AvalonBay construction plans still in review, likely to start in mid-April

Construction on the planned apartment community in the town of Princeton by housing developer AvalonBay Communities is likely to start in mid-April.

AvalonBay needs to obtain building permits from the state before it can begin construction work, according to Mayor Liz Lempert, adding that these permits have not yet been granted.

The construction plans are still under review, Director of Communications for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Tammori Petty said. She said she could not comment further.

AvalonBay expects the project to be completed in late 2017, with the first apartments finished in 2016, according to its website.

Representatives of AvalonBay did not respond to a request for comment, nor did AvalonBay Vice President of Development Jon Vogel or attorney for AvalonBay Robert Kasuba.

Princeton land use engineer Jack West said the project will be constructed on Witherspoon Street, where the former Princeton Medical Center hospital was located before demolition.

He added that preliminary site work, which includes moving earth,started on Monday.

“As far as starting to put pipe in the ground and do footings, [that will happen] probably sometime in mid-April,” he said.

There will be five residential buildings built in total, West added, including two main apartment buildings and three townhouse buildings that will face Franklin Street. In total, the buildings will hold around 280 units, 56 of which are designated as “affordable housing.”

The construction process will take about two years to complete, he added. The two main apartment buildings will be built at the same time, with the smaller front building completed before the larger one. There is still a possibility that housing will open in stages depending on when construction is completed for a building.

The former Princeton Borough Council was steadfast that AvalonBay development would comply with local rules that 20 percent of housing be “affordable housing,” Lempert said, adding she believed the 56 units of affordable housing would fulfill a need in the town.

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The Edgewater apartment complex in Bergen County that was ravaged in a fire in January was constructed by AvalonBay, which raised concerns over fire safety. AvalonBay decided to exceed current fire safety requirements by installing a more robust sprinkler system that includes sprinklers in the attic and masonry firewalls, Lempert said.

“I believe these improvements are in the best of interests of the future residents, the neighbors and AvalonBay itself,” she said. “I also believe these elements should be required by state law for the safety of all New Jerseyans.”

Lempert is concerned about the scale of the project, she said, noting, however, that it is allowed by zoning rules.

Christina Keddie ’03, a longtime citizen of Princeton, said that although some residents argue that it’s necessary to preserve the town’s character, she believes this only leads to rising housing costs, changing the character of the town to that of a rarified country club where even upper middle-class families are priced out.

“Princeton used to be a place where the people who studied and worked here could afford to live in town,” she said. “This is no longer the case, and that’s entirely because of the restrictions on the supply of housing.”

The town needs more affordable housing units to preserve its character, she said.

“We recognize that development is going to happen, given the number and distribution of jobs and other attractions in Princeton, and want to see that development happen in denser ways, both to protect the larger swaths of ‘greenfields’ in the surrounding area, and to create attractive, walkable, mixed-use development like that in the core of Princeton,” she said.

The housing situation in town most directly impacts University graduate students, as housing has always been in limited supply and many students cannot afford to live in Lakeside Housing or Lawrence Apartments, particularly those who are married and starting families, she said. Some housing in town that is remotely affordable is barely habitable, she added.

“The limited housing stock in town has serious negative consequences for the character of the town, and most impacts the least wealthy and most voiceless residents of our community,” she said.

The AvalonBay construction project has also faced opposition in the past few years from citizen groups, including the Association for Planning at Hospital Site LLC.

Many residents are concerned about environmental and human safety due to potential contamination related to dismantling of biologically hazardous medical equipment. The Association for Planning at Hospital Site received an unfavorable ruling in their case against AvalonBay last April, and did not appeal.

The plaintiff in that suit, Evan Yassky, did not respond to a request for comment.

The lack of suitable off-campus housing is primarily due to price, said former president of the Graduate Student Government Sean Edington GS, who coauthored a March 12 editorial in The Daily Princetonian about graduate housing.

“The annual income of a typical renter in Princeton is about double the annual stipend that most graduate students receive, so grad students are effectively priced out of nearly all of Princeton’s convenient off-campus housing,” he said.

It is likely that this situation would be true for the AvalonBay apartments, with the exception of the low-income units, Edington said.

“Any development that increases the number of convenient Princeton apartments financially accessible to graduate students is a good change in my book,” he said,"but I don’t think this new complex will significantly change the graduate housing situation at Princeton or remove the need for new University graduate housing."

Even if all 56 low-income spots were allocated to graduate students, this would only account for an additional two percent of graduate students, thus making little impact overall, Edington said. The complex also wouldn’t have access to the University’s TigerTransit lines, which many graduate students depend upon for transportation to and from departments, he added.

In University housing, students are part of a residential community, while with off-campus housing, there is also a loss of a sense of community between graduate students, Edington said.

“In the AvalonBay complex — though much closer to campus than existing options in Lawrenceville and Plainsboro — graduate students would still be isolated from the University community,” he said.

James Poole, the University’s manager of graduate housing, deferred comment to Mbugua.

The construction project is not a partnership or joint collaboration between the University and AvalonBay, University spokesperson Martin Mbugua noted.

“This is a private project that is not related to the University’s student housing plan,” he said. “However, graduate students who want to live off campus can seek housing wherever they choose."

The New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing has regional income limits based on taxable income to qualify, and applicants must first qualify for low or moderate income status before purchasing Affordable Housing. For a single individual in 2014, moderate income in Mercer County was considered $51,864, low income was $32,415 and very low income was $19,449.

Qualification does not guarantee affordable housing, because selection criteria includes available units.

Scholarships and fellowship grants are not taxable income as long as they do not exceed expenses, are earmarked for expenses such as room and board or represent payment for teaching, according to the IRS. A tuition reduction for graduate education is tax-free if it is provided by an eligible educational institution and the graduate student performs teaching or research activities for the educational institution.

Graduate students are in a unique position in that many are not officially paid by the University but are often issued stipends for research. There are various tax categories that graduate students might fall under, according to basic tax guidelines published on the Graduate School website. Tuition support is only taxable at the federal level, while assistantships in research and teaching stipends are considered paid salary and are taxable at the state and federal levels.

While most graduate students qualify for affordable housing, it is possible that some may not due to different tax classifications.

The AvalonBay construction project would be favorable if the rents are affordable, Ruthie Birger GS, a student in the ecology and evolutionary biology department, said.

“It would be great if graduate students were eligible for the Affordable Housing units,” she said.

Some of the most affordable graduate student housing was at the University, she said. She added that with the impending demolition of the Butler Apartments, which were affordable, it will be difficult to find housing close to campus that is comparatively inexpensive.

Finding affordable off-campus housing was difficult, as there is a very competitive market for such housing, Ryan Ly GS, a neuroscience Ph.D. candidate, said.

“The AvalonBay construction would create a lot more options for graduate students who are seeking off-campus housing as long as it’s reasonably priced,” he said. “It’s closeby, within biking distance and almost within walking distance.”

One of the main factors that influenced his decision to live closer to campus was the ability to commute without a car, which also meant a tradeoff in terms of rent, he said.

“[Rent] depends on where you are,” he said. “I have friends who pay about $500 a month for housing in a shared house with four or five other people, which is much cheaper than what you can get on campus.”

Ly said his housing costs slightly more than that of friends who live farther away but that it is affordable considering the proximity to campus and space.

“A lot of places are small, like the apartments near Nassau Street, and you pay about $1,200 to $1,500 a month,” he said. “I’m imagining that the AvalonBay housing would be reasonably priced given its distance from Nassau Street and the University, but it’s also a new building, so it might be higher priced than existing housing.”

Kevin Miller GS, also a neuroscience Ph.D. candidate, shares the same housing with Ly and said he agreed that housing close to the University is difficult but not impossible to find.

Olga Lositsky GS, who lives off-campus with family, said she understands the high demand for housing close to campus. Many graduate students live off-campus because there is more control over roommate choice and because they weren’t selected by lottery for desired housing, she said.

“I know that there are several groups of grad students who live on Nassau Street or very close off Nassau Street, like Bank Street and Witherspoon Street, so if they expand the number of apartments in that area, more people might consider living off campus,” she said.

The impact on graduate students seeking off-campus housing depends strongly on the price and quality of the apartments, she added.

“You can find prices in the range of $800 a month for your room to $1,200, but the housing you can get for that same price might be much better quality farther away from campus,” she said.