By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
Attendees at Saturday morning’s forum held by nonprofit organization Princeton Future heard how several types of municipal structures — public parking authorities, special improvement districts and community development corporations — might address Princeton’s problems and its dearth of coordinated solutions.
While support was expressed by some for one or another of the entities, other participants in the conversation wondered at the wisdom of adding another layer of joint municipal decision-making on top of borough and township administrations whose current joint relationship they characterized as “dysfunctional.”
Working within the current municipal framework, and continuing to explore the benefits of full consolidation of Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, were both offered as options equally deserving of attention as ways of resolving some of the difficult issues facing the Princeton community, including transportation, parking, infrastructure improvement, maintaining diversity, housing and commercial development, and town/gown relations with Princeton University.
If there is a belief that the current structures for addressing Princeton’s municipal problems are not working, “there are two ways to approach that concern, one is to think of new structures,” said Robert Durkee, vice president and secretary of Princeton University, at the meeting. Another approach is “to think about the structures that are in place and ask is there a way for them to work together,” Mr. Durkee said.
Mr. Durkee raised the issue of consolidation of the borough and township, noting that Princeton Future has “decided to work on adding new structures but it hasn’t worked on one you heard a lot on from the community.”
In an interview following the meeting, Mr. Durkee said the university has no formal position supporting or opposing municipal consolidation, but feels the issue “deserves examination.”
Calling township and borough interactions “a very dysfunctional relationship at the moment,” Borough Councilman Roger Martindell, also raised the prospect of consolidation.
”We can talk about new structures that have yet to be invented to bypass existing structures that don’t work,” Mr. Martindell said, but “in my mind there is a danger that we won’t address the old structures that don’t work.”
Despite his reservations, Mr. Martindell lauded Princeton Future for its efforts to help the borough, township and the university “improve the quality of the thinking, improve the quality of communication, improve the working dynamic.”
Robert Geddes, Princeton Future’s co-chair, said he feared that a year spent arguing township-borough consolidation toward “a yes, no, up or down vote” by residents would leave the many problems facing the Princeton area unsolved. He suggested that an examination of new municipal structures and the promotion of “different ways of thinking” could yield solutions to community problems, including mergers of existing municipal services, without a confrontation over full-scale consolidation.
During the first part of the Princeton Future gathering, attorney Robert Goldsmith gave a presentation on the relative merits of three municipal structures authorized by New Jersey state law: parking authorities, special improvement districts, and community development corporations.
Parking Authorities. Parking authorities have significant flexibility and power to grapple with problems Princeton faces, said Mr. Goldsmith, a real estate, redevelopment and land-use specialist with the Woodbridge office of the law firm Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis.
Parking authorities have the power to negotiate independent contracts, to acquire property through eminent domain, and to incorporate transportation programs, residential housing, commercial and office space within parking projects, said Mr. Goldsmith.
”My view is that parking authorities are the broadest-based authorities,” Mr. Goldsmith said. Drawbacks to parking authorities include the fact that politicians may be wary of establishing them because of how much power they cede to them, and the fact that with their power and independence “they tend to run amok.”
Mr. Goldsmith said based on his experience providing legal representation for the Morristown Parking Authority for the past 25 years, he found the authority had only been beneficial to Morristown. “In 52 years (since its inception) the Morristown parking authority has never cost the town of Morristown a penny,” while improving parking and traffic infrastructure in the town, he said.
Special Improvement Districts. Special improvement districts traditionally serve underrepresented downtown business communities, Mr. Goldsmith said. By providing management oversight, economic resources and practical services, such as traffic management and sanitation, SIDs help to benefit downtown areas overall, he said. He cited Red Bank and Morristown as two successful examples of downtown revitalization through a SID, adding that the Bryant Park partnership for the improvement of the area behind the New York Public Library at 42nd Street was one of the most successful examples of a SID facilitating improvement.
Mr. Goldsmith said a SID obtained its funding through assessments of businesses and organizations within its jurisdiction, not a tax on them, and therefore could assess entities that might be exempt from taxation. Asked if a SID in Princeton could assess Princeton University, Mr. Goldsmith said “the answer is yes.”
Community Development Corporations. Community development corporations are authorized by statute and “are far more amorphous” than the other entities, Mr. Goldsmith said. Additionally, “development corporations need charity,” without any authority to levy fees or assessments. Often this funding comes in the form of support from corporate citizens among others, he said.
CDCs can serve to meet the goals of the Princeton community in terms of developing shared parking, mixed use development, and working with the municipalities as a partner not an opponent, “but there has to be a meaningful economic funding source,” Mr. Goldsmith said.
Following Mr. Goldsmith’s presentation, former Borough Mayor Marvin Reed said Palmer Square, overseen by Palmer Square Management, is already effectively a special improvement district, and downtown merchants are already accustomed to receiving SID-type services from the borough. Mr. Reed said he attempted as mayor to draft an ordinance establishing a SID for Princeton, but couldn’t get the borough, township and university all committed to the effort. “That is probably the secret to establishing a SID. I tried, I couldn’t do it,” Mr. Reed said. Mr. Reed said the benefits of some form of development authority, such as a redevelopment corporation, might bear further examination “but you have to be realistic in terms of what a redevelopment corporation might do.”
Carlos Rodriguez, New Jersey director of the Regional Plan Association, said that Princeton already had a joint housing authority in place, and suggested examining the potential of this authority to tackle some of the broader problems facing the community.
”The outcome of this is to join together in a task force and in the next year look to the kinds of structures that could be useful,” Mr. Geddes said. At the meeting borough Mayor Mildred Trotman and Mr. Durkee of Princeton University said they would be open to participating in some form of discussions. No representative of Princeton Township made a public statement at the meeting.
”We have always been able and willing to participate in open discussions,” Mayor Trotman said.
”I like the idea of having an opportunity that is more like a workshop setting to talk through these issues,” Mr. Durkee said.
Asked by Borough Councilman Kevin Wilkes about transparency of decision-making of the three entities, Mr. Goldsmith said that only parking authorities were bound by the open public meetings law, although improvement authorities and development corporations often honor the intent of conducting deliberations in public.
Mr. Wilkes said each attendee likely had his or her favorite entity for grappling with some of the problems confronting Princeton, and his own interest was in a parking authority.
A parking authority could tackle immediate problems of traffic congestion in downtown Princeton, creating and coordinating public transit solutions, and combining the parking needs and proposals of the municipalities and the university in an efficient and cost-effective way, Mr. Wilkes said following the adjournment of the Princeton Future gathering.
The next public meeting of Princeton Future will be on Nov. 8 at the Princeton Public Library.

