Princeton Battlefield Society (PBS) is stepping up its efforts to halt Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) faculty housing construction, with appeals planned to overturn recent decisions approving the project.

Claiming that the Institute has been “handing out misinformation to the public,” Kip Cherry, vice president of the PBS, stated, “PBS intends to continue its appeals and plans to file a new lawsuit over the coming weeks.” On June 22, the U.S. District Court in Trenton denied the PBS request for a preliminary injunction to halt Institute construction on a seven-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Battlefield, stating that the PBS had not established its case under the Clean Water Act. 

PBS will base its appeal, according to Ms. Cherry, on the accusation that “the IAS purposefully misled the Department of Environmental Protection” in failing to report wetlands on the site.

Ms. Cherry also stated that the PBS appeal of a Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission (DRCC) 2015 decision would be heard in September. The DRCC originally rejected the housing project application, then revoted and approved it, and the PBS is appealing the validity of the revote and approval.

IAS Director of Communication Christine Ferrara reiterated the Institute’s commitment to proceed with the construction project, claiming to have accommodated preservationists’ issues and received all necessary approvals. “We’ve been very transparent in vetting concerns that the Battlefield Society had,” she said. “We have received numerous approvals for the project. We have everything we need to proceed.”

Ms. Ferrara went on to emphasize that “the Institute did help to create the Battlefield Park, and these facts tend to get lost in all of the public dialogue.”

The Institute last week revised the wording (quoted in a June 29 Town Topics front-page article) on its website — changing the word “donate” to “convey” — to communicate the fact that in 1973 the Institute sold a 32-acre parcel to the Battlefield Park to increase the Park’s size by 60 percent.

As part of the 1997 Green Acres Agreement, the IAS, as reported on its website though the PBS disputes the wording there, was granted an easement for $14 million, relinquishing development rights on an additional 589 acres of land.

In the ongoing controversy, Ms. Cherry reiterated an offer by the Civil War Trust to purchase the disputed housing site from the Institute for $4.5 million. Emphasizing the historical importance of the land, she claimed that “this site, based on archeological evidence and original accounts, has been documented to be the heart of Washington’s counterattack.”