By David Kilby, Staff Writer
CRANBURY — The Township Committee will be taking some new approaches to revitalizing the downtown with a new subcommittee assigned specifically to that task.
The Business and Downtown Revitalization Subcommittee was established in response to a suggestion made by Richard Preiss, of Phillips, Preiss and Grygiel, the township planning consultant.
The members of the subcommittee are committeemen Dan Mulligan and Dave Cook, and they hope to appoint a few downtown business owners and residents as volunteers to the subcommittee.
Throughout the Master Plan revision last year, Mr. Preiss suggested the township form a subcommittee that’s mission would be to discuss the best options for revitalizing Cranbury’s downtown and its businesses.
Mr. Preiss made this suggestion because the project of revitalizing the downtown was too large in scope for a township planning firm to complete.
The main issue Main Street faces is the limited amount of parking, which seriously hurts businesses.
Andrew Feranda, of Shropshire Associates LLC, the township’s traffic consultant, performed a study, as part of the revised Master Plan, to discover what ways Cranbury can increase the parking spaces downtown. He discovered one quick fix could be changing the parallel parking spaces on Main Street to diagonal parking spaces, but this suggestion raised objections since many residents believed Main Street is already too narrow.
Another suggestion Mr. Feranda made was to build a new parking lot at the end of Park Place. This suggestion was well-received, but it will take much longer to implement.
”I think the new Master Plan has given us at least some options as we look at the parking issues downtown,” Mr. Cook said.
Austin Schraudenbach, vice president of the Cranbury Board of Education, suggested in a board meeting last month that the parking lot for the proposed new library be built before the actual library, planned for around 2015, thus providing much-needed parking in the interim. The lot set aside for the new library is across the parking lot from the school, which is in the downtown.
”We nailed parking as one key component for the subcommittee to focus on,” Mr. Mulligan said, adding he and Mr. Cook still need some more feedback from business owners and residents on Main Street in order to get a good idea of what they should do.
”Nothing is written in stone,” he said.
The subcommittee wants to do everything it can to increase dialogue about the downtown area, he said.
”We’re going to talk to other communities of similar size as well” to see what they’re doing to meet similar challenges,” Mr. Mulligan said.
Throughout the Master Plan revision meetings, Mr. Mulligan emphasized the need to protect the businesses downtown. One way to do that, he mentioned, is to prevent the construction of diners on Route 130, thereby, making food and dining a good reason for people to drive off Route 130 and stop in Cranbury.
”Our most successful business downtown is dining and food,” he said. “So that’s a big part of figuring out what we’re going to do.”
”We had a similar subcommittee last year called the Business Association Subcommittee,” said Denise Marabello, chief finance officer and township administrator. “It was for the same purpose; to work with the business owners downtown to see how we could deal with the empty space (not leased).”
New businesses keep moving into empty buildings, but businesses are just as quickly moving out.
Ms. Marabello said the Township Committee wants to see what ideas the new businesses have and what they like about downtown.
”It’s very important, the downtown area” Ms. Marabello said. “It’s one thing people love when they come here.”
She said the township is doing everything it can to keep Main Street alive and to keep that “small town feel.”
”The key and focus is to build up the business environment in town to make it easier to bring a new business into town or enhance an existing business,” Mr. Cook said.
Mr. Cook hopes to help and attract businesses that offer something for local residents and those visiting Cranbury.
The subcommittee hopes to make downtown itself a destination, instead of just having a few places downtown being common destinations.
”If customers happen to go downtown, for example, to eat at the Cranbury Inn and see other entities like Charmed by Claire during their visit,” that would be an example of the ideal the subcommittee is shooting for, Mr. Cook said.
”I don’t see corporate businesses like McDonald’s moving in downtown,” he added.

