Planning board votes to keep Dinky

The committee passed two resolutions concerning the Dinky at the meeting. The first affirmed retaining the Dinky over other alternative transportation systems, and the second called for working with New Jersey Transit to improve its efficiency and the quality of its service.

The meeting’s major point of debate was whether the resolution supporting the Dinky should explicitly call for retaining its current location.

The final resolution did not include such language, instead asserting that “all aspects of the current location should be weighed against any proposed changes at duly noticed public meetings before any conclusion is reached.” The current wording reflected changes from a Monday meeting, in which the resolution originally had stronger wording in support of the Dinky’s current location.

The original wording would have taken a stance again the University’s proposal to move the Dinky 460 feet south as part of its plan to construct the Arts and Transit Neighborhood.

Regional planning board member Julie Nachamkin, who was involved with the most recent drafting of the resolution, said she supported the change because “not all members of the planning board had a presentation from the University,” and thus not everyone had “the same information” to make a proper decision.

Bob Durkee ’69, University vice president and secretary, said at the meeting that one of the University’s goals for the neighborhood has always been “to preserve and enhance the Dinky’s experience.” He also said he welcomed the opportunity for further discussion in January with the planning board.

The majority of people at the meeting supported keeping the Dinky at its current location, as town residents have done throughout the debate.

“At this point, there is still a very sharp difference in terms of the University’s position and what seems to be emerging as a strong community sentiment,” Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed said in an interview before the meeting. “The rising community sentiment is to leave the station where it is.”

Representing roughly one-third of the more than 50 attendees, members of the “Save the Dinky” Facebook group, which currently numbers over 7,000 members, were especially vocal in the meeting.

The group’s founder Anita Garoniak said she is “adamant” that the Dinky remain in its current location.

“I believe that the attempt by the University to minimize the length of the route of the Dinky is environmentally incorrect and wasteful,” said Cecil Marshall, a Princeton town resident and member of the “Save the Dinky” group. “I think it is an attempt to render the Dinky slowly but surely obsolete.”

New Jersey’s current budget crunch will likely prove a challenge to attempts to improve the Dinky’s service with state funding.

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Reed said at the meeting: “The state really doesn’t have any money. The transportation fund has been spent and overspent to the point where now, there really are no capital projects. We’re going to have to rely on a certain amount of cooperation and coordination within the municipality.”