Princeton Planning Board Unanimously Approves Amended Plans for Faculty Housing

The Institute for Advanced Study’s amended plans for Faculty housing received unanimous approval (6–0) from the Princeton Planning Board yesterday evening. The approved amended plan entails a minor shift in the eastern boundary of the project to take it out of a stream corridor regulated by the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission (DRCC), which voted against the Institute's application in January 2014. In casting its vote, the Board agreed with the Township planning and engineering staff that the Institute had met the requirements for approval. The Institute’s successful application to build eight townhouse units and seven single-family homes on a seven-acre parcel of private land adjacent to its campus is essential to its future as a residential community of scholars.

Robbert Dijkgraaf, Institute Director and Leon Levy Professor, stated, “We are very pleased to receive approval for this amendment to our Faculty housing plans. One of the defining characteristics of the Institute for Advanced Study is its residential nature, where Faculty and visiting scholars from all over the world are encouraged to think and share. This plan enables us to maintain this essential quality of the Institute, which provides an interactive and stimulating intellectual environment.”

The amended project site plan does not extend beyond the boundaries originally approved by the Planning Board in 2012; this has been achieved by shrinking the size of the single-family home lots. Additionally, the boundary of the project closest to the Battlefield Park is identical to the version of the project unanimously approved by the Planning Board. The basic layout of the townhouses, the access road, and the building lots remains unchanged, and no lot line has moved by more than 40 feet. The screen of trees and other plantings on the west side of the project, between the project and the Battlefield Park, is unchanged as well. In all respects, this project layout is a very minor amendment to the plan previously approved by the Princeton Planning Board in 2012.

The Institute is proud to be a part of the Princeton community and to have contributed to Princeton’s distinguished history. Its tradition of support for the natural and historical environment is evident through the conservation in perpetuity of the Institute Woods and farmland (more than 78 percent of the Institute’s land holdings), as well as in its concern for needs of the community in developing its Faculty housing plan. Implementation of the Institute’s plan for Faculty housing is essential if it is to maintain its mission for future generations of scholars. More information about the Institute’s Faculty housing plans and the preservation and historical contexts is available on the Institute’s website.