Volume LXXIII, Number 15
MCCC Expands Trenton Campus . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Fenwick Hospitality Group Sells Restaurants . . . . . . .9 PHS Musical Content Provokes Strong Responses . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Dexter Gordon: A Player for All Seasons . . . . . . . . . .16 Boheme Opera NJ Celebrates 30th Anniversary . . . . . . . . . .17 Pegasus Theatre Company Presents Fiction . . . . . . .18 West Battles His Way into Starring Role for PU Baseball . . . . . . . . . 34 Henderson Emerging as Scoring Threat for PHS Girls’ Lax . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Anita Hill to Discuss Race, Gender, and the Law at Richardson . . . . . . . 11 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .24, 25 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 28 Classified Ads . . . . . . 42 Dining & Entertainment . . . 26 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Music/Theater . . . . . . 19 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 30 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 40 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 4 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 42 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
New Zoning Approved At Former SAVE Site For Affordable Housing
At a meeting Monday night, April 8, Princeton Council voted unanimously to approve the creation of a new affordable housing zone on the site where the SAVE animal shelter was formerly located. The property is bordered by Herrontown Road, Mt. Lucas Road, and Old Orchard Lane. Introduced at a previous Council meeting in March and then sent to the Planning Board for review, the ordinance came back to Council with some revisions for the three-acre property, which is to be devoted 100 percent to affordable housing in 65 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units for low-and-moderate-income households. The vote came after testimony from numerous neighbors of the site, nearly all of whom were opposed to the plan. Each person who spoke said that while they support affordable housing and realize that Princeton has an obligation of a certain number of affordable units to create, the proposed complex is too big and out of character for the largely wooded area. “These buildings are totally inappropriate for our neighborhood,” said Charles McVicker, who has lived on Old Orchard Lane since 1957, when Mt. Lucas was an unpaved road, he said. “There are very tall, mature trees on the property. I stopped counting when I got to 50,” he said. “They will have to be cut down, and that’s a shame.” Another resident who lives on Mt. Lucas Road said she did an informal study of traffic between 5 and 5:30 p.m. On Mt. Lucas, she counted 144 cars going north and 45 going south. “Most of them ignored the stop sign at Herrontown and Mt. Lucas,” she said. “Please make this project a lower density. It’s simply too large.” Princeton resident Steven Gilbert, a city planner who is unaffiliated with the plan, said he supports the plan, though he understands the concerns of neighbors. Carol Golden, Scott Sillars, and Ed Truscelli also spoke in favor of creating the new zoning. Truscelli, who is executive director of Princeton Community Housing but said he was speaking independently, noted that the municipality had been in this position in the past, with the creation of the Elm Court and Harriet Bryan affordable communities. “It can happen again if it’s done sensitively,” he said. “There are 1800 households on the waiting list for affordable Continued on Page 7
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Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Emergency Bridge Closure Snarls Traffic The discovery Monday of deteriorated structural conditions on the Alexander Street Bridge over Stony Brook necessitated closing of the heavily traveled thoroughfare to allow for emergency repairs. The project is expected to take at least 10 days, depending on weather conditions. Motorists trying to drive in and out of Princeton during the Tuesday morning rush hour were delayed at several locations because of the rerouted traffic. Mercer County sent out a notice Monday afternoon saying all traffic on the bridge is suspended. A detour directs motorists to use Route 1, Washington Road, and Faculty Road. This is not good news for the commuters already inconvenienced by the closure of the Dinky train shuttle, which has been replaced since last fall by buses. Those buses use Alexander to ferry passengers between the Princeton and Princeton Junction train stations. Service on the Dinky is scheduled to be restored on May 24, but Mayor Liz Lempert said at Monday’s Princeton Council meeting that she and Assemblyman Dan Benson, who heads the State Assembly’s
Transportation Committee, were working to get NJ Transit to move up the date. “It was the first call I made,” Lempert said, adding that at first, she was led to believe that the bridge closure would be indefinite. “So it was better news that it will only take 10 days — hopefully,” she said. Alexander Street, which becomes Alexander Road in West Windsor, was already targeted for closure during the summer months for replacement of the bridge over
the D&R Canal and the bridge over the Stony Brook. The New Jersey Department of Transportation held a special public information session at Monument Hall last December to provide information about the project. The D&R Canal bridge is owned by the State of New Jersey, while the Alexander span is under the aegis of Mercer County. Alexander Road remains open to Turning Basin Park from the east, and up to Continued on Page 7
Council Appeals DOT Decision On All-Pedestrian Phase Traffic Lights
In a resolution adopted unanimously Monday night, Princeton Council is asking the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) to reconsider its denial of a request for an all-pedestrian phase for traffic lights at the Nassau Street at University Place, Witherspoon Street, and Washington Road intersections. “All of the Council is united in thinking this was a mistake by the DOT,” said Council President Jenny Crumiller.
“Pedestrian safety should be just as much a priority as traffic movement, if not more.” Over the past six years there have been more than a dozen pedestrians struck at these intersections and one pedestrian killed, according to Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert. In October 2017 a woman died after being struck by a cement truck turning left onto Washington Road from Nassau Street. Continued on Page 7
SPRING CLEANUP: The Princeton Environmental Commission and The Watershed Institute hosted a trash cleanup on Saturday morning at Grover Park near the Princeton Shopping Center on North Harrison Street . Participating volunteers share their favorite Princeton-area parks in this week’s Town Talk on Page 6 . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)