All-day permit parking on residential streets met mostly with criticism.
By: Jennifer Potash
Nearly 100 Princeton Borough residents Tuesday urged the Borough Council to put the brakes to a proposed parking policy to allow all-day parking on residential streets that now have two-hour restrictions.
Administrator Robert Bruschi presented the council with a proposal to allow downtown employees to purchase low-cost permits to park on residential streets that currently have two-hour parking restrictions. Mr. Bruschi said the very preliminary proposal is a way to contend with a downtown parking crunch and perennial problem of downtown employees parking all day at the two-hour meters.
"The value is it frees up spaces downtown," he said.
Only one-third of the parking spaces available on a given street would be used for the employee permits under the plan. Streets with parking meters would not be affected. Also, residents of those streets where two-hour parking is now permitted would be able to purchase permits for daily parking on the streets. The space left over on the street would fall under the two-hour restriction.
Another idea under consideration is temporary permits for home repair contractors at residences on streets with two-hour parking restrictions.
Most council members did not commit to supporting or opposing the proposal Tuesday. Councilman David Goldfarb said it’s important any system be equitable.
"People shouldn’t feel that because they live a block or two away from the central business district … means they are entitled as a matter of right to a two-hour parking restriction that eliminates more cars from parking on the street," Mr. Goldfarb said.
The next step would be for the borough administration and council members to meet with downtown merchants and residents on the affected streets.
While expressing sympathy for the plight of the merchants, several residents raised quality-of-life concerns, such as difficulties residents might have finding a place to park in the evening or not having available spaces for visitors.
Phyllis Teitelbaum, a Hawthorne Avenue resident and Traffic Committee member, suggested the borough use permit parking only as a last resort.
"This ignores one of the basic tenets of zoning and planning, which is that residential neighborhoods should not be turned into parking lots," said Ms. Teitelbaum, drawing applause from the audience.
William Koehn, a Green Street resident, said downtown employees regularly feed meters or ignore the two-hour parking limits in his neighborhood. He suggested the borough allow permit parking on the lightly parked residential streets such as Library Place, Hodge Road, Boudinot Street or Cleveland Lane.
Mr. Bruschi said for the permit system to be successful the borough must aggressively enforce the restrictions on meter-feeding and other parking regulations.
Leo Arons, chairman of the borough’s Traffic and Transportation Committee, whose members disagreed with some of Mr. Bruschi’s proposal, said borough streets are not homogeneous and any permit system must pay careful attention to streets where the residences lack driveways.
Some at the meeting supported the portion of the proposal allowing residents to purchase all-day parking permits. Cathleen Carroll of John Street said her property doesn’t have a driveway and she would rather purchase a permit for her street than a permit at a municipal lot.
Ronald Nielsen of Humbert Street said he supported the entire proposal as another way to help pay for "that turkey garage that will be a big loss."
Mitch Forest, owner of Forest Jewelers on Nassau Street, who said he spends $3,000 annually for his employees’ parking, said the merchants and the residents shouldn’t be at odds over parking.
"This is a partnership," said Mr. Forest, who suggested the borough seek the use of remote parking lots at Princeton University for a jitney service.
Barry Weisfeld, owner of the Princeton Record Exchange, suggested the permit system to the council several months ago, noting employees would be more willing to park in outlying areas if a space were readily available. Mr. Weisfeld said he pays for employee parking in the Maclean Street municipal lot off Witherspoon Street.
The borough does have 10-hour parking meters and some five-hour parking meters ranging in price from 25 to 50 cents per hour. Also, Palmer Square offers a Value Pass program for downtown employees with up to 50-percent discount on the parking rates.
Based on Mr. Bruschi’s estimate, about 200 parking spaces could be gained for all-day parking, roughly the number lost due to construction of the downtown garage and library.

