Princeton planning board adopts updated Environmental Resource Inventory as appendix to master plan

PRINCETON, N.J. — The Princeton Planning Board voted unanimously April 17 to adopt the 2025 Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI) as an appendix to the municipality’s master plan, with board members asking staff to incorporate minor, budget-permitted updates following the adoption.

The ERI, presented by planner Tristan Harrison of Clark Caton Hintz, consolidates updated land-use, soils, watershed, flood, groundwater, biological habitat and open-space data for the consolidated municipality and is intended to serve as a reference “snapshot” to inform land-use and conservation decisions. “But it’s important to note that this is not a policy document in itself,” Harrison said during the formal hearing.

The ERI updates a prior 2010 inventory prepared by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and compiles more recent data sets including 2020 land-use/land-cover, USDA soils, DEP landscape project habitat mapping (v3.3), FEMA flood insurance rate maps (2017 effective FIRMs) and regional climate information. Deanna Stockton, municipal engineer and deputy administrator for infrastructure and operations, and Inga Reich, Princeton’s open-space manager, were sworn in and took part in the…