By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
It won’t work without moving the Dinky.
That was the message Princeton University reiterated to those attending its open house Tuesday on its proposed Arts and Transit Neighborhood.
”It’s not just the Dinky station,” University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee told the audience during a presentation of the plan. “It’s the parking that goes with the Dinky. It’s the proximity to the Wawa. If you retain all of that and leave it where it is, then you can’t really improve the traffic circulation and you can’t develop a parcel that would allow you to develop the arts neighborhood.”
Moreover, Mr. Durkee said, keeping the Dinky where it is wouldn’t be conducive to providing access to the proposed parking garage and capacity for a potential Bus Rapid Transit service — two major aspects of the proposed district.
”We tried a number of designs and it just didn’t work,” he said.
The relocation of the Dinky station is a central aspect in the proposed arts corridor, which itself is a major component of the university’s recently completed Campus Plan, intended to guide development of the 380-acre campus through 2016 and beyond.
Although Mr. Durkee said after his presentation that many residents who attended the open house left feeling better about the plan, residents and municipal officials still called on the university to look at alternatives to the relocation.
After hearing Mr. Durkee cite the Campus Plan’s emphasis on encouraging public transportation, township resident James Bash posed a question.
”Aren’t we marginalizing it?” he said, noting he’d like to see it moved closer to the center of town, not farther away.
Earlier, Regional Planning Board member Marvin Reed stood near a board that illustrated the distance from the current Dinky station site to its proposed new location by showing a similar trek — the 480-foot walk from Small World Coffee to the Princeton Public Library. Mr. Reed said the movement of the station is “not just a question of how many yards or feet you have to walk” but about “how prominent it is as a community asset.”
Mr. Reed, who recently circulated a memo to other municipal officials citing what he says are a number of inconsistencies between the Campus Plan and Princeton’s Community Master Plan, said before the presentation that he would accept the change if it were necessary. But “they don’t really have to do it,” he said.
Mr. Durkee disagreed during his presentation, stating that other configurations simply didn’t work.
”The bottom line is, if you can’t move it out of there … then you can’t do the other things we’re trying to achieve here,” he said. “The question is, ‘Are the offsetting benefits and the other steps we’re going to take sufficient to offset that?’”
Aspects that would offset the increased distance include the possible introduction of a jitney service by the borough as well as the hope that the amenities in the area will make the “experience of getting there and being there more attractive than what it is now,” Mr. Durkee said.
Indeed, both Mr. Bash and borough merchant Bill Howard — who also said he’d also like to see the Dinky stay where it is — allowed that the plan, in their view, was otherwise well done.
Still, other concerns were voiced at the open house. Some residents asked whether the university is committed to keeping the Dinky in service, and others questioned if service would be disrupted during the transition.
After stating the university’s “significant stake in the continued existence of the Dinky,” Mr. Durkee said that planners “would try to do this in a way that absolutely minimized disruption.”
Mr. Durkee also responded to concerns that the plan relies too much on the future existence of both a jitney and a BRT service — neither of which are guaranteed to come to fruition. He said that New Jersey Transit has advised the university “again and again” to make sure there is enough capacity to introduce a BRT service, and said that the scheme would work without a jitney, though “not nearly as well.”
Still, he said the university is “firmly committed” to support a jitney service financially if it is initiated by the borough.
Also raised were the issues of whether traffic circulation would be improved by a planned roundabout, whether there would be adequate access to the new parking garage, and whether enough commuter parking would be available.
”People coming to this site are coming off peak — during the day or evening — so it spreads out the traffic,” Mr. Durkee said, noting that the existing number of commuter spaces will be maintained. “It isn’t just about more facilities for the arts. It is about trying to improve transit, improve circulation and provide a much nicer space for the people who use the Dinky, and provide easier access into that garage, and take some cars off the road.”
And Project Architect Steven Holl said his goal will be to create “the feeling that this is not just a campus space,” but one that belongs to “the whole community.”
Still, Mr. Reed said, “We’d like to consider whether there aren’t other ways to accomplish what’s most in the community’s interest.”
Mr. Reed added, “One of those steps will happen this Thursday night,” when the Planning Board discusses the “adequacy of the current on-campus jitney system.” The university is also scheduled to appear before the Planning Board for a discussion of some aspects of the Campus Plan on March 27.
The Campus Plan can be viewed at www.princeton.edu/campusplan.
