Butler speech escalates University-town tensions over zoning

In a speech on the University’s Arts and Transit Neighborhood zoning request at Tuesday’s Borough Council meeting, Councilmember Jo Butler predicted that the Borough risked losing the University’s voluntary financial support if it did not grant the University its requested zoning.

Butler, referring to remarks made by President Shirley Tilghman at the Jan. 31 Council meeting, predicted that the University would cease its annual voluntary contributions to the Borough’s operating budget if the Council doesn’t grant the University’s desired ordinance changes.

“As part of that presentation, she made it quite clear that the PILOT payment — the roughly $1,000,000 dollars that the University contributes to the operating budget — was hanging in the balance dependent on the outcome of the University’s request for the zoning change," Butler said. "I believe her words were carefully chosen and deliberately chosen, but I don’t think anyone present that evening could miss the meaning." She characterized the Council’s decision as, “We either give them the zoning they want or we lose the PILOT.”

At the meeting, council planning and zoning staff also laid out proposed changes to the draft of the University’s requested zoning ordinance. Tension in the past few months’ discussions over the University's Arts and Transit Neighborhood have led to uncertainty about the future of the University’s financial support.

Of the Borough’s dependence on the University’s contribution, Butler said, the Borough faced its decision over the zoning ordinance “with the sword of Damocles over our heads.”

“Whatever the million dollars is to the University, it is a critical amount to our operating budget,” she said, referring to the University’s large endowment.

Butler predicted that the University’s plans to create residential housing on Alexander Road would lead to greater University influence with Alexander Road tenants and throughout the community.

“Soon nearly all the residents will owe their soul to the company store in one way or another,” she said. “It isn’t much of stretch to imagine a time when residents with ties to the University will also decide who serves as elected officials in this town.”

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Butler emphasized the Borough's need to end its financial dependence on the University, saying, “I certainly wouldn’t stay in a marriage where every time I had a disagreement with my husband he threatened to divorce.”

“My recommendation is that we do the work necessary to get a zero budget increase for this year, and then, as painful as it is for me to say, I think we need to consider a University tax," she explained. "Not a tax on the University, but a tax on our citizens so we can start to protect against the threat of the withdrawal of the PILOT.”

An initial budget presentation at the March 8 Council meeting proposed a one cent property tax increase on every $100 of assessed property for next year’s budget. The Council will discuss changes to its budget at next week’s meeting.

Councilmember Jenny Crumiller said she “couldn’t agree more” with Butler’s remarks.

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University Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee ’69, who was present at the meeting, afterwards called Butler’s remarks “remarkably hostile” and “uncalled for.”

“I don’t think the President said anything like what [Butler] claims she said,” Durkee said.

He added, “If it turns out that the Borough’s not interested in supporting one of the major initiatives of the University, and is not interested in a plan that expands access to the arts in Princeton, then we have a different view of the future than the current leadership of the Borough has. So, how generous we’re prepared to be to the community depends on whether there’s an agreement ... on where we’re trying to go as a community.”

Last year the University made a $1.2 million contribution to the Borough as part of a six-year agreement that expires at the end of this year. Durkee said that the University would not begin negotiations regarding its voluntary contribution until after the November election because of the possibility that a consolidation referundum may unite the Borough and Township.

"What was missing was a recognition that the University is going to expand its capacity to support the arts, whether it can do it in this site or not, and the University is going to develop this property, whether it can do it within new zoning or not," Durkee added in an email after the meeting. "The real question on the table is whether the arts expansion can take place here ... So the choice the Council is really making is whether this site is developed for the arts, or whether it is developed for other University uses."

On the topic of the Dinky, which has caused most of the conflict for Borough-University relations, Durkee reiterated his position that the Dinky will be moved regardless of community opposition.

"Whatever the outcome on zoning, the Dinky will be relocated," he explained. "Notwithstanding what was said at the end of the meeting, the University has a contract with New Jersey Transit that gives the University the right to relocate the Dinky."

The bulk of the meeting was spent on the presentation of proposed changes. Council zoning and planning staff presented a proposal of modest changes to the zoning ordinance that would not alter the University’s construction plans for the area.

The University’s zoning proposal asks for a district along Alexander Street to be collectively rezoned as a hybrid “Arts, Education and Transit” district. If approved by the Council by the end of April, the ordinance would create a new zone for “Arts, Education and Transit” uses, including private residences, performance halls and instructional buildings, transit infrastructure and retail and office spaces.

The Council’s proposed zoning would leave the homes along Alexander Road within the existing residential zone and would make the McCarter Theatre Center part of an existing adjacent educational zone.