Volume LXXV, Number 23
www.towntopics.com
Commission Advises Planners to Reject University Application
Local Artist’s Drawings Sum Up People & Stories Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Residents Form Nonprofit Coalition to Advocate For Responsible Development . . . . . . . . . 8 Public Health Officer Considers Lessons Learned in Pandemic . . . 13 Princeton Festival Opens Performance Season . . . 16 PHS Boys’ Tennis Falls in State Group 3 Semis, Ending Spring At 17-1 . . . . . . . . . . 28 Princeton Native Callaway Helps Little Caesars Win Girls’ Hockey Title . . . 32
This Week’s Book Review Celebrates F . Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise . . . . . 15 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .20, 21 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classified Ads . . . . . . 35 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 24 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 34 Performing Arts . . . . . 17 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 12 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 35 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Princeton Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) decided at a spirited June 7 virtual meeting to recommend that the Princeton Planning Board turn down a Princeton University application to move a former eating club across the street and demolish three Victorian homes on Prospect Avenue. The three-hour session brought out more than 60 concerned community members, with most speaking in opposition to the University’s plan that would require moving the former Court Clubhouse at 91 Prospect to make room for the new Environmental Science and Engineering complex on the south side of Prospect and razing the houses at 110, 114, and 116 in order to position the Clubhouse on the north side of Prospect. “I am profoundly concerned about the proposed moving of 91 Prospect and demolishing three homes to make room for it,” said Sandy Harrison, Princeton Prospect Foundation board chair. “That would substantially diminish the aesthetic continuity of Prospect Avenue and set a disturbing precedent for the future. The University can achieve its objectives without uprooting this portion of Prospect Avenue.” He went on to note the “enormous concern of local residents” and cited an online petition in opposition to the plan that at last count had more than 640 signatures. HPC Chair Julie Capozzoli, who is also a member of the Planning Board, which will take up the matter at a public hearing on June 17, pointed out that the HPC was supportive of the University’s desire to expand its environmental studies, engineering, and applied science departments but also unanimous in not approving of the plan to move the 91 Prospect building and demolish the three houses. She went on to note that she was very pleased with the community’s widespread, energetic participation in the meeting and in the process of historic preservation. “I’m enthusiastic about the public participation in preservation meetings, and I’m grateful for the engaged and educated public that we have in Princeton,” she said. “Their participation is key and there were so many who wanted to participate.” Continued on Page 11
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Wednesday, June 9, 2021
Petition and Website Challenge Permit Parking Proposal Concerns about goals and recommendations presented at a recent meeting of Princeton Council by the Permit Parking Task Force have been growing in different parts of town. Last Friday, the website sensiblestreets. org was posted by residents of the Western Section, which is among the neighborhoods targeted by the task force for commercial parking spots. Across town in the neighborhood near Princeton High School, a petition urging the municipality to abandon the plan had 172 signatures as of Monday evening. “Residents of the streets surrounding Princeton High School are concerned about the plan’s overnight parking, the commercial parking being pushed into our neighborhood, and how to manage [parking by] contractors and landscapers,” said Anita Garoniak, who lives near the high school. “And we’re also getting people from outside the neighborhood.” The task force, which was formed in 2019, is made up of members of Princeton Council, residents, and representatives from local businesses. The plan aims to harmonize parking rules in different neighborhoods including the Tree Streets, Witherspoon-Jackson, the high school area, and most recently, the Western Section, making them more equitable
while offering essential worker parking for employers in commercial areas. Viewers who log on to sensiblestreets. org are taken on a virtual floor-by-floor ride through a nearly empty Spring Street Garage. The video is dated “Monday (nonholiday) 11 a.m.” The site labels the proposal “a solution looking for a problem,” saying there is a “perception of scarcity” which is not accurate. Sensiblestreets.org aims to provide residents with easy access to the
proposal, and to the 2017 parking study by the consultants Nelson-Nygaard. “If residents are not aware of the breadth and scope of the plan that would lease commercial parking spots to employers in front of their homes at a subsidized rate, we want to help them understand and make their own determinations as to whether this is justified,” said a Library Place resident who declined to be identified. “It all needs to be discussed. Our goal is to educate residents of all the Continued on Page 10
Voters Go to Polls for Primary 2021, Make Choices for Local, State Offices Princeton voters went to the polls in person on Tuesday, June 8 — unlike last year’s elections which were mostly by mail-in ballot — to nominate candidates for Princeton Council, state legislature, governor, and other offices. Results were not available at press time yesterday, but in the Princeton Council primary Democrats Eve Niedergang and Leighton Newlin were running unopposed for the two open seats in the November general election, with no Republicans filed to run against them. Niedergang, a 35-year resident of Princeton, is completing her first three-
year term on Council, where she serves on a number of key committees. She is volunteer coordinator at the Watershed Institute in Pennington, and in the past has worked on a number of local organizations and as a volunteer in the public schools. Newlin, a longtime active member of the Princeton community who served on the Princeton Housing Authority Board of Commissioners for 24 years, 19 of those years as chair, is seeking to fill the Council seat occupied by Dwaine Williamson, who is not running for re-election. Newlin Continued on Page 12
UNDER THE RAINBOW: Family-friendly activities, a community mural, food from local vendors, music, and more were featured at the Princeton Community Pride Picnic held Saturday at the Princeton Family YMCA field . Participants share what brought them to the event in this week’s Town Talk on page 6 . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)
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