Borough fears population expansion, affordable housing crunch

Population growth and exhaustion of open space in Princeton Borough have pushed new and old residents to envision their town of the future.

Facing issues ranging from concerns over subsidized housing to community inclusion, residents and Borough government have begun planning what the town will look like 20 years from now. Princeton Future — a group created to formulate a concrete plan for the future of downtown Princeton, has found accomdating the town's socioeconomic diversity one of the Borough's greatest challenges, said Sheldon Sturges, co-chair for the group.

To elicit ideas about potential solutions, Princeton Future has engaged in conversations with residents of various neighborhoods throughout the Borough. So far, respondents have in particular sought affordable residences, he said.

"Princeton Future is having conversations with all groups," said Sturges. "We're making sure everyone is heard."

The lower income neighborhoods put pressure on the Borough to find pleasant and affordable residential housing, he said.

"I don't know whether the town can step up and fight the incredible pressure for real estate prices to go higher," said Borough Mayor Marvin Reed. "You'd have to have the town subsidize rents and purchase prices."

And it is arguable whether residents would agree to pay the additional tax necessary to support a decrease in real estate prices, said Reed.

"The jury is still out on whether townspeople will make that financial commitment. A surtax would have to be used to support housing funds," he said.

"Green space" areas surround the Borough on all sides. Places such as Springdale Golf Course, Institute Woods and Lake Carnegie prevent future expansion, sheltering the borders of the Borough from surrounding communities.

The Borough is then forced to absorb the growing populations.

There are roughly 14,000 Borough residents, Reed said, and the town has a maximum capacity of 20,000. In 20 years, Reed envisions a denser downtown area with taller buildings near the center of town. But such an expansion will put an additonal strain on a region already strapped for space.

"One of the fears is that the area becomes so congested with traffic that people don't want to live here anymore," Reed said.

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Borough Councilman Joseph O'Neill has already observed the increase in population density.

"Princeton has reached the high water mark of open space," he said, adding that it must now begin to look toward refinement from within, rather than expansion without.

O'Neill used Palo Alto, Calif. — a University town similar in size and surroundings to Princeton — as a template for the future of the Borough. Palo Alto, where Stanford University is located, has already confronted many of the challenges currently facing the Borough.

The key to withstanding growth and maintaining community, O'Neill said, lies in socioeconomics. The Borough needs to find a medium between New Haven, the Hyde Park section of Chicago and Morningside Heights — other University neighborhoods that have gone into decline — and Palo Alto which has made diversity a word of the past by driving out the lower socioeconomic classes.

Princeton residents exhibit widespread support for a future that includes diversity, affordability and a balanced community.

"We don't want Princeton to become a Golden Ghetto like Rodeo Drive or Silicon Valley," Sturges said, "where service workers have to live two and a half hours away."

"This community speaks with one voice: that we don't want that to happen here," he concluded.