PRINCETON: Borough Council gets first look at zoning changes proposal

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   The Borough Council on Tuesday heard the first proposal of a draft ordinance for Princeton University’s arts and transit neighborhood at the Dinky station on University Place and Alexander Road.
   Even though university officials were in attendance at the meeting, the proposed arts, education and transit zoning has not been formally presented to the university. Borough officials have a meeting scheduled on March 30 with the university to discuss the issue.
   The project would create a new Lewis Center for the Arts, add instructional and rehearsal spaces, and build a new train station that would move the existing train station and train, known as the Dinky, 460 feet to the south.
   It has been a rough road for the project to get this far, with the major stumbling block being a joint meeting of the municipal governing bodies on Jan. 31 that ended with the university pulling the plug on the plan because municipal officials did not indicate support of zoning changes necessary for the project to proceed.
   The zoning changes proposed by the borough on Tuesday night would consider leaving homes along Alexander Road in the R3 zone and this would eliminate any concern of project creep and protect the homes in the area.
   Forbes College currently sits in two zones in the municipalities and borough council would be asked to consider moving the borough portion to mirror the township, which permits dormitories. McCarter and Berlind Theaters would also need to be considered for this zoning as well.
   Another suggestion would be to limit the arts, education and transit zone to the area containing the proposed arts buildings and the two rail station buildings, 1.4 acres.
   Robert Durkee, vice president and secretary of Princeton University, was present at the meeting and commented that the presentation was professional and they would discuss everything they heard.