Delay in Getting Princeton Schools' Long Range Facilities Plan Causes Postponement of Planning Board Review

Princeton, NJ – The blogosphere got a little exercised earlier this week over a relatively small change to the agenda for the Planning Board meeting this Thursday, September 5, at 7 p.m.

As TAPinto Princeton Community News reported on September 2 in its weekly update of what’s happening on the municipal agenda, this was destined to be a quiet week, made even more quiet by the fact that the September 5 Planning Board review of the public schools’ expansion plans at Community Park, Littlebrook, and the Middle School had been marked as “postponed to a future date” – not yet specified.

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Oh well, if you follow the Planning Board month in and month out you know that postponements happen. Applicants’ paperwork turns out to be incomplete. The Planning Department reviews the application but then there’s a last-minute change that needs to be accommodated. Oh well.

But this week the blogosphere got excited. School Board and district officials were unsure why the subject had been pulled. The Planning Department and the Planning Board did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation. Factual note: All this occurred immediately before and after Labor Day weekend.

Here now the facts (spoiler alert – the postponement is not likely to affect the timing of the referendum that would finance the expansion and renovation plans), as recounted by Louise Wilson, Planning Board chair:

In late July, Princeton Public Schools (PPS) submitted a request for the Board to review capital projects at three schools. The Planning Board is required to review the School Board’s capital plan in light of a current Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP) for the public schools. In mid-August, the Planning Office realized that the schools’ Long-Range Facilities Plan was last updated in 2018 and was out of date.

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[A Long-Range Facilities Plan must include information on enrollment projections and proposed enrollments, existing and proposed sites, assets, and rooms, future projects, and the like. Notably, the 2018 Long Range Facilities Plan does not include the improvements that have been proposed to these three schools; rather, it includes things like a school for 5th and 6th graders at the site of the former Valley Road School.]

Right away, the School representatives were asked if they had a more recent LRFP. They advised that they had submitted a Major Amendment to the State Department of Education regarding the planned referendum expansions.

Last Wednesday, August 28, the Planning Office indicated to PPS, through the Schools’ attorney, that we needed to postpone review until we received the updated Long-Range Facilities Plan. The meeting agenda was updated to reflect the postponement, and the Planning Office asked the schools to withdraw the capital review request until the LRFP issue was resolved.

The schools then informed the Planning Office that State Department of Education had reviewed and approved a Major Amendment to the Long-Range Facilities Plan, dated August 28.

It’s good to know that the State has approved an amended Long Range Facilities Plan. However, the Planning Office has not yet received the updated Plan, in draft or approved form. Once the updated Long-Range Facilities Plan is in hand, staff will be able to prepare a memo for the Planning Board based on it and the Master Plan. We hope very much to be able to do that by the next Board meeting on Thursday, September 19.

I hope this background is not interpreted as bickering about process or technicalities. As important as those things can be, the most important factor is the Planning Board’s ability to review the Princeton Public Schools’ capital plan in the proper, full context. Without the updated Long Range Facilities Plan, Planning Board members cannot do the job we are sworn to do.

Louise Wilson, Chair, Princeton Planning Board

Princeton Planning Board, Thursday, September 5, 7 p.m.: Via Zoom .

Application : Steven Waskow, Minor Subdivision with variances – Lot Line Adjustment, 537 and 561 Stockton Street. Waskow and a neighbor propose to adjust their property lines to enable Waskow to move his house to higher ground to avoid flooding from the nearby Stony Brook.

Discussion: An ordinance referral from Council regarding an amendment to regulations governing solar panel installations.

According to a memo from Planner Justin Lesko, “Solar panels are currently allowed as accessory uses to residences in all residential districts of the former Township and in all but four zoning districts of the former Borough, and this will not change.

“Rather, the revisions include allowing solar panels on structures, such as detached garages, rather than just dwellings; allowing solar panels to project above a roof by up to eight inches, compared to up to six inches now; removing language regarding existing roofs on existing dwellings and adding in roof-mounted solar panels to clarify the intent of the ordinance.

“These roof-mounted solar panels will continue to be exempt from certain other bulk requirements, such as setback to height ratio and required setbacks. (Note that solar panels for all other uses in all zoning districts are subject to site plan review.)”

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