EDITORIAL
Kingston residents are worried. And they have a right to be.
The approval granted earlier this month by the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission for a realigned Mapleton Road/Seminary Drive intersection in Plainsboro is likely to clog streets in the tiny village with traffic.
The intersection upgrade which calls for a four-way signaled intersection at Mapleton Road and Seminary Drive will make Mapleton a more convenient route for drivers, which in turn could result in an increase in traffic on the road, which dumps onto Route 27 in Kingston across from the Kingston Post Office.
Currently, Seminary Drive links College Road in Plainsboro at the Princeton Forrestal Village shopping center with Mapleton, ending in a T-intersection along the canal. The two roads which are narrow and inconvenient to travel already carry a significant amount of traffic. Mapleton Road, which becomes Academy Street after it passes Division Street in Kingston, can back up beyond the Heathcote Brook and into Plainsboro during rush hour.
The realignment will only make things worse, especially because it is part of a plan by Princeton University and Fieldstone Associates to build 220 townhouse units on the former Princeton Nurseries site on Mapleton, between Seminary and the South Brunswick border in Plainsboro. Mapleton will be the prime thoroughfare taking the apartment dwellers to Route 27.
Kingston residents were critical of the Canal Commission’s decision, but understood the difficulties the commission faced. Its mandate in this case was limited: Review the impact the project would have on the D&R Canal. It was prohibited from taking a larger view of the project, which was approved by the Plainsboro Planning Board in December.
The Plainsboro Planning Board, for its part, was only following its own planning requirements and looking out for the interests of its citizens, the vast majority of whom live east of Route 1. The Barcley Square townhouses and an anticipated 2 million square feet of office and retail space planned for an adjacent site are part of a larger plan for the area that included Princeton Forrestal Village, the Windrows senior complex and the Princeton Landing townhouses.
The problem, however, was that no one was looking out for Kingston.
The way things stand now, the only way for Kingston residents to fight the townhouse plan and road realignment would be for them to band together and take Plainsboro, Princeton University and Fieldstone Associates to court or for the townships of South Brunswick and Franklin to do so. South Brunswick, of course, is unlikely to do so because it is hoping to buy the adjacent Nurseries tract for open space.
Some kind of regional oversight is necessary to ensure that developments in one town do not adversely affect residents in neighboring towns. This could mean requiring the convening of joint planning boards for developments near a municipal border or special task forces comprising planning board members from the affected communities.
At the very least, neighbors of projects like Barcley Square should have someplace they can turn to ensure their concerns are being heard.
That’s something that does not happen under today’s rules.

