Princeton, NJ advances affordable housing plan for one of its wealthiest neighborhoods

Officials in Princeton, New Jersey, have approved a controversial plan to bring affordable housing to the campus of a 200-year-old theological seminary.

The town council on Monday voted unanimously to rezone part of the Princeton Theological Seminary’s property and clear the way for a local developer to build 238 apartments, about a fifth of which will be accessible to low- and moderate-income residents. The 48 affordable units would be the first in one of the town's wealthiest neighborhoods and in close proximity to its vibrant downtown.

Approving the units would allow the town to get ahead of state affordable housing mandates. But residents who live nearby have fiercely opposed the development, saying the multilevel building will be a traffic-snarling eyesore and questioning whether the seminary should be allowed to move forward with the deal.

The controversy over the development of the seminary is part of a larger effort in New Jersey to create more affordable housing statewide. Over the last decade, the state has added more than 50,000 affordable units to its housing stock. But starting next year, towns like Princeton will face new state mandates to build hundreds more affordable housing units.

“We are responding to that and trying to be responsible and proactive,” said Princeton Town Council President Mia Sacks.

By voting for the project, town officials may also be avoiding a future legal fight. Sacks said that if the town doesn’t approve the development now, it may be forced to in the coming years as part of the state’s affordable housing rules.

Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit tasked with negotiating affordable housing settlements with towns across New Jersey, sent Princeton a letter last Friday that commended the town for its proactive decision to develop affordable housing on this site. Director Adam Gordon told Gothamist that while there wasn’t an imminent plan to sue to ensure affordable housing was planned for the site, the nonprofit had been monitoring the situation for several years.

It remains to be seen how smoothly the development plan will move forward. At the town council meeting on Monday, a coalition of neighbors opposed to it came out in full force. One of the leaders of this opposition, Jo Butler, said they were considering a lawsuit.

Princeton Theological Seminary and its neighbors

In 2017, the seminary tried to replace buildings that had fallen into disrepair with new housing for students. But pushback from neighbors led the school to abandon that plan. After that, the seminary worked with the town to put a portion of its land up for sale.

In 2020, Jamie Herring, a Princeton-based developer who grew up in the town, stepped in. Herring said he saw the seminary as a “perfect opportunity” for a multifamily housing development.

“I view it as one of the most attractive sites in Princeton, for both its location, its neighborhood and the way it's laid out,” he said. “It just was this gem.”

The seminary, established in 1812 as the first seminary for the Presbyterian church in the country, is located just minutes away from Princeton University. It’s also near the former houses of luminaries including Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer.

Anne Stewart, executive vice president at Princeton Theological Seminary, said that as a part of the neighborhood for more than 200 years, the seminary cares deeply about the “flourishing” of the area and views the development as “an important next step” for the school's future.

Butler, whose home abuts the property, worked with her neighbors to establish the Princeton Coalition for Responsible Development, a group aimed at fighting housing development on the seminary land, in 2022. The group maintains that the new housing will exponentially increase traffic and question the seminary’s right to redevelop the property after letting it languish.

Butler’s coalition went a step further than just challenging the development: It sued to invalidate the town’s entire new master plan, a document adopted in 2023 that will guide development in Princeton for the next 10 years. According to legal documents in the case, the group is seeking to have the court rule to cease all development in town.

Herring, who bought the property for an undisclosed sum in 2021, said the deal has been the “most controversial” in his career. He said he’s gone to great lengths to put neighbors at ease, including hosting at least 50 meetings and walking tours with residents since he took control of the property.

Herring added that he’s taken pains to make the project blend in with the neighborhood, such as planning to use top-of-the-line materials and install underground parking to preserve the campus-feel of the location. He said he’s also planning to put in a stormwater mitigation system that the centuries-old property currently lacks.

His plan also calls for buildings to be set back from the street more than usual to placate direct neighbors' concerns about how close the new buildings will be to their property. Some of the requests are going to make it a very expensive project, said Herring.

“But I think at the end of the day, long term, it will be an enormous success,” he noted.

Now that the town has rezoned the site, the developer said he will go through a site plan process that will allow more input from residents. He said he hopes to break ground in late 2025 and anticipates construction will take about two years.

Not their ‘personal backyard’

Sacks, the town council president, said Herring’s project should be able to proceed despite the lawsuit. She added that if residents blocked the project and the town was sued over the affordable housing mandate, they wouldn’t be able to ask for underground parking or other special features.

“This site was not going to be any of the neighbors' personal backyard,” said Sacks.

Gordon from Fair Share Housing Center said that if the project doesn’t move forward, it would be a “significant concern” for his organization.

“We'd have to look at all of our options, including litigation, because here's the reality: There's a huge affordable housing shortage in New Jersey," he said.

Butler of the Princeton Coalition for Responsible Development said her group is weighing its options on whether to continue to fight the seminary development. She said she remains convinced that it's bad for their neighborhood.

“There are a ton of reasons people love to come here, and every day people are at Einstein's house, and then they want to know the way to Oppenheimer's house," said Butler. "It's a big draw and we're going to ruin it. So, does that make me a NIMBY? I guess."