The Borough Council, community residents and University representatives met at the Council meeting on Tuesday to discuss the University’s requested zoning for the proposed Arts and Transit Neighborhood, the future of the Dinky train and the memorandum of understanding released last week as a result of negotiations between the Borough and the University.
Several members of the community group Save the Dinky made presentations in favor of preserving the Dinky in its current location.
“The arts are not going to put any more riders on our system," said Carlos Rodrigues, a professional planner who lives in Princeton. "If we really wanted to increase our ridership, we would be developing uses that generate riders, like housing, in that location.”
The group's presentation included a talk by Alain Kornhauser GS ’71, a professor of operations research and financial engineering. Kornhauser expressed his support for the offer from Henry Posner III ’77, the chairman of the Railroad Development Corporation, to form a private-public partnership with the Borough, in which the Borough would condemn the station property under eminent domain and the RDC would provide funding to purchase the station.
The group's presentation prompted an open discussion among those in attendance. While Carolyne Wass, a Borough resident who said she commutes to New York on the Dinky on a daily basis, said she thought the additional 460 feet of walking distance was “very manageable” and that she supported the proposed construction, the majority of speakers said they remained opposed to the planned Arts and Transit Neighborhood.
Borough resident Kip Cherry said she supported partnering with Posner to acquire the station by eminent domain. “I appreciate very much the use of eminent domain," Cherry said. "There’s a time and place to use it, and this is the time and this is the place.”
She also suggested that representatives from the Borough approach New Jersey Transit about the move of the station.
Other speakers said they were in favor of continuing negotiations with the University in hopes of convincing them to reconsider the relocation.
“I would ask the University to reconsider and to think about this,” said Borough Councilmember Barbara Trelstad, referring to the original zoning ordinance. Her comment was met with applause.
“We could go ahead, I think, probably really quickly with the project if the University would agree to leave the tracks there and not move the station,” said Councilmember Jenny Crumiller. “We could have our beautiful arts center, all the economic benefits that being touted, and we could keep the Dinky where it is.”
Crumiller added that she would like to request definitive information from New Jersey Transit about whether or not service to Dinky station is in danger of being cut.
“If we believe the Dinky is important to the town, then make the University have a real choice. Freeze their future building rights,” Borough resident Peter Marks said, suggesting that the community deny University requests for zoning and building approvals. “It seems to me that they’ll come back to terms that are pretty reasonable.”
However, University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69, who attended the meeting, said that New Jersey Transit, not the University, had moved the station in 1984, and that the University’s subsequent right to move the station had been confirmed.
“When you asked us, we got a letter from NJ Transit to confirm that. That’s how they read it, that’s how the attorney general of the state reads it. We have the right to do this, so I don’t think it’s worth a lot of time debating whether that provision was in the agreement,” Durkee said. "The people who fund the Dinky have said the best way to save it is to go ahead with what we have put on the table."
However, Borough resident Anne Neumann said that the University had proposed a plan several years ago to extend its campus to the other side of Carnegie Lake, but chose not to because a survey indicated that undergraduates did not want to walk to a distant campus.
“Now they’re forced to cram everything they can into the Borough. Because a bunch of 18- to 21-year-olds didn’t want to walk further, I’m going to have to walk further,” Neumann said, making reference to her knee replacement surgery.
When Neumann refused to stop speaking after the three-minute period allotted to public presenters, Mayor Mildred Trotman declared her out of order and banged her gavel to get her to stop speaking.
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