December 2017

On December 7, 2017, Robert F. Casey represented an Appellant before the Princeton Historic Commission (“PHC”) in Princeton, New Jersey. Mr. Casey’s clients were appealing a decision of the Princeton Historic Commission relative to his clients’ fence along Cherry Hill Road in Princeton. The clients’ original fence (a white panel fence) was damaged by a car accident and subsequently replaced in front of their historic farmstead with a post-and-rail fence. In short, the clients applied for approval of the replacement fence with PHC, said approval was denied and determined, in essence, not to be in keeping with the PHC’s standards and ordinance.
Mr. Casey, with the assistance of several experts and his clients’ testimony, was successful in overturning the PHC’s determination. The Planning Board held: “Based upon the evidence submitted, including the supplemental evidence presented to the Board, the Board finds that the replacement fence is historically appropriate and satisfies the other standards of the Princeton code.” What makes this decision of the Princeton Planning Board newsworthy is the fact that this is the first known successful appeal of a PHC decision before the Princeton Planning Board.