By Katie Wagner / Staff Writer
PRINCETON — The Princeton Joint Recreation Board has presented a Parks and Recreation Master Plan that includes a $15.1 million-community and recreation center and improvements to Community Park Pool estimated at $7.9 million to the Township Committee and Borough Council.
The 278-page document, which includes an inventory of Princeton’s parks and recreation facilities; the parks and recreation facilities, programs and services needs of the community and recommendations for meeting these needs, is the first new Parks and Recreation Master Plan since 1989.
The Master Plan calls for the completion of somewhere between $32,492,806 and $34,599,526 worth of projects with some of the more costly ones.
Following a presentation on the Master Plan given by Wayne Bail and Patrick Hoagland of Brandstetter Carroll, Inc., the firm which prepared the Master Plan, and questions and comments from the public, the Borough Council and Township Committee accepted, but did not endorse the Master Plan.
Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman called the plan "interesting" and "very well done" but added: "I think all of us know that we don’t have the money to do all the things we would like to do and all the things people in Princeton would like us to do. The problem is trying to see how we can come up with the funds to do some of those things."
During the past 18-months, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan Steering Committee, which includes members of the Recreation Department’s staff and board, along with Brandstetter Carroll, Inc. have been working to develop the Master Plan. The creation of the plan resulted from an analysis of data collected from a Community Attitude and Interest Survey that was completed by approximately 440 random households and several meetings between Brandstetter Carroll and 36 stakeholder groups.
"It (The Master Plan) is the culmination of having spoken to a very extensive group of people. . .a reflection of our constituents. . .so the document I think really is an excellent reflection of the direction we’d like to take," said Chairman of the Recreation Board Mike Finkelstein, during the meeting.
That members of the community value biking and walking trails is evident in the Master Plan, with paved walking and biking trails listed as the largest unmet need in the community and non-paved walking and biking trails determined to be the most important recreation facilities to survey respondents. Indoor swimming pools and water parks, indoor fitness and exercise facilities, non-paved walking and biking trails and indoor multi-purpose centers are the other facilities with the highest unmet demand, according to the Master Plan.
Visions for the future of the community’s parks and recreation include:
• renovating and upgrading the Community Park Pool Complex to include features such as a sprayground, shade areas, shallow water access and slides;
• developing one or more synthetic turf fields for the Princeton Recreation Department for numerous sports activities, developing additional athletic fields at existing park or land to be acquired;
• developing additional athletic fields;
• constructing a new Community and Recreation Center, possibly in conjunction with new facilities for Corner House, a counseling center for teens, young adults and their families located at 369 Witherspoon Street;
• developing an integrated trail system of bikeways and walkways that would include developing a Greenways and Trails Master Plan;
• placing a high priority on the acquisition of land that would link parks, neighborhoods, schools and commercial areas with newly acquired open space;
• preserving the environment and acquiring more open space;
• establishing a Joint Parks and Recreation Department that would consolidate all parks- and recreation-related services throughout the Borough, Township and Joint Recreation Board into one organization; and
• establishing an adequately funded Parks and Recreation Maintenance Department under the direction of the Parks and Recreation Department.
Borough Councilman Andrew Koontz, who is a member of the Joint Recreation Board, said he strongly agreed with the Master Plan’s recommendation to create a full-fledged parks and recreation department.
"In my experience in trying to make improvements in the parks in both the borough and the township, one finds it difficult to try to find out who’s in charge," Mr. Koontz said. "Is it the Borough, the Township, the Shade Tree Commission, Public Works. . .?"
Like Mayor Trotman, several members of Borough Council expressed concerns about the costs of implementing the Master Plan.
"I don’t think Jack is honest when he says you could stretch this out 16 years, because then it’s going to be $60 million," said Borough Councilman Kevin Wilkes. He was responding to Recreation Department Executive Director Jack Roberts’ characterizing the document as something the Recreation Board thought could "realistically" be implemented over "a 10 to 15 year period".
The absence of sustainability in the Master Plan was another concern mentioned by representatives of both the Township Committee and Borough Council during the meeting.
"It would be absolutely foolish to not have that (sustainability) in our Master Plan," said Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand.
During a phone interview following the meeting, Mayor Marchand said from a financial point of view, the Township Committee and Borough Council will need to figure out which projects are of highest priority.
"Because the pool (Community Park Pool) has already outlived its life span, I expect that the pool will be one that will at least get our attention soon. . .," she said.
During a phone interview following the meeting, Mr. Roberts spoke favorably about the Township Committee and Borough Council’s responses to the Master Plan.
"I thought the reception was very good and I thought the comments made were good also," he said.

