Responding to complaints from residents, the Princeton Council has agreed to remove the canopy over the newly relocated municipal fueling station on Mount Lucas Road at Cherry Hill Road.
Following a brief discussion at its April 22 meeting, the Princeton Council reached consensus to take down the canopy. Exactly how it will be removed – and the timetable for doing so – has not yet been determined.
The council’s decision grew out of a neighborhood meeting earlier this month, in which residents sharply criticized the decision to put the municipal fueling station in that location and to install the canopy over it.
At the April 11 neighborhood meeting, Municipal Engineer Deanna Stockton told the residents that the canopy over the above-ground fuel tanks is necessary to prevent spilled fuel from running off the pavement.
The canopy also protect the police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, truck drivers and school bus drivers from the rain while they are refueling the 200 or so vehicles in the town’s fleet, Stockton said.
Princeton officials assured the residents that steps would be taken to landscape the site and to hide the above-ground fuel tanks from view, but the residents were adamant that the canopy made the fueling station resemble a gasoline station – not something they wanted to see in their neighborhood.
So, while Princeton Council cannot relocate the municipal fueling station, it did agree to take down the canopy.
At the April 11 meeting, Robert Hough, the town’s director of infrastructure and operations, told the residents that the municipal fueling station had been located on the property – bordered by Mount Lucas Road, Cherry Hill Road and Route 206 – for decades.
Town officials had considered relocating the municipal fueling station, but each of the potential sites had issues, Hough said.
The Princeton Sewer Operating Commission property on River Road was a potential site, but River Road floods, Hough said. There is not enough room at the former Princeton Borough Department of Public Works site on N. Harrison Street, and sharing Princeton University’s fueling station is not feasible because the town has about 200 vehicles in its fleet.
Town officials also said the large fuel storage tanks are needed to ensure there will be enough gasoline and diesel fuel on hand in case tanker trucks cannot make deliveries during inclement weather.
And although town officials wanted to install underground fuel storage tanks, state officials are requiring them to be installed above ground, Hough said.