After months of public hearings, and a planning process intended to envision future development of the area currently occupied by the University Medical Center at Princeton, it appears as though municipal approval is in the pipeline, potentially offering a sharper, albeit distant, picture of what could exist on Witherspoon Street after the hospital relocates operations to Plainsboro.
On Monday, Princeton Township Committee is expected to introduce new zoning for the site, which straddles the municipal boundary, and the Borough, after several sessions deliberating on the density, height, and potential impact of new development on surrounding neighborhoods, is slated to hold a public meeting and potentially approve ordinances that outline developmental criteria that would accommodate housing, commercial and office development as well establishing building design standards on site.
Specifically, the Borough is seeking to create two new development zones in the hospital vicinity — one that also includes a hospital-owned two-acre surface parking lot along Franklin Avenue. The current 5.6-acre HMC zone, which allows only hospital use, would become, under the proposal, the MRRO (Mixed Residential Retail Office) zone. A second new zone, the R4A, would dictate development on the Franklin Avenue surface lot. The third ordinance set for introduction effectively mandates building design standards within the MRRO.
The Township, which was expected to introduce zoning codes for its portion of the site at its October 9 session, held off amid minor concerns by the hospital primarily related to the definition of open space and the required number of parking spaces needed to accommodate development in the Borough portion of the site. Located in the Township, the garage is expected to supply parking for any new development.
Proposed Township zoning creates an overlay zone that would permit the garage to remain on site while allowing existing buildings, including the Medical Arts Building at the corner of Henry Avenue and Witherspoon Street to remain, as well as providing the potential for future uses to include offices and retail establishments.
In choreographing zoning between the two municipalities, Planning Director Lee Solow pointed to the need for a legal mechanism that would allow the Borough to fulfill parking requirements of its development with the garage, which lies in the separate municipality of the Township. "If they don't have the garage, they're not going to have the level of development," Mr. Solow said. "It's no different than any other site, it just so happens that municipal boundaries split property ownership."
Princeton HealthCare System, the hospital's parent, has contracted with Philadelphia developer Lubert-Adler to purchase and redevelop the site.
Once zoning is in place, specific designs could follow. The hospital has targeted a 2010 opening date for its state-of-the-art, $350 million facility at the current FMC Corp. site in Plainsboro.