Panel considers underground site for Borough power plant

Princeton Future — the panel of University and community leaders planning to revitalize the downtown area — has been meeting for the past few months trying to nail down its plans.

They recently received an estimate that the cost of moving the PSE&G power station — currently located next to the public library in the Borough — underground will cost about $2.7 million, panel co-chair Sheldon Sturges said.

Robert Geddes — the panel's co-chair and former dean of the University's school of architecture — and the rest of the panel had expected the cost of moving the station underground to be about $15 million. As a result, they had been looking for a new place to put it above ground.

Then Acea Brown Bovere — one of the world's largest engineering firms — proposed that the station could be moved underground into a space that is 50 feet by 50 feet.

The removal of the power station from its current location, north of Nassau Street, had been a critical element in Princeton Future's plans. According to Geddes, it now acts as a sort of barrier that separates different neighborhoods within the Borough.

"This is such a practical solution that whole area can now be seen as a whole," Geddes said.

Among other projects, Princeton Future is trying to plan the building of a new town center, tentatively called Madison Square, on Wiggins Street. The center would open up in both the front and back — helping, proponents of the plan hope, to unite the University and the Nassau Street area with streets behind it, such as John Street.

The panel has established two task forces. One of these, the planning and design task force, has been meeting weekly to discuss the plans for the downtown.

The other group has been working to plan the unification of the downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, including the University. "It's generating some hypotheses for the public to think about," Geddes said.

Geddes explained that the panel has three goals.

One is to bring different kinds of people, activities, buildings and places to the downtown area. Another is to provide affordable housing, parking and shops for local markets.

The third goal is to establish an affordable balance between services provided and taxes collected by the local government. Creating a larger tax base — by having more people living and working in the area — would help the Borough meet this goal.