By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
Princeton University will be giving a public presentation at tonight’s Borough Council meeting on its plans for the creation of an arts and transit neighborhood in the area where the Dinky station, McCarter Theatre, and the Wawa store are located.
The meeting, at Borough Hall, is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
The university was invited by Princeton Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman to brief Borough Council on the arts and transit neighborhood plans, said Kristin Appelget, director of community and regional affairs at the university.
Elements of the plan, including traffic flow and a relocation of the Dinky station, have drawn opposition from the neighborhood as well as from some borough officials.”We have been invited to make presentations in front of numerous community groups. This is the first time we have been invited to give a presentation before Borough Council,” on the arts neighborhood plans, Ms. Appelget said.
Robert Durkee, Princeton University vice president and secretary, and university architect Ronald McCoy will give the presentation, Ms. Appelget said. Mr. Durkee and Mr. McCoy will describe “the current design and elements of it,” before council, she said. A scale model of the university’s plan for the area around the Dinky will be set up at Borough Council chambers as part of the presentation, she said.
Ms. Appelget said the university would be prepared to field questions about how its diminished economic circumstances might affect the plan and its execution.
At its most recent public presentation, at the Arts Council of Princeton last September, the university laid out plans for a proposed three-sided complex situated on Alexander Road and University Place across from Forbes College and McCarter Theatre. According to the university, the complex will be home to the Lewis Center for the Arts, as well as several performance and teaching spaces for the Program in Theater and Dance, the Department of Music and the Society of Fellows in the Creative and Performing Arts.
The new arts complex would encompass about 130,000 square feet of space in three contemporary buildings, and would share a common reception area and house several public spaces, including an art gallery, a black box theater, a dance studio and a music rehearsal room, according to the university. The current Dinky station would be moved from its present location to a new transit center about 400 feet south, where the Wawa would also be moved.
The university also proposes to replace the current stoplight at the corner of Alexander and University with a traffic circle. The new arts and transit neighborhood is a key part of the university’s 10-year master plan for restructuring its campus — including about 2 million square feet of new campus construction and revised parking and traffic flow — which was released in 2008.
Borough Councilman Kevin Wilkes said at tonight’s meeting he would be making available drawings and information about an alternative to the university’s plans he has developed.
Mr. Wilkes’ plan would keep the Dinky station in its present location among other aspects.
