Garage opponents mull appeal

Borough looks to break ground.

By: Jennifer Potash
   The fight between Princeton Borough and Concerned Citizens of Princeton over the downtown parking garage development may continue.
   Concerned Citizens may appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit to halt the garage project.
   But as opponents pondered their next move to stop the project, the Princeton Borough Council on Tuesday discussed the immediate timeline for the garage construction, expected to break ground by the end of the month.
   Concerned Citizens, in a lawsuit filed in January, argued the Princeton Borough Council improperly designated the two municipal parking lots off Spring Street "an area in need of redevelopment" under the state redevelopment law.
   The suit was dismissed Monday by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg.
   The $13.5 million project, in which the borough is partnering with developer Nassau HKT Associates, includes a 500-space parking garage, a pair of five-story mixed-use buildings, a plaza and new walkways at the municipally owned parking lots off Spring Street.
   "In this case, the borough properly exercised its broad discretion to designate the subject site as an ‘area in need of redevelopment,’" Judge Feinberg wrote in her decision.
   Concerned Citizens has 45 days to file an appeal but may decide by Tuesday, said Jim Firestone, president of the organization.
   "We’re going to talk to the larger group to see what’s the consensus of how people feel," Mr. Firestone said.
   In addition to Concerned Citizens, the parties filing the lawsuit were Mr. Firestone, Herb Hobler, who owns property adjacent to the garage site, Mark Leutchen of Maple Street, Richard Strazza of Stockton Street, Henry Landau, co-owner of Landau’s, and Herbert Tuchman, owner of PJ’s Pancake House. Concerned Citizens also obtained over 800 signatures on a petition to put the garage bond to a referendum, which Judge Feinberg also dismissed in her decision.
   Mr. Firestone said Judge Feinberg did not fully address the issues raised by Concerned Citizens in her decision.
   "There was not the kind of checks and balances here," Mr. Firestone said.
   R. William Potter, one of the attorneys for Concerned Citizens, said Judge Feinberg’s ruling, if not reversed, could make it far easier for other communities in the state to use the area-in-need-of-redevelopment designation in order to avoid the democratic process.
   A possible appeal could focus on how the judge did not address the issue that a "blight" standard must first be met before the redevelopment designation is granted, Mr. Potter said. In the lawsuit, Mr. Potter criticized the Borough Council and the Princeton Regional Planning Board for relying on a municipal consultant’s report that the garage project represented a better use of the site.
   "The point is, how can two parking lots that are not stagnant or unproductive or overrun with drug dealers be declared obsolete using a standard of what is possible for those sites?" Mr. Potter said. "That’s not a credible standard, that’s a sky’s-the-limit standard and I think an appellate court would take it much more seriously," he said.
   Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed said Tuesday the ruling was "not only a great decision for Princeton but a great decision for the state of New Jersey."
   The borough is now in discussions with Public Service Electric & Gas Co. to take back the Spring Street site to begin construction, Mayor Reed said. The company has removed coal tar and similar byproducts from a former coal gasification plant.
   Nassau HKT began moving equipment to the site Tuesday and will work with PSE&G to get water pumped out of an excavated section at the rear of the former parking lot.
   The Borough Council also authorized Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi to proceed with short-term bond anticipation notes for the $13.5 million project. The borough will likely go out for permanent financing by the summer, said Borough Councilman Roger Martindell.
   Mayor Reed said the garage remains on a tight timetable for completion in December.