As the Princeton Battlefield Society (PBS) set forth its latest plan to halt the Institute for Advanced Study’s (IAS) faculty housing project last week, the Institute, claiming that “our right to build is not in doubt,” announced that it has received all necessary permits and addressed all reasonable concerns and that the project “is essential if [the Institute] is to be able to sustain its mission for future generations of scholars.”

PBS last Thursday filed notice to sue IAS and its partnering construction and engineering firms in federal court under the Clean Water Act, unless, within 60 days, federal (Environmental Protection Agency) or state (Department of Environmental Protection) authorities stop the 15-unit housing project. 

PBS cited violations of federal law in the IAS site preparations “for unpermitted discharges into wetlands that are navigable waters” and called for the removal of all fill material, restoration of the wetlands, and fines of $37,500 per day for discharges of dirt and sand onto each of two designated wetlands on the building site.

The Battlefield Society further suggested that the IAS had obtained permits by fraudulent means and claimed that “since the Institute appears to have obtained Letters of Interpretation concerning the site from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection by withholding information and/or providing misleading information, the court would be justified in assessing the full penalty amount for each day of violation.”

A hearing on the controversy in the State Senate Environment and Energy Committee on December 21, 2015, resulted in a letter signed by Senators Bob Smith (D-17), Linda Greenstein (D-14), and Christopher “Kip” Bateman (R-16), requesting that the state DEP issue a stay on the Institute’s construction project “to prevent irreparable harm to the historic site where the Battle of Princeton occurred as well as damage to the existing wetlands.”

The IAS and the DEP were not represented at the hearing. “We were not informed of the hearing by legislative officials and were not asked to attend.” IAS director Robbert Dijkgraaf stated in a letter last Thursday to Institute trustees, faculty, staff, and friends.

“The Institute received two unanimous affirmative Princeton Planning Board approvals, even after four years of persistent challenges by the opposition,” Mr. Dijkgraaf continued. “The two applications spanned six public hearings with extensive expert testimony refuting the opponents’ claims. The Planning Board’s decisions, challenged by the Battlefield Society, resulted in two trial court decisions overwhelmingly affirming the Institute’s right to build. Both the Appellate Division and the New Jersey Supreme Court refused to stay those decisions any further. The Institute holds valid required NJDEP approvals, the propriety of which has been reaffirmed by five site visits, the most recent of which took place in mid-December at Senator Bateman’s request.”

The DEP met with Battlefield Society members and visited the site last week. According to DEP press director Bob Considine, they have been reviewing the case and the available information in the context of the senate committee’s request and “will be getting back to interested parties before the end of this week.”

The IAS has moved forward on ground clearing, with truckloads of sand being delivered to the property, but construction of the eight townhouses and seven single-family houses on the parcel of approximately seven acres has not begun.

Working with the Battlefield Society, the Civil War Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation of the nation’s battlefields, has made offers to buy the land in question, but has been turned down. Mr. Dijkgraaf, claiming a “refusal to engage” on the part of the PBS cited the Institute’s’ “sensitivity to preservation … evident in the project we are about to construct.”