The Princeton City Council has extended the moratorium on new residential construction for six months. The first moratorium, for 120 days, was adopted in September and city staff had suggested a 150-day extension.
However, council members voted unanimously for a 180-day pause after Assistant City Attorney Grant Lowry said the city had made “reasonable, yet insufficient, progress in alleviating the city’s need to prevent a shortage of essential public facilities and significant need for other public facilities.”
Councilmember Carolyn David-Graves then asked whether a six-month suspension would be better than five months.
City Manager Mike Mashburn said six months would “give us a head start while still not truncating growth entirely.”
“We’re trying to find a way that we grow in a sensible way where we have the right standards, we have the proper plan for roads and thoroughfares in addition to what’s under the ground as well — our utilities — which is another plan we’re working on,” the city manager said.
During the public hearing, Teresa McGuinness said the moratorium “really didn’t mean anything” because there were so many housing projects already in the pipeline.
“You could talk about it until everybody’s blue … 1,000 houses just went through today,” she said.
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