Consultants are proposing three plans, including a bridge over Spring Street.
By: Jennifer Potash
A parking garage forming a bridge above Spring Street and a garage topped with residential units are among the ideas proposed by the borough’s parking consultants.
Desman Associates has completed its preliminary plans for three development scenarios of the Spring Street Park & Shop lot and the metered lot on Tulane Street. Both are borough-owned properties and currently comprise 270 parking spaces.
Representatives from Desman Associates will present the report tonight at Borough Hall.
Three schemes – which borough officials have referred to as "small," "medium" and "large" – range from 455 to 575 parking spaces.
None of the concepts is set in stone, Mayor Marvin Reed said.
"This is just the first step – to get us mulling it over," he said.
The "medium" plan calls for a long, rectangular-shaped, 535-space above-ground parking garage on the Park & Shop lot and the Tulane Street lot with a bridge over Spring Street connecting the two buildings.
That plan also calls for a "fair-sized" public park near the Princeton Public Library on Witherspoon Street, Mayor Reed said.
Construction of a new 4,500-square-foot building would help to screen the new garage. The existing businesses on Spring Street would remain intact.
The garage could be entered and exited from either Wiggins Street or Spring Street.
The "small" plan contains a larger housing component than the other plans – a four- to five-story residential building with 40 to 50 units. The parking for these units would be underneath the building.
A small surface parking lot, with about 50 spaces, would be built next to the library.
Retail space, with a smaller garage built on top, would be located on the Tulane Street lot, but the borough would need to acquire the adjacent Princeton Record Exchange building to make that option feasible, Mayor Reed said.
"We haven’t talked to (the owner of the building) about that yet," he said.
Spring Street would remain open.
The third scheme, the "large" plan, which has the most number of parking spaces at 575, would involve construction of a garage on the Park & Shop and Tulane Street lots with the residential units on top.
Spring Street would become the entrance to the garage and be closed to through traffic.
No matter what kind of parking structure the borough chooses, the borough will need accompanying development – residential, office and retail – to subsidize it, Mayor Reed said.
The cost of each option can’t be determined until the council gives Desman Associates direction about which components should be included in the final plan, said Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi.
Mr. Bruschi said Desman will compete its final report by late December.
The council is also expected to discuss setting priorities for using the new open-space tax tonight.
Borough voters adopted a penny open-space tax Nov. 7.
In order to qualify for the highest level of state Green Acres matching funds, the borough will need an open-space master plan, Mayor Reed said.
The borough has an inventory of all the parks and playgrounds but it needs updating, he said.
Also, the borough needs to check with the joint Princeton Recreation Department about what lands the department would like to acquire, Mayor Reed said.