The Princeton Planning Board has approved the redevelopment of a former office building at 29 Thanet Circle into an 85-unit inclusionary housing development.
All of the units in the new development, which is being built by Toll NJ I LLC, will be for sale. Most new inclusionary housing developments are rental apartment buildings.
An inclusionary housing development includes a mix of market-rate units and affordable housing units. Of the 85 units in the new development, 68 will be market-rate units and 17 will be earmarked for affordable housing units.
The development features stacked townhouses, which differs from traditional townhouse design.
A traditional townhouse is designed vertically. The kitchen and living area are on the bottom floor and the bedrooms are on the upper floors. But in a stacked townhouse design, the units overlap each other.
In Unit A, for example, the bottom floor consists of a kitchen and living area. There are bedrooms on the second floor.
In Unit B, a set of steps leads up to the second floor of the building. The kitchen and living area of Unit B are on the second floor and back up to the bedrooms in Unit A. The bedrooms for Unit B occupy the entire third floor.
Meanwhile, the newly approved development consists of 10 buildings of varying sizes. Two of the 10 buildings will contain the 17 affordable housing units, and eight buildings will contain the market-rate townhouses.
The two buildings that are earmarked for affordable housing are in the middle of the development. They are sandwiched between the buildings that hold the market-rate townhouses, and not set aside in a less desirable location.
The affordable housing units will be deed-restricted for at least 30 years, which means they cannot be sold for market-rate prices. The price of an affordable housing unit – whether it is a rental unit or a for-sale unit – is based on household income.
