By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
Princeton Borough Council was urged by members of the Borough Traffic and Transportation Committee to step up and get involved immediately in the debate over traffic and parking plans by Princeton University as part of its 10-year campus growth plan, or risk getting left at the station.
”It seems you should be looking at this now. This is an issue of Borough Council leadership,” said Sandy Solomon, outgoing chairwoman of the Traffic and Transportation Committee, in addressing council at its meeting on Wednesday evening.
Among Princeton residents “there is real skepticism for moving the Dinky away from town,” said Ms. Solomon, referring to a university proposal to move the Dinky station at University Place several hundred feet south as part of extensive changes to the University Place included in its plan to build an arts and entertainment district there.
Ms. Solomon said that many residents harbor the belief that when it comes to dealings with the borough, “what the university wants the university gets.” Rather than remain aloof while the university develops its plan, and risk losing the opportunity for input, council members should begin to actively examine university traffic and transportation plans, even considering such possibilities as moving the Dinky station closer to downtown rather than farther away, “or just getting into an active dialogue with the university about the planning process,” she said.
Additionally, the traffic committee looked at university plans to build a large parking garage on the eastern side of its campus and has found a fundamental lack of clarity over how large the garage will be and its effect on traffic, Ms. Solomon said. “We are concerned about the traffic burden on the streets,” she said.
”Finally, we think this is an opportunity to think long term about automobile use,” given rising gas prices and concerns over the effect of vehicle emissions on the environment, Ms. Solomon said. She urged council to hire an independent traffic consultant to give them input on the issue.
Ms. Solomon was seconded by other members of the traffic and transportation committee. Member Arch Davis said “there’s not a good imagination in the plan, there are a lot of good alternatives that could be done” that the university traffic plan doesn’t consider.
Mr. Davis said he believed the university should obtain input from several independent traffic consultants, before settling on a plan. “This is major surgery on the campus if you will. If I was going to have major surgery I’d want a second opinion, in fact I’d want a third or a fourth,” he said.
Traffic committee member Anton Lahnston said it was disturbing to see “the resignation that exists in Princeton around town-gown relationships” with residents believing that town officials succumb when the university wants something.
”We are concerned that Borough Council step up and take a vigorous stand for the community” on the university traffic plan issue, to attempt to address “resignation and give-up-itus” in the town, Mr. Lahnston said. “We believe it is in the Borough Council’s hands.”
Mayor Mildred Trotman said the Princeton Regional Planning Board had already engaged an independent traffic consultant to study the issue. Mayor Trotman, who is a member of the Planning Board, said the consultant has already given input on the university’s plan at a May meeting of the board, where university officials and consultants gave a lengthy presentation on their traffic and transportation plan.
Kristin Appelget, Princeton University director of community and regional affairs, speaking at Wednesday’s meeting, said “we at the university agree wholeheartedly” with Ms. Solomon’s view that there is a good opportunity at present to rethink automobile-oriented transportation in and around Princeton. If the Borough Council chose to hold discussions on the matter “just tell us when and we would be here,” Ms. Appelget said.
Both Mayor Trotman and Councilwoman Barbara Trelstad, who is also a member of the Planning Board, said the university had only just begun the process of presenting its plans and receiving feedback from the board and the community.
At the university’s May presentation before the Planning Board, university traffic consultants outlined preliminary plans for a large parking garage adjacent to Princeton Stadium with traffic entering from Faculty Road. The facility would serve most of the campus community’s parking needs. A traffic circle would be placed at the intersection of Alexander Road and University Place, in addition to moving the Dinky station as part of the creation of the arts neighborhood, and numerous “traffic demand management” measures reducing traffic and parking demand across campus through encouraging pedestrian, bicycle, university shuttle and public transit would be implemented, said the university consultants in their presentation.
The plan was assailed by Planning Board members and community residents at the time for being vague and downplaying the major traffic changes and traffic loads it would place upon the community at large.
