Princeton Future offers vision for downtown area

Next step: A presentation to Planning Board Feb. 6.

By: Jennifer Potash
   Bringing back a street that was at the heart of Princeton’s black community for over a century and creating a neighborhood containing million-dollar homes and modest apartments are among the diverse visions included in Princeton Future’s master plan for the downtown neighborhoods.
   Princeton Future, a nonprofit organization formed in 2000 to promote a holistic approach to planning downtown development, presented the proposed master plan to the Princeton Regional Planning Office on Wednesday. The organization will discuss the master plan at the Feb. 6 Princeton Regional Planning Board meeting.
   The plan divides the downtown into five zones, each incorporating Princeton Future’s seven overall principles as well as addressing the unique needs and issues of each neighborhood.
   Those general principles are:
   • preserving the character of the neighborhoods;
   • maintaining the scale and density of the downtown;
   • requiring new buildings to have retail use on the ground floor and residential above;
   • including affordable units in every project;
   • connecting neighborhoods and the downtown with more walking and bike paths;
   • preserving racial and economic diversity; and
   • increasing tax revenues to the borough.
   The plan was drafted by Robert Brown, an urban planner and architect and principal of the Philadelphia firm Brown Keener Urban Design. Mr. Brown said the plan was truly created by the citizenry over the course of two years, during which 100 neighborhood and town meetings were held.
   "It was not an easy plan to put together," he said.
   Many people came to the meetings with strongly held views, at times at odds with other participants, but in the end a consensus was forged for each zone, he said.
   "One of the most wonderful surprises that came out of the series of open meetings over the past two and half years is that when our neighbors are asked to express themselves early on, way before an application for a specific project takes shape, others present, including our public officials, listen," he said.
   Mr. Brown stressed the plan was only a draft and the public will have an opportunity to comment on the suggestions.
   Following the format of the Princeton Community Master Plan, the Princeton Future plan suggests changes or, in some cases, endorses the status quo, depending on the particular zone.
   For example, in Zone One, the area incorporating the borough’s municipal parking lots on both sides of Spring Street, Princeton Future proposed a small garage on each lot with a connecting bridge across Spring Street. The Borough Council has adopted a different plan with a 500-car garage, two five-story mixed-use buildings, a plaza and new walkways. But Princeton Future did endorse the borough’s plan.
   Zone Three includes the Medical Center at Princeton’s Merwick Rehabilitation Unit, the Princeton Family YMCA and The YWCA of Princeton properties and the Stanworth neighborhood. It contains one of the last parcels of undeveloped land in the borough. This vacant site offers the most promise for new housing and recreation opportunities, according to Princeton Future, and the organization is seeking to work with the property owners in devising a plan for the zone this year, said Sheldon Sturges, co-chairman of Princeton Future.
   The plan for Zone Two, Palmer Square’s Hulfish North parcel of land bounded by Chambers Street, Paul Robeson Place, Witherspoon and Hulfish streets, generated considerable interest last year. The plan suggests Palmer Square scrap its planned 97 luxury townhouse development on the site in favor of a complex with housing for a variety of income levels.
   In the proposed design, Paul Robeson Place would be narrowed to make room for roughly 10 new houses on the north side backing onto the existing Green Street residences between The Arts Council of Princeton building and the First Baptist Church. In addition, 150 units of housing of various types would be built on the Hulfish North property in a six-story building.
   The proposal addresses the need for more affordable housing, a slowing of traffic on what has become a speedway and, most important, addressing the rift between the historically black John-Witherspoon neighborhood and the borough, a conflict stemming from the removal of Jackson Street and relocation of houses in the 1950s, Mr. Sturges said.
   Other aspects of the plan call for preserving the character and size of downtown buildings.
   For Zone Five, the neighborhoods along Nassau Street between Washington Road and Harrison Street, the blend of small two- and three-story mixed-use buildings and residences should be retained, according to the plan.
   In Zone Four, which includes most of the John-Witherspoon neighborhood, the plan encourages measures aimed at preventing overcrowded rental properties and social preservation of the neighborhood.
   Mr. Sturges acknowledged the delicate balance of making improvements in neighborhoods but doing so without driving up property values too high, thus forcing out moderate- and low-income residents.