By: centraljersey.com
It is understandable that Princeton University officials have become frustrated with the pace and process of the Princeton Borough in dealing with a proposed $300 million arts and transportation project involving a center for the arts and the Dinky station.
After a joint meeting of the Borough Council, Township Committee and Planning Board Monday night, university President Shirley M. Tilghman said, "We have been at this for four years. We have no more time."
She and university Vice President Robert K. Durkee said the school would end further efforts for the project at that location and start to look elsewhere for the center.
Needless to say, that decision makes a lot of people unhappy, including those who would like to have the arts center near the McCarter Theatre, those in the building trades and those who think the project would improve that part of the community.
And the university would be making the improvements at no cost to taxpayers.
So what’s the drawback?
Well, for one, a thoroughly tangled web of zoning that includes areas in both the borough and township that involves six different zones.
That, however, should not be an insurmountable obstacle.
And that should also be the case with the raw nerve that involves the proposal to move the Dinky station about 500 feet farther from the downtown as part of the project. The Dinky is clearly an emotional and passionate issue.
But it alone should not be the cause to abandon a $300 million project, especially since its future already is somewhat cloudy.
The bottom line is, despite their frustration, university officials should not have come to that meeting, which was supposed to be an information session, and then decide to take all of their marbles and go home.
At the same time, the two municipalities should have been able to get their bureaucratic acts together by now, despite the Dinky.
Perhaps a special subcommittee to focus on the rail portion of the project with a deadline for agreement, as suggested by township Mayor Chad Goerner, would work. It’s worth a try.
However it is reached, there needs to be compromise by the municipalities and by the university. The university might be footing the bill, but the wishes and concerns of the residents should be heard and respected.
Four years is a long time to throw away. And the arts center in that location just makes sense.