Community Master Plan: Princeton Planning Board Unveils New Details

PRINCETON, NJ – Princeton has been in the process of updating it current master plan and last week, planning consultants made a presentation to the Planning Board.

During the meeting held Thursday, Oct. 19, Michael Sullivan, a consultant from Clarke Caton Hintz presented a summary of Princeton’s updated Community Master Plan, culminating a year and a half of research, collaboration, and community outreach.

Before the presentation, Planning Director Justin Lesko provided an overview of the Master Plan process, underlining its extensive community involvement.

“From the survey respondents and listening sessions alone we had over 7,000 responses,” Lesko said. “And this does not count the public input gathered from over 20 committee meetings, technical and economic interviews, tabling events, social media engagement, and 1-on-1 conversations.”

There was no public comment during the meeting, as the Planning Board members wanted the public to have a complete copy of the near-finished master plan to read and digest.

But the public can make comments and express their views during the Nov. 9 meeting.

According to Sullivan, Princeton needs more housing, especially small dwelling units. The current housing shortage adversely affects various aspects of municipal life including traffic, parking and economic growth.

“The Municipality is committed to enabling the development of more housing, especially “missing middle” housing accessible to smaller households,” according to Sullivan’s presentation.

“This housing will be primarily within the downtown, the area surrounding it and the Princeton Shopping Center.”

Sullivan said that the land use plan element was the basis for community zoning. The idea is not to overdevelop but to “create a unified zoning ordinance, focus higher residential density within and around downtown and in mixed-use centers, and maintain progressively lower densities outside the downtown,” Sullivan said.

He also noted that changing climate is posing an urgent threat, and it will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable residents.

The master plan will direct new housing away from open space while protecting Princeton’s important environmental features.

Throughout the course of his two-hour presentation, Sullivan explained various facets of the plan, and summarized recommendations associated with each element of the plan.

This entailed a thorough discussion of the methodologies and best practices that informed its creation, an exploration of its overall structure and content, and an analysis of how the recommended actions align with Princeton’s Smart Growth principles.

“Board members are glad to see the plan coming together”, Board chair Louise Wilson said, “There was some excellent feedback and suggestions, especially on the topic of thinking through metrics that will enable Princeton to evaluate progress toward achieving critical goals articulated in the plan. The plan is meant to be actionable, not gather dust on a shelf. We look forward to hearing from the public in November.”

The next step in the process is the Planning Board meeting on Nov. 9, where a public hearing will take place. After public comment has been heard, the board will deliberate and vote on whether or not to adopt the Community Master Plan.

To learn more about the Community Master Plan elements, and project timeline, and sign up to receive process updates, visit: https://engage.princetonmasterplan.org/.

Residents can see the Community Master Plan presentation here and view the entire Oct. 19 meeting here.

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