Borough Council delays action on parking meters

By: jennifer Potash
   The Princeton Borough Council made minor changes Tuesday to a proposed ordinance to increase parking meter rates and extend enforcement hours. But it did not introduce the measure, as had been expected.
   The council is now expected to introduce the revised ordinance at its Nov. 9 meeting and could vote on it Nov. 21.
   The major proposal in the ordinance under consideration by the council remained intact – to raise meters rates from 75 cents to $1 an hour for the two-hour meters and 30-minute meters located on Palmer Square, Hulfish Street, Chambers Street, the north side of Nassau Street from Bayard Lane to Vandeventer Avenue, Witherspoon Street from Nassau Street to Paul Robeson Place and the metered lots on North Tulane Street and on Hulfish Street and to extend enforcement at those meters from 7 to 8 p.m., with added Sunday hours, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
   Downtown residents and merchants at the meeting asked the council to reconsider the changes.
   Ed Osborne, who has lived in an apartment in the 100 block of Nassau Street for 15 years, said paying more money on a daily basis for meters and losing the free Sunday parking would be a blow to the quality of life of downtown residents.
   Councilman David Goldfarb pointed out the two-hour meters on the south side of Nassau Street from Olden Street to Bayard Lane and the north side of Nassau Street from Moran Avenue to Vandeventer Avenue and the Park and Shop lot on Spring Street would be free on Sundays.
   Mayor Marvin Reed said if any of the proposed changes are implemented and prove problematic, the council could change the meters back.
   Leo Arons, a borough resident and owner of an antiques shop on Chambers Street, opposes the Sunday hours, and said once the law is on the books, it will stay there.
   The residents of Vandeventer Avenue implored the council not to change the existing two-hour meters to five-hour meters and not to extend the enforcement of the meters from 7 to 8 p.m.
   The five-hour meters were intended to meet the needs of shoppers and restaurants who needed a longer-term meter and also provide a place for the part-time workers downtown who tend to meter-feed at the two-hour meters, borough officials have said.
   Ann McGoldrick, who lives on Vandeventer Avenue, said those changes would prevent residents or their guests from parking on the street in the evenings.
   "Vandeventer is very much a residential street, filled with single-family homes and a number of apartments," she said. "We would like to maintain our lifestyle and do things in our neighborhood that you do in yours."
   Arch Davis, chairman of the Borough Traffic and Transportation Committee, said he generally supports the proposed ordinance with the exception of the five-hour meters. The borough once tried four-hour meters and they were not well-used, he said.
   "We need to have more spaces but the existing types of meters we have are very well-balanced now," he said.
   In the end, the council decided to leave the two-hour meters on Vandeventer Avenue, rather than changing them to five-hour meters.
   The council will keep in the proposed ordinance the new five-hour meters on North Tulane Street and on Spring Street between North Tulane Street and Vandeventer Avenue at a rate of 75 cents an hour.
   The Borough Council last raised the meter rates and extended the enforcement hours in 1998.
   Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi recently said the council needed to introduce the ordinance quickly if it wanted to put the changes in effect before the end of the year, as it would take about a month for borough staff to change the rates and put up signs indicating the new enforcement hours.
   Borough Engineer Carl Peters, who recommended most of the meter changes, warned the council Tuesday that radically altering the current plan might not meet the twin goals of opening up more parking spaces downtown and replenishing the $200,000 of surplus put into the 2000 budget to avoid raising the municipal tax rate by more than 2 cents.
   Micawber Books co-owner Margaret Knapp said the downtown businesses have an interest in working with the borough to develop parking plans for their employees away from the center of business district.
   In other action, the council unanimously adopted an ordinance banning political fund-raising at Borough Hall.
   The intent is to prohibit elected officials or political candidates from soliciting borough employees in the municipal building, officials said.