New Jersey Transit’s board of directors is scheduled to meet today to vote on a land swap with Princeton University that both sides need in connection with the arts and transit project.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
New Jersey Transit’s board of directors is scheduled to meet today to vote on a land swap with Princeton University that both sides need in connection with the arts and transit project.
The university will pay for a sliver of land it needs for a planned parking lot and new train station, while NJ Transit will acquire university owned land that it needs for track realignment, said university Vice President and Secretary Robert K. Durkee on Monday. He said all the land involved is less than an acre.
Dollar amounts were not disclosed, but NJ Transit said the “property transfers would result in net revenue . . . based upon appraised fair market values.”
The board meeting, occurring via a telephone conference, is scheduled to start at 1 p.m., according to a meeting notice by NJ Transit. The only action item listed on the meeting agenda is the one dealing with the university.
For her part, Princeton Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller, an advocate for keeping the Dinky station where it is, expressed concern over how NJ Transit planned to conduct the meeting.
”Given the secrecy behind the arrangements for the Dinky removal, I don’t think NJ Transit should have any meetings that are not fully public. And I do not consider a telephone meeting public. It’s designed for expediency, and that’s the problem,” she said. “Everyone knows that telephone meetings are not the best way to make decisions.”
Critics like Ms. Crumiller oppose moving the Dinky terminus 460 feet south, a decision that will increase the distance commuters need to travel to go from the current train station to the new one the university plans to build. They maintain that the distance involved will hurt Dinky ridership, while the university has said the relocation is necessary for the arts and transit project.
The wording of today’s meeting notice led some to question what the meeting was about — perhaps dealing with another train-related issue. Ms. Crumiller wrote a letter to NJ Transit’s board thinking the meeting had to do with a transfer of an easement that NJ Transit has. Princeton University, in 1984, bought the land on which the train station and the tracks sit from NJ Transit.
The university plans to build a new station, campus buildings and other elements in a project that will take until 2017 to complete.
The university last year received approval from the Princeton Planning Board for the project, although the matter has been tied up in court. Opponents have sought to block the university on different legal fronts, first waging a battle over the Dinky, the zoning that was approved for the area, and then on the approval the Planning Board gave in December.