PACKET EDITORIAL, Aug. 29
By: Packet Editorial
You’ve got to hand it to the Concerned Citizens of Princeton. The group that’s been trying to block the downtown redevelopment plan has been rebuffed at every turn, first by the Borough Council, then in the courts. But instead of recognizing the futility of its efforts, the group is determined to turn this record of failure into an instrument of success.
The latest argument advanced by the Concerned Citizens is an object lesson in casuistry. It goes something like this:
The Borough Council wouldn’t listen to us. So we sued. The Superior Court ruled against our lawsuit. So we appealed that ruling. Now, it would be reckless and irresponsible for the borough to proceed with the redevelopment project, including the 500-car parking garage, while our appeal is pending.
In other words, if you can’t get what you want, sue. If your suit loses, appeal. Then, use the appeal as an excuse for delay. And if the matter at hand happens to be a project that involves significant capital expenditure of public funds, all the better; delay is as good as killing the project outright. By the time the appeal is actually heard, much less decided, the cost of the project will far exceed the bonds issued to pay for it.
In this particular case, delay would have another adverse impact. It would mean, in all likelihood, that construction of the new library would be finished long before construction of the new garage could even begin. This, of course, would make the downtown parking situation far worse than it already is a prospect that must warm the hearts of the Borough Council’s detractors. Imagine the mileage garage opponents could get out of a gaping hole in the ground where the Park & Shop lot used to be, providing a vivid visual reminder of Princeton’s downtown parking woes. It’s all the fault of the Borough Council, they’ll say, for pushing ahead with that ill-conceived garage plan.
If there were any chance of a prompt hearing and a swift ruling on the Concerned Citizens’ appeal, it might be possible to delay the start of the garage construction without jeopardizing the entire downtown redevelopment project. But that isn’t going to happen. The Appellate Division has a huge backlog of cases including, interestingly, the challenge to Princeton Township’s deer-management plan, which has now been in effect for three years and successfully removed more than 900 deer from the township’s herd. (One can only wonder what remedy the Appellate Division will order if, by some miracle, it not only gets around to hearing this case but actually rules in favor of the plaintiffs.)
Of course, the Concerned Citizens could press for a more expeditious resolution of this matter by seeking an injunction against the garage construction. The group claims it isn’t filing for injunctive relief because it doesn’t have the resources. We suspect the real reason has nothing at all to do with Concerned Citizens’ money and everything to do with the public’s money. Everything they can do to delay the project will make it that much more expensive, until it reaches the point they hope where it has to be abandoned. Anything that hastens a decision (and the Concerned Citizens know as well as we do that the likelihood of a decision in their favor is remote at best) defeats their objective.
The borough, to its great credit, hasn’t been deterred by the Concerned Citizens’ ploy. Garage construction is moving ahead as planned, and should be completed around the same time the new library is ready to open, in April 2004. For those of us who’ve waited years to see downtown Princeton start living up to its potential, it’s heartening to know this long-overdue redevelopment project won’t be compromised by delay tactics.