Efforts to prevent the Institute for Advanced Study from building faculty housing on land many believe is the site of the crucial counter-attack at the Battle of Princeton escalated last Friday with the filing of an appeal in Mercer County Superior Court. The Princeton Battlefield Society is challenging the approval by the Princeton Regional Planning Board for the planned 15-unit development.

The housing site, which was approved by the Planning Board last spring after several contentious meetings, is part of the land on the Princeton Battlefield that was designated last month as one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places for 2012 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The appeal says that the approval by the Planning Board violates terms of a 1992 settlement between Princeton Township and the Institute, defining specific zoning limitations. The Battlefield Society includes 12 counts that challenge the approval. “The Planning Board failed numerous times to properly support its decision with proper findings of fact,” says Bruce Afran, attorney for the Battlefield Society, in a press release. “We vigorously disagree with the Planning Board’s decision to allow this 15-unit development to move forward.”

Specifically, the appeal says that the 1992 settlement does not permit cluster housing. “And in any event, the Planning Board’s findings violated the municipal ordinance’s requirements for cluster housing by not meeting the requirements for an ‘As of Right Plan,’” Mr. Afran says. “An As of Right Plan is a conceptual site layout that must meet zoning requirements, in this case one-acre lots that are not encumbered by buffers or setbacks or other lot use limitations.”

Additionally, the appeal disagrees with the Planning Board’s acceptance that the historic and archaeological features of the site would be protected should the project move forward.

The Planning Board was unanimous in its approval of the Institute’s plans for seven single-family homes and eight townhouses on a seven-acre portion of the campus. In addition to a 200-foot buffer zone next to the Battlefield Park that would be permanently preserved as open space, the Institute has promised to provide interpretive materials about the history of the park for visitors. Proponents of the plan say that the housing development respects its historic setting and does not adversely affect preserved farmland and the Institute Woods.

Battlefield Society members say the Institute claims the site did not play a significant role in the Battle of Princeton, but that the opposite is true. “Governor Edge, as far back as 1944, recognized that this site was critical to understanding the counterattack, and his map showing the properties that were to be acquired to become part of the park, included this parcel as an essential part of the park,” says Jerald Hurwitz, president of the Battlefield Society.

The recent appeal marks the second challenge by the Battlefield Society to the Institute project. After the Planning Board’s approval of the plans last April, Mr. Afran filed a complaint in the Chancery Court on behalf of the Battlefield Society, asking for a judicial determination on various site limitations created by the 1992 agreement.

The designation of the Battlefield last month by the National Trust as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2012 “puts a focus on the issue at a national level,” says Kip Cherry, first vice president of the Battlefield Society. “But even more importantly, it shows that the National Trust has endorsed the importance of the site.”

As of press time Tuesday, the Institute had not been served with the appeal so no comment was issued.