By Jennifer Potash
The Princeton Packet
Friday, July 27, 2001

    Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed's longtime proposal for a downtown parking garage took a giant step this week.
   The Borough Council voted 4 to 2 Tuesday to develop financial plans for a garage and related development.
   While the split vote does not authorize construction, Mayor Reed said he expects a four-member majority to still be in place when that vote occurs, even with Councilman Ryan Stark Lilienthal's pending departure later this year.
   "I think it will stand," said Mayor Reed, who first proposed a downtown garage in January 1999.
   Joseph O'Neill, of the Regional Planning Board of Princeton, is expected to be appointed to council when Mr. Lilienthal steps down, and he has said he supports a garage.
   In an unusual step for a vote on a resolution, Mayor Reed called for a roll call.
   "An enthusiastic yes," said Councilwoman Peggy Karcher when her name was called by Borough Clerk Penelope Edwards-Carter. Council members Roger Martindell and David Goldfarb cast the no votes.
   Mr. Martindell said the council had not fully committed itself to developing some of the alternatives to the garage nor was the traffic analysis provided by the borough's consultant adequate.
   "I do not think this is quite mature enough to adopt," he said.
   Mr. Goldfarb indicated he does not think it best that downtown employees and long-term parkers use the central business district. Nonetheless, he commended Mayor Marvin Reed for proposing the garage and shepherding it through in a process beneficial to the public and the council.
   "I think we can proceed to the next step without bitterness or rancor," said Mr. Goldfarb.
   The plan calls for 483 parking spaces in a four-level garage — three floors above ground and one underground — on the Park & Shop lot at Spring and Witherspoon streets and on top of a new building on the Tulane Street lot. Also included are a public square, shops, apartments, a possible food market and several pedestrian walkways.
   Prior to the vote, the council spent more than three hours discussing 10 potential alternatives or additions to the plans.
   Mr. Martindell, who acknowledged that he is "not a particular friend of the garage," said he would be willing to vote for the mayor's resolution if his colleagues took "meaningful, concrete steps" to explore some of the alternatives.
   "These alternatives under consideration are in addition to a garage not in lieu of a garage," he said.
   There was no majority support for repaving the Park & Shop lot and dividing it to provide the Princeton Public Library with 85 spaces or for lifting the two-hour parking restriction on residential streets near the central business district, including the John Witherspoon neighborhood as well as the "tree streets."
   Mr. Martindell and Mr. Goldfarb argued strongly for the latter but the majority of the council were opposed.
   The idea to lift the parking restriction came up last fall and many residents opposed such a move.
   Mr. Martindell argued that due to population growth and other pressures to develop, the borough will eventually be forced to permit more parking on residential streets. Mr. Lilienthal countered that turning all of Princeton Borough into a parking lot would be harmful to the residents.
   "Parking on the streets, to me, is the exact opposite of what my goal would be, which is to ease the burden on residential neighborhoods," Mr. Lilienthal said.
   Ideas to build a parking garage at the privately owned parking lot of the YWCA and YMCA, at the Merwick rehabilitation unit site or next to Borough Hall also failed to win majority support.
   Some council members appeared willing to explore negotiations with Palmer Square Management to obtain parking spaces from its garages as well as making possible revisions to the borough's zoning ordinances to permit more shared use of parking spaces by downtown entities, but no action was taken in that direction. A proposal to acquire spaces in the Palmer Square-owned garages through eminent domain and condemnation proceedings was discouraged by Borough Attorney Michael J. Herbert who said the borough would have a difficult time justifying the takeover of private property for the greater public good.
   The council, in its talk of alternatives, seemed to support establishing an affordable jitney service.
   Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said Wednesday that staff will meet early next week with Ed McManimon, the borough's bond counsel, to discuss financing options such as public-private partnerships. The staff will examine several mechanisms to bring back to the council, he said.
   A timeline has not yet been worked out, he added.
   The Borough Council has agreed to develop the Park & Shop lot in tandem with the Princeton Public Library's expansion. The library wants to move out in late September and being construction in the spring.
   Mayor Reed thanked Princeton Future for taking a lead role in shaping the designs and the community for participating in the process.

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