Borough considers new zoning district

Supporters who advocated against the University’s plan to move the Dinky station southward are looking for other ways to bring public rail transit further into town. Some seek to create a special committee concerned with the University Place corridor in hopes that this would facilitate the far-off possibility of replacing the Dinky with a light-rail system running as far north as Nassau Street.

The Borough Council is considering an ordinance to establish a special improvement district along the University Place corridor between Alexander Road and Nassau Street. This district, some Council members hope, would facilitate future discussion with the University of replacing the Dinky with a light-rail system.

Those who advocate bringing public rail transit further northward into the Borough have in the past year discussed the far-off possibility of replacing the Dinky with a light-rail system that would run as far north as Nassau Street. Due to an agreement made with the University earlier this year, the town government has the legal right to a right-of-way that would allow it to build a rail transit system all the way to Nassau Street.

The SID ordinance would establish a “management corporation” of representatives from the Borough government and property owners in the district who would work to make improvements to the area. SID supporters have expressed hope that a SID would promote discussions about the area which would express both University and community concerns.

“The University has articulated the Arts and Transit Neighborhood as a gateway [to the community]. This would extend the gateway all the way to Nassau Street,” said Borough Council member Roger Martindell. Martindell has said on previous occasions that he sees the SID as one of several steps the community is taking to build a more cooperative relationship with the University.

University Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee ’69 said he didn’t think there was a serious need to create a SID in the University Place corridor. SIDs are usually intended to facilitate development in blighted areas in need of serious improvements.

“It still isn’t entirely clear, at least to me, what the municipality would be trying to accomplish with a SID,” Durkee said. “They’re interested in improvements along University Place, but it isn’t clear what those improvements might be” in the short term, Durkee said.

If the SID corporation discussed extending the rail system at some future date, Durkee said, then there would be a need for some entity to make decisions on issues such as safety concerns and parking. Still, Durkee was skeptical about the need to create a SID to make those decisions.

“I’m not sure that those questions should get addressed within a SID, which is made up of the property owners of that area. I think they ought to be addressed more broadly by the whole community,” Durkee said.

The current draft of the SID ordinance would include University properties, the private social club Nassau Club and an Episcopal ministry center maintained by the Procter Foundation. A new draft currently being drawn would exclude the Nassau Club.

Durkee said he believed that the ordinance as currently drafted was out of compliance with the state code for SID ordinances. State legal codes require that representation on SID management corporations be more than half composed of property owners, Durkee said. The current draft does not limit the number of property owners who may serve in the corporation, but only requires one.

A SID would allow the property owners within the district to assemble their own funds for improvements in the area.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The owners of property within a SID would pay a small “assessment” in addition to the regularly levied taxes on the property in the district. The funds from this assessment — which would be computed as a small percentage of the taxes levied on the district properties — would go to a SID-dedicated fund. These funds could only be spent on improvements within the SID as determined by the SID governing body.

The Borough Council introduced the SID ordinance into public discussion earlier this month. The Council will continue discussion of it and may vote on the issue at its Dec. 20 meeting.