PRINCETON: Mayors quizzed at merchants group meeting

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   The mayors of the Princetons met with and answered questions of businesses at the monthly meeting of the Princeton Merchants Association on Tuesday morning.
   The first concern businesses had was what can the non-resident merchants do to have their voices heard and provide input for meaningful change in the community?
   Calling businesses a “vital part of the community,” Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman said there are many ways of reaching out, the first being via telephone. Businesses can call Mayor Trotman, Robert Bruschi, the business administrator or Lea Quinty, the clerk.
   ”If we can’t help you immediately, we do everything we can to find the answers for you,” she said.
   Township Mayor Chad Goerner said the merchants “are critical to the vibrancy of the community,” and “we’ve tried to be responsive to the concerns you may have.”
   He spoke about a proposed community transportation initiative that will bring people from all around the Princetons to the downtown area.
   The next question was about what are municipal officials doing to promote smart growth and additional development in the Princetons, in light of the success of the library and Spring Street projects.
   Mayor Trotman spoke about the importance of parking and options the borough is beginning to explore to help businesses expand despite the lack of space to increase parking.
   Borough officials are in the preliminary stages of discussing a reformulation of parking allocations for downtown businesses to allow for new growth without zoning dictating the number of parking spaces a business must have.
   From a macro perspective, Mayor Goerner spoke about the Joint Shared Services/Consolidation Commission wanting to preserve the downtown and keeping the ordinances that exist in place for five years after consolidation, should it pass.
   Then the mayors spoke about the benefits and concerns about consolidation.
   ”One of the things I think could be the biggest benefit is the level of service,” said Mayor Trotman, adding the jury is still out on consolidation for her and previous concerns she has had are being addressed this time.
   ”In the borough, we deliver good service at the moment, but with consolidation there is every reason to believe there will be a more efficient level of service, non-duplication and down the road somewhere a savings all of us could and would appreciate,” she said.
   Mayor Goerner echoed these thoughts, but pointed out that only 24 to 26 percent of the total tax bills of Princeton residents goes to the municipalities. Because of this, the dollar savings of consolidation will not be a significant tax reduction because the municipal portion of the total tax bill is so small.
   The other place that will have significant differences is governance.
   ”This issue is very, very big on my mind; what ends up happening is when a community is trying to execute strategic vision or a plan of some sort and there’s two governing bodies and we have 13 shared services, all of which have to be signed off on by both governing bodies for every single budget item and it creates a lot of extra encumbrance to getting things done and to actually move forward with any vision you may have,” he said.
   Mayor Goerner believes consolidation may be the best option, since the municipalities share so many services already.
   The commission is still formulating its opinion and will present its findings to the governing bodies by the end of June.
   The mayors were also asked to tackle was the net loss of 3,000 jobs in Princeton when the hospital moves to Plainsboro next year.
   ”I wish we could do something about the void that will be left,” said Mayor Trotman. “Unfortunately, we can’t, but I don’t think all is lost, we just have to come up with other opportunities. I’m willing to work with anyone to see what we can do anywhere, but to come up with that, it is a void that will not be easily filled, not in the near future.”
   She spoke about the rezoning of the site for the next owner. New zoning includes housing and retail.
   ”Housing units in themselves do not create jobs, but it creates activity,” she said. “You’re going to have local people who can then shop local and buy local, so I don’t look at it as all being lost.”
   Mayor Goerner agreed with Mayor Trotman, adding that construction will create some transitional jobs and some permanent jobs when the retail is established.