NEW BRUNSWICK – For decades, Mine Street near Rutgers University has been known for its mix of 20-somethings, affordable rentals and comfortable walking distance to bars, eateries and small offices.

Lined by decades-old homes with front porches, peaked roofs, attics, small gardens and the like, Mine Street – nestled between Easton and College Avenues – is home to Rutgers’ student-run newspaper, The Daily Targum, as well as the Theta Chi and Delta Gamma fraternities.

The neighborhood, according to those who live here, is a comfortable combination of students, homeowners and renters.

This week, a Rutgers-backed proposal to build a multi-million dollar, four-story apartment building – which, among other things, would double the population of Mine Street – is being met with resistance from residents who have lived here for years.

“These are going to be tall, boxy, impersonal-looking buildings,” said Jennifer O’Neill, who bought her home here more than a decade ago.

“Every building here has kept its residential feel,” O’Neill said. “The flavor of this neighborhood will change so dramatically if this is allowed to go forward.”

O’Neill and her neighbors say the proposed development will fail to fit the character and style of existing homes. They are also concerned about what the added traffic and population will do to the infrastructure.

Devco’s $10 million proposal is part of the $330-million College Avenue Redevelopment Area, which seeks to dramatically redesign the Rutgers-New Brunswick community. The Renaissance of Rutgers and New Brunswick, as it’s being called, is spearheaded by university alums and non-profit organizations.

PLANNING BOARD MEETING

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Construction Management Associates will make two variance requests to allow them to proceed with a plan to build a $10 million, four-story apartment building on Mine Street.

The requests will be made at the New Brunswick Planning Board meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 11 in city hall council chambers, 78 Bayard St..

Among Devco’s prior accomplishments are a new Middlesex County administration building; a cluster of new or rehabilitated court and public safety centers; Rockoff Hall, a student apartment tower at George and New streets; The Heldrich, a conference center across Livingston Avenue from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy; and the refurbished State Theatre.

Designs on Mine Street call for the first floor of the building to house theological seminary students, while apartments on the other three levels will be available to the open market.

“This has always been a fairly quiet street,” said Rutgers Professor David Drinkwater, who has lived on Mine Street for decades.

“It’s an old street. It’s an historic street,” Drinkwater said.

Aside from opposition to the height of the new structure, homeowners have voiced concerns that builders are not offering enough on-site parking for the number of residents who will occupy the 57 units and their guests.

New Brunswick zoning regulations call for 106 parking spaces.

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Limited parking at the building will force many occupants and their visitors to park on the street – where spaces are always in high demand.

“There is a real challenge parking here already,” said O’Neill, who like other homeowners does not have a driveway.

Mine Street is currently home to about 200 people. With the apartment building’s maximum occupancy of 140, the neighborhood population will nearly double as units fill up.

“I have a whole slew of questions about this,” said longtime resident Nancy Beardslee of 35 Mine St.

“I’m concerned about sewers backing up. I’m concerned about water pressure going down. I’m concerned about traffic and parking. I’m concerned about security,” she said.

“I’m concerned about the effect of heavy equipment on the foundations of our homes,” she said.

The plan

According to site plans filed in New Brunswick, a 57-unit, four-story apartment building with 43 underground parking spaces will be constructed in place of three homes on Mine Street. The homes have been vacant for years and will be torn down to make way for the apartments.

The vacant homes and accompanying lots are owned by College Avenue Redevelopment Association, which is backed by Rutgers and the New Brunswick Development Corporation, also known as Devco.

The association is selling the properties to Construction Management Associates, Inc., which in turn will build the apartments.

“I think the building fits the letter and spirit of the development plan,” said Chris Paladino, president of Devco. As for objections is the neighborhood, Paladino said: “It’s a matter of style and taste.”

Mitchell Broder, president of College Management Associates, declined to comment about the project when reached by phone last week.

Broder graduated from Rutgers in 1987 with a degree in political science. According to a profile published on a university web page, Broder lived off campus as a student and experienced neighborhood life.

Designs on Mine Street call for the first floor of the building to house theological seminary students, while apartments on the other three levels will be available to the open market.

“I was exposed to such basic things as interacting with my landlord, taking out the garbage and having to move my car on alternate-side parking days,” he said.

Broder said many of the homes had been allowed to deteriorate. “I learned that there was so much room for improvement in the outdated housing stock within the City of New Brunswick,” he was quoted on the web site.

According to documents Broder’s company filed in New Brunswick last month, the new apartment building will be state-of-the-art, featuring soundproofing, fire suppression and alarm systems and surveillance cameras.

The apartments will feature many amenities, according to plans, including granite counter tops, natural maple wood cabinetry, provisions for high-speed Internet, state-of-the-art security and access features. Common areas will have lounge spaces, garbage chute and laundry facilities on each floor. The building will be handicap accessible via elevator.

Devco’s Paladino – another Rutgers alum – said the university hopes to attract students to the new building thereby alleviating crowding elsewhere in the community.

“We’ve had five or six students living in what was once a one-family house,” Paladino said. “We are encouraging people to come in and build quality, safe housing for students.”

“Rutgers will be a very different place,” Paladino said.

Paladino added that parking should not an issue because Rutgers is encouraging students to use transportation provided by the university, use their bicycles and to leave their cars at home.

“They’re going to bring their cars anyway,” said Professor Drinkwater.

Longtime residents like Drinkwater object to the project on many levels – some of them personal.

“It would block my view of the rest of the street and it would ruin my garden,” the professor emeritus of music said.

“It’s too tall, it doesn’t fit and the façade is completely different from anything we have on the whole street.”

Seeking variances

This week, Construction Management Associates is expected to seek two variances from the city’s planning board – one to allow for 43 parking spaces instead of the required 106; the other variance will request placement of an electrical transformer in the front yard setback and a six-foot high fence to screen the transformer.

The construction company will make the variance requests Tuesday night, March 11 at a New Brunswick Planning Board meeting. The meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. in city hall council chambers, 78 Bayard St.

Several homeowners and their families plan to attend the meeting and hope to find out more about the project.

“I hope we can block (the project),” Beardslee said. “This is one of the few neighborhoods left that has single family homes left.”

For O’Neill, frustration about the proposal has been fueled by the fact that she was encouraged to buy her home via incentives from Rutgers University and the state of New Jersey.

In 2000, the College & University Homebuyers’ Program, financed through the state legislature, offered $10,000 in down-payment assistance to full-time faculty or staff members from schools in several cities, including New Brunswick.

At the time, O’Neill was director of student recruitment at Douglass College.

“I can’t imagine when I bought my home this would have appealed to me. I love this town and this, quite honestly, is a kick in the gut.”