The Institute for Advanced Study continues to move forward with its 15-unit faculty housing project on seven acres of land adjacent to Princeton Battlefield, despite renewed calls to halt construction С this time from “The Save Princeton Coalition,” a newly-created group of nine organizations.

The Princeton Battlefield Society (PBS), along with the Washington D.C.-based Civil War Trust (CWT), which has offered to purchase the disputed property for $4.5 million, has opposed the project from its inception, and last week they joined with seven other groups in forming a coalition of historic preservation and conservation groups and sending a letter to the Institute’s Board of Trustees, urging that IAS “cease its development plans and pursue alternate building locations for the faculty housing project.”

The Institute responded to the request last Friday in a statement claiming that the Coalition letter “materially misstates facts” and wrongly “implies that the Institute is acting irresponsibly, paying no heed to preservationist concerns.”

The Institute cited its long-term contributions to and support for the Battlefield Park, describing the letter from the project’s opponents as “clearly part of a PR campaign by the Civil War Trust and the Princeton Battlefield Society to repeat misstatements that have been unequivocally rejected by the courts.”

Including the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Parks Conservation Association, the National Coalition for History, the Cultural Landscape Foundation, the American Association for State and Local History and the American Revolution Institute of the Society of Cincinnati, along with the PBS and CWT, the coalition of conservation and historic preservation groups accused the Institute of “proceeding with plans to destroy one of the most significant historic sites in the nation … where George Washington launched a daring counterattack that secured victory at Princeton and saved an American Revolution that appeared lost less than two weeks before.”

The IAS statement disputed the Coalition’s assertion regarding the location of the central events of the Battle of Princeton, and noted the Institute’s accommodation to the concerns of historians and preservationists.

The Institute argued that it had incorporated extensive changes to the faculty housing plans in accordance with public input, moved the project further away from the Park, adjusted the profiles and materials of the housing units and enhanced the landscaped screen between the site and the Park. Beyond the seven acre housing site, the Institute claimed, “we will perpetually preserve the remaining 14 acres adjacent to the Park, at no cost to the public.”

Additionally, the Institute stated that, more than 40 years ago, it “sold 32 acres of its own land to the State of New Jersey, enlarging the Park by 60 percent.”

The Coalition’s appeal to cease construction was accompanied by a renewed offer from the Civil War Trust to buy the disputed tract of land and a request to meet with Institute Trustees.

Neither the Coalition letter to IAS nor their follow-up press release mentioned the Battlefield Society’s January 7 letter claiming wetlands on the site and giving 60-day notice of intent to sue the IAS under the federal Clean Water Act. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), after several investigations, stated that there were no wetlands on the site and that the Institute does not require permits from the DEP.