PACKET EDITORIAL, March 26
By: Packet Editorial
Relations between The Medical Center at Princeton and its immediate neighbors have never been what you would call cordial.
On one side, residents of the John-Witherspoon neighborhood have long looked upon the medical center even back in the days when it was just plain Princeton Hospital as an unwelcome intruder. The residential character of the neighborhood, mingled with some light commerce along Witherspoon Street, was altered greatly as the little community hospital grew into a major regional medical center, enlarging its facilities, spawning the development of adjacent medical office buildings, attracting more traffic (including a steady stream of ambulances) and otherwise redefining the quality of life in what was once a quiet enclave along the borough-township border.
On the other side, residents of Harris Road, Jefferson Road and Moore Street have more recently come to view the medical center as an institutional threat to their residential neighborhood. Construction of a parking garage, visible to some of these neighbors, was a source of strenuous and vocal opposition. Later, the medical center moved some of its back-office operations into several Harris Road residences, inspiring an even louder outcry. When the township Zoning Board of Adjustment ruled that the medical center’s occupation of these homes was illegal, the medical center sued and many of these neighbors went to court in support of the zoning board’s decision.
That lawsuit has bounced back and forth between the courts and the zoning board, but it ultimately may be resolved through discussions that began last Wednesday at a subcommittee meeting of the Princeton Regional Planning Board. The board’s Master Plan Subcommittee, as part of the process of revising the Princeton Community Master Plan, heard Dennis Doody, president of the medical center, describe the need for 60,000 square feet of new space in the next four years, most of it for expansion of the hospital’s emergency room and natal wing. Where this expansion might take place, and how it might affect the disposition of the Harris Road homes, is a subject the medical center, the neighbors and the Master Plan Subcommittee will be examining closely in the weeks to come.
Given the history here, we would not ordinarily hold out a great deal of hope for an amicable settlement of this dispute. But with the announcement, fresh on the heels of his Master Plan Subcommittee appearance, that Mr. Doody is stepping down after 21 years at the helm of the medical center, an extraordinary opportunity now presents itself: To the extent that Mr. Doody came to personify the institution he headed for more than two decades, his departure may open up new paths toward progress in resolving many points of contention, both of long standing and of more recent vintage, between the medical center and its neighbors.
Mr. Doody has been a forceful, dynamic leader. He has presided over a period of unparalleled growth, not only in the medical center’s physical plant but in its reputation. He also has made his share of enemies along the way, the neighbors chief among them. More telling, however, is his standing with a sizable proportion of the medical staff, who have not been shy about expressing displeasure with Mr. Doody’s leadership. Princeton is the kind of town where doctors talk to their patients about such things, and patients talk to their friends. Word gets around.
So Mr. Doody’s successor, Barry Rabner, comes to Princeton with a clean slate. He deserves a chance to establish his own, more harmonious relationship with disgruntled elements of the medical staff and mend some badly damaged fences with unfriendly neighbors. For their part, the neighbors owe Mr. Rabner the courtesy of a warm welcome and sufficient time for him to familiarize himself with the issues that have been allowed to become so contentious. In the end, there may not be a way to resolve these issues to everyone’s satisfaction. But the rancor that attends these issues today serves no one’s interest least of all the community’s.