine and um draft an ordinance on? How would that kind of um preference be implemented?
Well, it's an interesting question. I know of only a few towns that are doing this. Um, and I'm not entirely sure how they're doing it. My guess is it's a lottery with a preference for existing Princeton residents or employees in Princeton or whatever it is. Um, so they
would get a preferential place on the waiting list is what it would be. Okay. So, they would apply through the normal application process for affordable housing. They have to be income qualified. Absolutely. and one I mean correct me if I'm wrong
but I I believe that one way to apply those the um rehabilitation obligation would be uh rehabbing some of the
housing authority units that are actually section 8 um federal under you know housing and urban development HUD framework. Um they're voucher uh it's you know voucher based housing.
It is um you know entirely separate and different from New Jerseys affordable housing framework but we can um uh you know the the connection with them can be made through the rehab obligation. Is that correct? Yeah, that
is correct. And we actually do have some money in the spending plan for exactly that. Okay. And and I think council has been contemplating exactly, you know, concentrating on the PHA, the housing authority units for our present need,
which means, you know, essentially that it can't be um helping out with municipal employees or whatnot because they're not living in those housing authority units right now. Um
so I think there'll be different mechanism. You know it's really the very beginning of a conversation uh if there's public support for it and I think there are a lot of different ways to do it probably depending on which populations you're wanting to help
out. I think there would probably be a lot of interest in in you know um preference for municipal employees, employees of the school district, teachers and others. Yeah, that's certainly doable. That's
very hard to get credit for. Right. Thank you. Other thoughts or perhaps a motion? If someone were to make a motion, uh, Mr. Mueller.
Um it would uh you know to to phrase it concisely be to um adopt the proposed fourth round housing element and fair share plan
presented tonight and discussed. Yes. As amended. Yeah. As amended. And if you want we could add a separate uh provision that says um there should be a separate memorandum that goes to the council dealing with the issues of
circulation etc and sustainability that you would articulate it uh that would not uh Louise that would not be part of the adoption but but a separate memo that would go in conjunction with the the the adoption. Yeah. Okay. We've had
Mr. Bodheimer has his has his hand up. I don't mean to cut you off, Jerry, but I did want to move the adoption of the plan as discussed and as described. And uh I if somebody wants to suggest an amendment to include the uh the traffic
and other issues that uh Mr. Melo was talking about. I I just wanted to propose a clean move, a clean uh adoption. Yeah, I I I think that's what we're talking about and not the the the other things would be in a separate um separate communication with council, not
not uh not proposed as amendments. So moved by Mr. um Bodyimer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Taylor. Um uh Mr. Mueller, any any
before we call the role? Not really. There there is a draft resolution that's been prepared. Oh, thank you. Should I would you would you like me to read it or Yes. Okay. Um so this resolution Princon planning
board housing and fair share plan for 20 2535 fourth round whereas Princeton planning board has been organized in accordance with NJSA etc. Whereas on March 20, 2024, Governor Murphy signed PL 2024
C2 into law. Uh, and that's the amended act establishing a new framework for determining and enforcing municipalities affordable housing obligations under the state's Fair Share Act and New Jersey Supreme Court Mount Laurel doctrine. And
whereas per the amended act, the municipality of Princeton, the municipality adopted a binding resolution establishing its present and perspective need uh affordable housing obligation in accordance with the methodology and formula set forth in the
amended act and that's referring to resolution that's already been done and that was done in January. Whereas in accordance with the municipality, in order for municipality to maintain immunity from inclusionary zoning litigation, it also filed a declaratory
judgment action, a DJ action with a certain caption in order to participate in what is calling as per the 2000 this 2024 formulation of a new process, the procedure established by
the amended act. um and to seek an order of compliance with the new law and the Mount Laura doctrine and whereas the Supreme Court superior court subsequently entered an order on March 25, 2025 entitled certain order
establishing the present uh obligation of municipality to be present need obligation municipality to be 60 affordable units and the perspective need obligation the municipality to be 276 affordable units and Elaine obviously talked about that. Whereas the
municipality has now prepared a fourth round housing element fair share plan and appendices in accordance with the order and the amended act in consider with considerable income in input from its planners, municipal staff and attorneys. And whereas a hearing to
consider adoption of the HFSP was duly noticed and held on June 25, 2025. And whereas the planning board has determined that the HFSP is consist consistent with the goals and objectives of the municipalities master plan. I
don't think we need to say that um and that I would take out that phrase. Uh just and that adoption and implementation of the HS FSP are in the public interest and protect the public health and safety and promote the general welfare. Now therefore be it resolved by the planning
board of Prince that that the planning board of Princeton is hereby adopted fourth round housing uh plan element and fair share plan in substantially the form of the draft dated June 13, 2025. Okay. So we have um a motion to adopt
this element of the master plan and a second. Um Carrie, would you call the role please? Mr. Bodakimer. Yes, Mr. Cohen. Yes, Mayor Freda. Yes, Miss Na. Yes, Mr. O'Donnell. Yes, Miss
Pearlmutter. Yes, Mr. Taylor. Yes, Miss Wilson Anderson. Yes, Mrs. Wilson. Yes. Motion carried. Well, um, thank you everyone. I um I could not be happier that every single
person who testified tonight um some with constructive comments and even constructive criticism, but all supported this plan. And I think that is really remarkable.
Um, I guess I'm stating the obvious. Um, but it is so refreshing and um, you know, so to Council President Saxs and and David Cohen and Michelle Peron
Lamrose and of course the mayor and all the council members who have done so much work on this and Kevin Vanheis and of course Justin Leco and Ela Kisham and Michael. I am in awe of of um of your work and that that this you know a
lot of this plan is sort of a dense read. I was way it's a dense right. I don't mind saying I was it's a very dense right but um but um just very
you know well it's been said in many different ways tonight. Um uh there's a lot to like about this plan. So thank you. And if I could just add one thing I I think it puts Princeton on a very positive um path in spite of the fact that Michael Sullivan has a black cat.
uh on his on his lap that he's petting uh for our play on drafted Friday the 13th. Jerry lucky 13. Um well, yeah, I I um
I don't have anything else to say, Mr. Cohen. Um, despite the fact that I know that everybody had scheduled to be here until 11 tonight, I'd like to move that we adjourn. Second. All in favor? I
um thanks everybody and thank you to members of the public who uh attended tonight and um and care about this issue. It is um it's really important to the town and we appreciate your your interest and um commitment to these principles.
All right, night everybody. Uh, see you next time. Yes, we have we have one meeting in July scheduled. See you then, if not before. Okay, good night. Good night.