To the Editor:
We now know of the Medical Center’s original commitment to the Princeton community—and its breach of that commitment. On May 26, 2005, Barry Rabner (president and CEO of the Medical Center at Princeton) said at a Planning Board hearing: “It is our intent to do everything we can to work with the community, and work with this board, in developing a plan that has broad public support. Because it is clear certainly to us, I think to anyone who has done any work in Princeton, that unless there is a plan that has that support, it simply won’t be approved . . . When we select a developer we are not going to simply pick the developer that proposes to pay the most. We need a developer that understands and embraces the plan that is finally approved. We need a developer that understands our neighbors, understands Princeton, and understands what it takes to get this project accomplished” (from unofficial transcripts, available from Daniel A. Harris, dah43@comcast.net)
Well said, in friendship with the Princeton community. The plan to which Mr. Rabner refers is one that the Hospital itself commissioned. Its chief features are: retention of the hospital “towers” for 260 housing units, 20 town homes (total density: 280, as agreed with the community), a public green park of 35,000 square feet, with public walkways “crossing the site” leading to public playgrounds (public open space could be as much as 50,000 square feet), a public fitness center and local retail shops along Witherspoon Street. The entire project would have been green, sustainable. What happened? Mr. Rabner picked “the developer that proposes to pay the most”—a reputed $36MM. There was at least one other bid, possibly more than one, for around $32MM (a number “heard on the street”). For a $4M differential (a smidge more than 10% below the top bid but less than .75% of the reported $537MM cost of the new hospital, Mr. Rabner has done what?—contracted with AvalonBay.
We know what AvalonBay proposes: a site plan that violates Borough Code and the Master Plan on which Mr. Rabner himself worked so hard in over 75 meetings with community/neighborhood people—a monolith five stories high in a 1- and 2-story neighborhood, an all-wood building (potential firetrap), with no walkways through the site, no green public park, no sustainable green building. No nothing. AvalonBay contributes to its corporate investor, not to the Princeton community. AvalonBay wants to co-opt Princeton by calling its development “AvalonPrinceton.”
How will Mr. Rabner rectify his breach of trust with the community? How can he face members of the Planning Board who heard him speak in 2005. What can he do now to push AvalonBay to comply with all of Borough Code? He and citizens’ groups are stakeholders in the upcoming vote of the Planning Board on the AvalonBay application. It’s high time for him to act, and render himself accountable for his words.
Joseph McGeady
John Street
So many people, including the letter writer, wouldn't know what compliance with code means if they tripped over it, wouldn't know great design if they tripped over it, and are just tolerated because they happen to live here - not because they have any expertise or knowledge of the topics they seem so willing to comment on, over and over and over.
In researching the letter writer (Google is a wonderful thing), I wondered how long before he'd bring up A2586. If the local municipalities would simply do their jobs in a timely fashion, and not listen for months and years to clueless opinion-filled locals instead of deciding what's allowable or not under existing zoning, universities wouldn't be trying to get a waiver for local zoning oversight. Local appointed board officials in many communities have forgotten their role is to decide if a proposed land use fits with existing zoning or land use approaches, and to do so in a timely fashion, not to hear every last argument from every last person. Perhaps a compromise would be to require any person or group that sues to block a zoning or land use request to pay the legal fees of the other side if the person or group loses their suit. That would put some skin in the game beyond a little hot air.