AvalonBay Unveils New Development Plan for Former Hospital Site

AvalonBay has unveiled revised development plans for the former hospital site and most agree it's an improvement. 

Despite a better plan, it was AvalonBay's refusal to entertain questions and comments in a group setting that left many opponents frustrated and shouting to be heard at Wednesday's open forum at Community Park School

Jon Vogel, AvalonBay's vice president of development for New York and New Jersey, unveiled a PowerPoint presentation to explain the revised development plan, which he said was done with an eye towards addressing residents' concerns about not having a gated community and issues of permeability, number of buildings and building heights. 

"This is a very serious effort to address those concerns," Vogel said. "It's a much better plan from when it was first introduced."

AvalonBay hopes to raze the now-vacant hospital building and construct 280 apartments (56 affordable units), including multilevel townhouses, flats, studios and 3 bedroom rentals. The average size of the apartments will be less than 1,000 square feet.

Instead of one large building, AvalonBay now proposes five buildings throughout the site. Building heights (ranging from two to five stories) would be lowest at the site perimeter; higher buildings will be towards the center of the site. Three townhouse buildings (with stoops and porches) would line Franklin Street. An alley behind the townhouses would provide access to the townhouse garages. The largest building is next to the main parking garage on Henry Avenue, but is separated from the garage by a garden walk. The only private courtyard (125 x 150 ft) inside the largest building would contain an on-site swimming pool (1,200 square feet).

Affordable housing units would be located throughout the two largest buildings. The swimming pool is smaller than in the previous plan, Vogel said. 

The development would be Energy Star certified and comply with silver level LEED standards.

A public road will run through the property, connecting Franklin Street and Henry Avenue. A public park at the corner of Witherspoon and Franklin is larger than the previous plan. 

AvalonBay's proposal requires three variances, Vogel said. 

Princeton resident David Keddie, who recently launched a group called Walkable Princeton said he supports the revised plan. 

"I think it's a good plan and a significant improvement over the first one," Keddie said. "I think it will bring much-needed housing to the walkable core of town and I especially appreciate the addition of a street and new walkways to make the site easier to walk through. It's good that there are now multiple buildings which will blend well with the neighborhood."

Vogel told about 50 attendees at Wednesday first open house session that the company would outline its new proposal, then split up into four corners of the room to take questions on different components of the plan: green initiatives, architecture, landscape design, etc. 

"We don't want to break into small groups." was the cry from the audience. 

But Vogel was undeterred. 

"I am not going to have AvalonBay's reputation sullied," he said. "Our reputation has been dragged through the mud and I'd like to keep it civil."

Alexi Assmus is a trustee with Princeton Citizens for Sustainable Neighborhoods, a grassroots citizens group that objected to the previous AvalonBay plan. She said the company's new plan is better, but still has problems. 

"It's still a huge private community with a private interior courtyard and swimming pool and the side walls are the size of a Manhattan street block," she said.

Assmus was critical of how Vogel was running the meeting, saying she believes AvalonBay was employing the Delphi Technique to squash the objectors' concerns. 

"Developers use it so that there's not cricism heard by everybody," Assmus said. "They want to control the dialogue and not give the opposition a public forum."

AvalonBay's first plan was rejected by the planning board in December. The board cited the developer's failure to meet Princeton's design standards and said AvalonBay did not adequately connect the project to the surrounding neighborhood. 

AvalonBay promptly filed suit against the town and the planning board. But Princeton and AvalonBay officials have been quietly meeting, hoping to find an out-of-court compromise. Now the developer has revised its plans and will bring them before the planning board for approval beginning June 27.