Plans for the Princeton Center for the Arts and Education (PCAE), which plans to open at St. Joseph’s Seminary in September, have made it past Plainsboro’s Development Review Committee and will head to the Planning Board in June and July.
The Development Review Committee passed two sets of plans associated with the project onto the Planning Board after reviewing them on May 17. First, Congregation of the Mission of St. Vincent DePaul, which runs the seminary at 75 Mapleton Road, has applied for a major subdivision of the seminary property with variances. Those plans will go before the Planning Board at its next meeting on Monday, June 20.
In addition, the PCAE has applied for a preliminary and final site plan approval with variances for the same property, which will head to the board in July.
Along with the American Boychoir School, the French American School of Princeton and the Wilberforce School will operate at what will be known as the Princeton Center for Arts & Education (PCAE).
According to Les Varga, the township’s director of planning and zoning, a few minor issues with the plans still need to be resolved, including the staging of the parking area and some engineering work. Because of the extra work involved with those issues, the site plans will head to the board in July. “It’s not going to make the deadline to get in for the June meeting,” he said. “It’s just a matter of timing.”
When asked whether the work would impact the opening of the school in September, Varga said, “there is talk about doing an interim plan” that would be carried out while construction work is taking place. This would enable the PCAE to open in September. The plan would have to ensure the circulation could be done through the schools so that it is not disruptive or unsafe, he said.
“It’s going to be tight, but we knew that coming into it,” Varga said. Other than those minor issues, everything else with the plans is straightforward, he added.
The PCAE is a nonprofit entity and has signed a 20-year renewable lease with the seminary, with the American Boychoir being the lead institution on site. The ability to economize was one of the reasons the schools decided to join efforts. All three schools will reportedly begin operating at the site in late August.
This past fall the Township Committee adopted two ordinances to rezone the St. Joseph’s Seminary property to allow for educational and cultural arts uses on site as well as for a cemetery zone.
The buildings on site are now zoned for educational and arts type uses, including for performance areas, practice areas, dormitories, eating space, and other uses associated with a school.
Because the site was rezoned, the process was much smoother and quicker, says Varga. If it had not been rezoned, “they would have had to have received use variances first, which would have put the whole process in front of the Zoning Board,” and not directly to the Planning Board.
The French American School, which offers classes for students in pre-K through sixth grade, has locations on All Saints Road in Princeton and on Carter Road in Lawrence. Wilberforce, a private Christian school, currently leases space from the Princeton Church of Christ on River Road.
The PCAE, which has received a grant from the New Jersey Cultural Trust, also plans to raise $2 million to bring the seminary buildings into code compliance.
