By: Jennifer Potash
The four candidates for the Princeton Borough Council agree on careful consideration of the development of the downtown but disagree on the location of various civic institutions.
There are two, three-year council terms up for grabs.
Incumbents Wendy Benchley, who won a special election last year to fill the unexpired term of former Councilman Mark Freda, and Peggy Karcher, who filled the seat vacated by Councilman William Slover in June, comprise the Democratic slate.
The lone Republican on the ticket is Rodney Fisk, a resident of John Street for 25 years, who was appointed to the council in 1987 when former Councilman Dick Woodbridge moved to Princeton Township. He served until January 1989, saying he was "swept out in the Dukakis landslide in Princeton."
Dorothy Koehn, a Green Street resident, is running as an independent candidate on a platform to move the Princeton Public Library and The Arts Council of Princeton to the corner of Valley Road and Witherspoon Street in Princeton Township.
The candidates agree with each other on the need for a parking garage in the downtown.
"I think we almost have to think of the garage as a fait accompli and just assume that, yes, there’s going to be a parking structure on that lot," Ms. Karcher said.
Pointing out how Nassau Street was "moribund" 20 years ago, Mr. Fisk said a "parking garage is an essential element to the development and growth of commercial Princeton."
A garage on the borough-owned land must provide a revenue source for the borough, Ms. Benchley said.
Desman Associates, the firm the borough hired to conduct an economic and architectural feasibility study of the two borough-owned lots on Spring and Tulane streets, has told the council that the block doesn’t need more retail stores but more residential rental properties, Ms. Benchley said.
"What the borough could make a lot of money off of is rental housing," she said.
Ms. Koehn, Ms. Benchley and Ms. Karcher agree the garage should be part of an overall traffic solution that encompasses jitney or shuttle services from outlying parking lots and strong efforts to make bicycling and walking downtown more appealing to residents.
Mr. Fisk is skeptical borough residents would embrace a jitney service.
"It’s an affluent community where people are time-sensitive and are not going to wait even five minutes for a jitney because they want to get in their cars and go pick up the kids, then pick up the cleaning and take-out from McCaffrey’s," Mr. Fisk said.
The four candidates also agree the Borough Council, if given the authority by the state Legislature, should not adopt smoking bans in public places such as restaurants and bars.
"It’s a decision that has to weigh on one hand the merchants of the community and on the other the feelings of the nonsmokers," said Ms. Karcher, adding that her husband, former state Speaker of the Assembly Alan Karcher, died of lung cancer. "I think I would come down on the side of the merchants in the community and I would not support a smoking ban."
Ms. Benchley and Ms. Karcher are committed to keeping the Princeton Public Library at its location at Witherspoon and Wiggins streets.
"The main reason I support the library in the downtown location is that it is a family-oriented corner, with the YWCA and The Arts Council and it keeps our downtown for Princeton families as opposed to just having it commercial, retail and rental property," Ms. Benchley said. "It gives (the downtown) a heart and soul."
Ms. Koehn, running on a platform called the Valley Civic Complex, said moving the library down Witherspoon Street, along with The Arts Council of Princeton, would spark a revitalization of the street.
"I like the idea of developing Witherspoon Street with the entrance at Valley Road," Ms. Koehn said.
And, she said, the Valley Road location is safer for children and families.
While she said she likes the proposed three-floor Hillier Group design for the new library, it is "out of character at that (existing) location and it’s not befitting to the older buildings," Ms. Koehn said.
Mr. Fisk, who "wholeheartedly" supports the move to Valley Road, said the current library property, if sold, would be an attractive ratable to add to the tax rolls.
