Seeking again to stop construction on an Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) faculty housing project, the Princeton Battlefield Society (PBS) took its long fight to federal court last Thursday, filing a complaint under the Clean Water Act against IAS, its contractor, and its engineers.

The Battlefield Society claims that the proposed IAS construction infringes on unprotected wetlands, though the state Department of Environmental Protection stated in late January that they have found no evidence of that. 

The PBS, in its January 7 letter of intent to sue, cited “unpermitted discharges into wetlands” and called for the removal of all fill material, restoration of the wetlands and a penalty of $37,500 per day for each of two designated wetlands on the building site. The Institute, its engineering firm, Van Note-Harvey Associates, and its construction company, Pillari Bros. Construction Corp, are all liable for almost $14 million each in annual fines, according to Battlefield Society lawyer Bruce Afran. “It’s clear that there are wetlands there,” Mr. Afran claimed.

In additional actions, the Battlefield Society is pursuing appeals in the New Jersey Appellate Division, one on a Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission re-vote in February 2015 to approve the Institute building plan, and the other on the Princeton Planning Board approval of the Institute plan.

Mr. Afran further stated that the Civil War Trust maintains its offer of $4.5 million to buy the disputed land and turn it over to the Battlefield.

The Institute continues to maintain that it “has received all the necessary regulatory approvals to proceed” with the 15-unit housing project, which “meets a critical need for the Institute.

Two weeks ago, the Battlefield Society joined a coalition of eight other historic preservation and conservation organizations to urge IAS to cease development plans that they claimed were destroying an important part of the site of the Battle of Princeton, “among the most significant engagements of the American Revolution.”