Plans for new construction at the Princeton Middle School and Littlebrook Elementary were discussed by the Princeton Planning Board at their meeting on September 25. Both schools will be getting major additions, which have been funded by a school bond passed by local referendum in 2024. (See previous report: “Princeton School Board Unveils New Renderings Of Local Schools After Bond-funded Improvements“)

Princeton’s neighborhood schools are often considered an asset because they are in town and a lot of students can walk or cycle to them. On the other hand, the schools require ‘conditional use authorization’ to operate in neighborhoods that are zoned for residential uses. The Planning Board therefore has some leverage to set conditions and requirements on the planned construction projects at the local schools, especially if they are found to cause excessive noise or traffic.

In practice, the Planning Board members did not have much to say about the large additions that are proposed at the front and rear of the Princeton Middle School. There was some discussion about whether the emergency generator was shielded sufficiently to reduce noise pollution in the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, the generator will run for only a short time each week for testing, and it will be surrounded by a barrier to reduce noise.

The issue of parking caused more questions, however. Traffic modeling suggests that the expansion at the Middle School will add about 60 to 70 additional cars to local roads during rush hour, an increase that is not considered very significant. In terms of parking, the School Board’s consultants found that the two parking lots at the Middle School provide 131 spaces, and a maximum of 127 are expected to be needed after the construction is completed. There will therefore not be any attempt to provide more car parking at the site, and no electric vehicle charging stations are proposed. Some minor changes to crosswalks and surrounding roads are proposed, such as relocating ADA parking spaces and trimming trees at intersections to improve sight lines.

On the other hand, the School Board’s consultants found that there was a significant shortage of bicycle parking at the Princeton Middle School. Bike racks were apparently overflowing at the time that the parking survey was done, in June of 2025. The new construction will therefore come with new bike racks, “over and above” what the town’s bike parking ordinance recommends.

Planning Board member David Cohen noted that the existing bike racks at the Princeton Middle School are a bad design and poorly installed, and urged the use of better bike racks as well as more bike racks. Cohen was also skeptical about the parking study. He suggested that the survey done in June may have overestimated the amount of cycling to the school, and underestimated the demand for car parking, because it was done at a time of year when the weather favored cycling.

One possible way to increase parking would be to convert grassy areas at the accessory parking lot on Guyot Avenue into new parking spaces. Speaking in public comment, a local resident was open-minded about that idea, but hoped that the parking lot would not be expanded further to the east. Ultimately the School Board’s consultants agreed that they would stick with the existing amount of parking, but continue to monitor the situation and talk to staff in the town if demand increased beyond what could be reasonably accommodated.

Board member Owen O’Donnell was not satisfied about the plan to add no electric vehicle charging stations. Fredi Permletter, a Board member who is also on the Princeton Environmental Commission, agreed that EV charging was highly desirable. The School Board’s consultant replied that EV charging stations were not included in the plan as “an issue of expense, an issue of cost”, and worried that dedicating spaces for EV charging would take away parking spots from somebody else.

The ambivalence toward electric vehicle charging from the School Board’s professionals is typical of the slow pace of transitioning away from gasoline use in New Jersey. Princeton has relatively few public EV charging stations, and no fast chargers at all. Democrats in the New Jersey legislature, including Princeton’s elected representatives Roy Freiman and Andrew Zwicker, last year voted to end the sales tax exemption on electric cars, and enacted the highest annual fee for electric vehicle ownership in the world *. The representatives of the School Board ultimately agreed to ‘consider’ whether it might be possible to provide electrical infrastructure to support EV charging.

The Planning Board approved the construction plans for the Princeton Middle School. Construction is expected to begin in March 2026. Plans for Littlebrook Elementary were considered at the same meeting. Plans for Community Park Elementary School will be considered at a special Planning Board meeting next Thursday, October 16.

• Note added 10.10.25: Whereas all three state legislators representing Princeton (Andrew Zwicker, Roy Freiman, Mitchelle Drulis) voted for bill A4011, which established the world’s highest annual fee for EV ownership, only Zwicker voted in favor of A4702, which eliminated the sales tax exemption for EVs.

Related materials (via princetonnj.gov):

• Site plan drawings showing locations of new additions to Princeton Middle School
• Architectural drawings of new construction at Princeton Middle School
• Planning Department memo about proposed construction at Princeton Middle School.
• Traffic Report regarding expansion at Princeton Middle School
• Video of the meeting: