Princeton Battlefield Society Files Lawsuit to Block Institute Housing

A group filed a lawsuit Thursday hoping to block a housing development on what many believe to be the site of Gen. George Washington's counterattack and first victory against the British during the Battle of Princeton in 1777. 

The suit, filed by the Princeton Battlefield Society, is not a surprise to many who have been following the saga for more than a decade. 

Last month the Institute received unanimous approval from the Princeton Regional Planning Board to build 15 houses and townhouses on a parcel of land it owns adjacent to the Institute. On the other side of the land sits Princeton Battlefield State Park. 

Now members of the Princeton Battlefield Society claim the housing project will destroy the Battlefield site and is barred under the terms of a 1992 settlement agreement between the Institute and the Township of Princeton. 

“The development, intended to provide housing for 15 faculty members, will completely obliterate the Battlefield site that has remained untouched for the last 235 years,” said the group’s attorney, Bruce Afran. “The Institute housing plan will destroy what is probably the most significant Revolutionary War site left in the United States along with critical archaeological and historical evidence.”

The Princeton Battlefield Society filed suit in the Chancery Division of the Superior Court in Trenton, claiming the the project will destroy the Battlefield site and is barred under the terms of a 1992 settlement agreement between the Institute and the Township of Princeton. 

The Institute for Advanced Study was founded in 1930 and fosters research into fundamental problems in the sciences and humanities. Albert Einstein was one of the Institute's first faculty members and J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led a team in the creation of the atomic bomb, was a former director.

The Institute prides itself on being a residential campus, but a lack of available land and skyrocketing home prices means fewer faculty live within walking distance of campus: from more than 60 percent three decades ago to fewer than 30 percent today, according to Institute Director Peter Goddard.

A representative for the Institute for Advanced Study said Thursday she had heard about the lawsuit, but that the Institute had not yet been formally notified and could not comment directly. Still, she said the arguments presented at the Planning Board hearings were not persuasive. 

"We don't think the claims hold any merit and obviously the unanimous decision of the planning shows that we're in full compliance and what we need to proceed," Senior Public Affairs Officer Christine Ferrara said. 

Historians believe the Battle of Princeton took place throughout much of Princeton, including large parts of the Princeton University campus. Several people testified before the Planning Board that the best way to honor a Battlefield is to commemorate what happened there through interpretive signage, rather than only through preservation. 

Thursday's lawsuit alleges that a 1992 settlement that the Institute reached with Princeton Township that was intended to preserve the Battlefield site from future residential development. 

“The 1992 Agreement required the Institute to build any residential development on a part of its property far removed from the Battlefield site,” Afran said. 

The suit also claims that the 1992 agreement prohibits the Institute from building cluster housing on the site since cluster housing was not in the E-2 zoning code at the time of the settlement."

Under that agreement, the Institute’s zoning rights were limited to zoning rules in force in 1992,” Battlefield Society President Jerald Hurwitz said.  

Afran said Princeton Battlefield Society said it plans to separately appeal the Planning Board decision.

The Battlefield Society also plans to pursue legal action regarding what it claims are unreported wetlands on the site that the Institute did not disclose when it sought permission from New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to construct housing on the site.  

“These wetlands were mapped by the Institute itself in 1990,” Afran said.  “But they were not disclosed by the Institute when it applied for permission to build the current housing project. If the Institute had disclosed these wetlands, it almost certainly would not have received state wetlands approval.”