The Princeton Zoning Board of Adjustment must reschedule a public hearing on a developer’s request for a use variance to build housing on the former Princeton Italian-American Sportsmen’s Club property because of deficiencies in the public notice for the application.
Zoning Board of Adjustment attorney Karen Cayci advised the board at its Oct. 7 special meeting that there were issues with the public notice and that the board would have to set another date for the public hearing. The meeting lasted less than five minutes.
Toll NJ LLC, which would like to develop the 5-acre parcel for housing, needs a use variance because residential uses are not permitted in the OR-2 Office Research zone. The property is located at 8 Founders Lane, off Terhune Road.
If the use variance is granted, Toll NJ LLC would return to the zoning board to seek preliminary and final site plan approval for its proposed 28-unit townhouse development. Of the 28 townhouses, six would be set aside as affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. The rest would be market-rate units.
The final design of the development has not been prepared, pending the granting of the use variance. The applicant has tentatively proposed amenities that include a 2,000-square-foot dog park, a bocce ball court and an outdoor bicycle parking rack with 18 spaces.
Currently, there is a one-story masonry building, an asphalt driveway and a 28-space asphalt parking lot on the property. There are concrete and paver walkways and a gazebo. All would be demolished to make way for the townhouse development.
The 5-acre parcel that Toll NJ LLC would like to develop is all that remains of the original 75-acre parcel that was the site of the Princeton Italian-American Sportsmen’s Club.
Princeton has had a significant Italian-American population, many of whom arrived in Princeton in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some worked as stonemasons, carpenters and foremen for Matthews Construction Co., which built many of the buildings on the Princeton University campus.
While the Italian immigrants formed various organizations in Princeton, some of their descendants, many of whom were World War II veterans, started a new organization that they thought would appeal to a wider segment of the Italian-American community.
They formed the Princeton Italian-American Sportsmen’s Club in 1947 and acquired 75 acres of land off Terhune Road for their clubhouse. The group sold 50 acres of the 75-acre parcel to Princeton Research Park to raise money to build a clubhouse.
Faced with increasing costs, the members sold another 20 acres to a developer who built the Governor’s Lane development. The clubhouse sits on the remaining 5 acres, which are to be sold to Toll NJ LLC, the contract purchaser of the property.
