The Princeton Planning Board is inching closer to voting to approve or reject a proposal to develop the 1-acre lot behind Jay’s Cycle store on Nassau Street in the municipality’s downtown.
On November 5, the board is set to review an application to redevelop the lot at 245-247 Nassau Street into retail, 98 apartments – including 19 affordable housing units – and off-street residential parking.
Application documents made public by the board state that the residential portion of the mixed-use project will include 18 studios, 44 one-bedrooms, 25 two-bedrooms and 8 three-bedroom apartments.
Access to the subterranean parking lot, a 980-square-foot retail pad, and the residential lobby will be off Nassau Street.
Residential amenities will include a 1,620-square-foot fitness center, a common living room and kitchen, lounge, coworking space, pet spa, and an outdoor elevated courtyard.
The development also includes an 11,500-square-foot green roof.
Professionals working on behalf of the applicant, Hopewell-based firm 245 Nassau, LLC, said that the color and material palette of the proposed building is primarily red thin brick, hexagonal shingle roofs, limestone cladding at the base of the building, as well as fiber cement siding, along with black railing and window trim.
Although board members appeared to be okay with the proposal at the most recent regular meeting on October 15, discussions between the board and the applicant have centered on the project’s impact on the lot’s existing vegetation and the proposed 75-car underground garage.
Dan Dobromilsky, a consultant working on behalf of the board, said that the removal of approximately 86 trees, per the site plan application, remains a substantial concern.
He and board members highlighted that the proposal requires removing a 54-inch Ginkgo tree that has stood in Princeton for about 150 years. However, the consultant conceded that the tree appears to have already been damaged by prior construction and that over half of the trees on site are exotic invasive species, including Norway maple and Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima).
A review from the Princeton Shade Tree Commission submitted to the planning board also noted that removing the trees on site would run counter to the town’s goal of preserving and expanding the existing tree canopy in the municipality.
A review of the site plan application from the Princeton Environmental Commission also raised concerns about removing the existing trees.
Both commissions suggested in their reports that the building be reconfigured to minimize the effect on the neighborhood’s tree canopy.
Mark Cifelli, a senior director at engineering firm PS&S and the civil engineer for the application, told the board that the applicant would replace 108 trees, per the municipality’s code. A portion of those replacement trees, 46, will be planted along the western side of the building and on the green roof. The senior director said that the trees will be a mix of shade trees, ornamental trees, and evergreen trees. The applicant will plant six trees off-site and either work with the municipality to plant additional trees off-site or pay into the municipality’s tree fund for the remaining trees.
Chairwoman Louise Wilson remarked that it would be nice if the developer could work to preserve the existing trees on the lot. She also said that it would be nice to plant the replacement trees within the same neighborhood.
“I know what our ordinance says, but to say that we are going to replace a 54-inch diameter tree with four two-and-a-half-inch diameter trees, I just don’t get it,” Mayor Mark Freda said during the meeting. “There is just no way that that is in any way correct, right, or what should be done here.”
Board member Claudia Wilson Anderson also suggested that the planning board include a condition of approval requiring that deciduous trees removed from the site be replaced with deciduous trees off-site, rather than evergreen trees that serve as nothing more than buffers for the building’s roof.
While the board could approve the application this week, officials may add additional conditions to the final approval. The board will continue to review the application on November 5.
