December 4, 2004
North Workshop

Present: Mildred Trotman, Jennifer Potash, Karen Jezierny, Wendy Benchley, Antonio Reinero, Andrés Reinero, Orlando Fuquen, Stephanie Charney, Alan Goodheart, Alice Calaprice, Barrie Royce, Bill Strong, Bob Geddes, Sheldon Sturges Yina Moore, Charlotte Bialek, Michael Suber, Joanna Kendig, Gene Imhoff, Kevin Wilkes, Holly Nelson, Jim Floyd, Carolyn Furey, Jeff Furey, Susan Hockaday, Namcy Strong, Wanda Gunning, Michael Floyd, HW Fiuczynski

Michael Mostoller: …might help guide that discussion. But each table is meant to be a part of our programming process and we are looking to listen to you. The center of gravity of this section of Witherspoon St is the municipal building. Community Park School, the Community Park Pool, and then the recreation fields here. On this side of the street, we have the fire station and we have the Valley Rd building which houses a variety of community organizations and is mostly used by the School Board. And of course we have the playing field over here.  This is the Public Works shed for the Township. And this peculiar intersection of many streets provides a gateway into town, either by 206 on this side, with the park over here, by residential area here and a commercial strip right here. As we come down Witherspoon St, you will see a commercial group of buildings here and a row of houses along this side of the street. Then there is a parking lot and the Packet and a row of houses in yellow all of the way down, interspersed with some commercial. So you get some sort of indication of the physical situation.  At each table, one of our team members will act as MC. What we want you to do is to consider the general and the particular. We want definitely to hear from you about the values. And Yina will get into this in a minute, as well as the physical issues. So as we formulate recommendations, they run the gamut of all considerations. So we will work for a while, then we will report back.

Yina: OK, I am going tom place on each table, a draft summary of our last meeting to give you  asense of what was said and to provide a reference for you as you are looking at North Witherspoon St. I will go over what came out of the meeting as values: Witherspoon St is valued for the shared experience it engenders, the familiarity of people and places it supports, the history of its neighborhood that it is home to, the diversity of uses and people it serves. This is our street. This is based on actual comments that were made at our first meeting with a bit of poetic connection. We go onto 5 other areas where we looked at the roles of Witherspoon St. Some were often anatomical: the spine which is binding the other streets in the network; the artery moving goods and services through the community; the heart, the vital organ which drives all functions and the spirit; the Main Street, and the importance of this street in the life of this community; the gateway providing access to the center of town; and as a corridor for purposes of studying the position, the nature and function, and the land uses…that is what we are studying. Characteristics which were predominantly preferred were for residential character, for trees and the tree canopy, people sitting on porches, liveliness. The concerns, which had much to do with, not only for the character and some physical issues, but also for process: redevelopment as a legal process, determination and action, neighborhood preservation, buildings, character, and residences; historic, archeological, and anthropological preservation. The difference between beautification and preservation. The impact on other connecting streets. The process of implementation and zoning. Physical observations were: the unkempt properties, the vehicular traffic, pedestrian and bicycle dangers, sidewalk conditions and maintenance; inconsistent and insufficient lighting; the need to improve bus stops and alternate modes of mobility. Your task is not just the physical aspects of the space, but also the who and the how. Our team. This effort hopes to be provided with quite a bit of professional input. We have a team of architects and planners, as well as zoning and legal experts. We also hope to engage, if we receive the funding we are pursuing, other experts: Norman Marcus of NY, Shirley Satterfield, a traffic consultant. We are also forming an advisory group which will work through many of the issues that are technical. Please let us know if you would like to serve on the group. You will need to be hardcore if you want to be involved. There are some who have volunteered, there are some we’d like to have participate. We will be looking in January to pull the results of these 3 December meetings into an outline of further work. We should get going. There should be a scribe at every table. And we will have a roving camera.

Kevin Wilkes Table Alan Goodheart, Scribe

KW: The limits of this section for this meeting: 206/Cherry Hill/Terhune/Valley “intersection” to the Northern edge of the Hospital. This is basically the Township part of Witherspoon.

[break]

Jim: How are you going to deal with municipal boundaries?

Kevin: For today we will ignore them. The purpose is to identify values and goals. For the moment let’s assume each municipality will have its own local issues. For the large part, it is fair to say we are talking about the Township section of the street today.

[break]

Alan: What Susan is noticing that here it looks as if you are driving through a residential neighborhood, and here it does not. If this looked like , you’d have the same feeling.

KW: We are talking about the relationship between this side and that side.

Suasn: Could we tighten the relationship of the residences here…?

Jeff: We are an island.

KW: You are part of the fabric of this neighborhood here [pointing to Harris]

JF: That is correct. As you know, there were houses across the street. [in front of Community Park School]. As you go from the school towards the Township buildings, that was open space and was the community garden. And quite frankly, because you couldn’t go anywhere else, it was the athletic field. The dump was over on Elm Rd.

Susan: Was it an area where people grew stuff?

JF: Absolutely. And then the recreation complex came. And it became an opportunity for a greater town use. But the housing on this side has become victimized by spot zoning and institutional and business interests that really demolish the residential character of that block. The only business there was Mr. Conte. The Tiger garage was residential. The history of business in the community was because they allowed them by a kind-of look-the-other-way variance because you couldn’t go uptown to participate in the businesses. We were isolated and segregated. And you find that as you go back into Birch and Leigh where there are residuals of commercial businesses. People say it’s already commercial. The reason is that we couldn’t go uptown to purchase anything. So the Boro said OK but they are to serve the neighborhood. The major thing, which happened during Kate Litvack’s term as Mayor, was the conversion to mixed use, residential and commercial on the Master Plan.  By right you could go in and get some spot zoning. The leading proponent was the Packet. 2 or 3 houses were owned Mr. Garneau Herron at one time. He was an entrpreneur in the African American Neighborhood.

Alan: Are your concerns about the fact that they are businesses or that they change the scale?

JF: Not just the scale, but the proportion of residential to business.

Alan: But the fact that there businesses, although you explained the history of them, is that in and of itself objectionable?

KW: Or, more broadly asked, are neighborhood businesses good things?

JF: Or, even more broadly: Are residences more important than businesses in a residential neighborhood?

Susan: Those are three good questions.

JF: And that is the point to be made. When it comes to the way the neighborhood has degenerated, it took place through the spot zoning…attendant to that is the rising cost. Now if you are looking at the future, which no one was looking at 20 years back when they said “let it happen the way it is”, and if you want to stop the denigration, you ought to look at the kinds of businesses that are going in there. Look at what was residential and is now, no longer, residential. And an elimination of the people who lived there.

KW: How do other people feel about that?

Alice: I think the scale of the business matters. If it is a small business…a small grocery store.

KW: Is the flipping of residences into commercial structures on a case-by-case ad hoc basis a good thing or a bad thing?

Nancy: Residential is something to be protected. You have to deliberately protect it. Otherwise it goes.

Alan: Maybe… and only if …in some circumstances, only if certain conditions are met

KW: That is an ad hoc position.

Susan: My feeling is in general: no. If the services needed by the residents are available somewhere where they can get them.

Robert Geddes: Strongly no! I believe that the whole idea that started these discussions some years ago was the creep of the downtown into the neighborhoods. The uptown and the neighborhoods are continuous. And then when the downtown creepss, it is killing the neighborhood. And that has to be opposed. Whether it is Mercer Hill, the Tree Streets, or here. Each of these neighborhoods has its own character and nature. And the nature of that neighborhood, as you describe it, is extremely important.

KW: I think this remnant block brings this issue clearly into focus. It is a good test case.

Alice: I agree with Susan. It is too late to  turn back.

Jeff: If it doesn’t stop now, here around this table, it’s not going to stop!

KW: What would happen if Valley Rd started to turn into business. You’d hate that, right?

Sheldon: What I am impressed with here is that instead of just defending against downtown creep, what would happen if we became proactive in trying to create new residential? How would you do that?

Susan: That’s a good idea.

Jeff: It has already been done here. The economics work.

Sheldon: I am thinking of Hendrick’s Davis’s comment a while ago about taking over this parking lot. The idea of being proactive about the hospital site and other places that become available is a huge complicated idea.

KW: Are you supporting residential?

SBS: I am supporting the neighbors, whatever the neighbors want.

KW: I count 6 people who favor residential.

JF: Can you count me twice?

Mike: There is a model in Trenton where every corner house is allowed to be a residential business. The person who is running the business has to live in the building. As the business no longer becomes useful, the building reverts to residential. That’s the model in Trenton.

Sheldon: Please ask Jim to speak.

JF: While we’re the primary credo of the Master Plan is the preservation of neighborhoods. And if that is so, why can’t we start with that? As opposed to saying, ‘allow this’, ‘allow that’. Residences. Period. You have 2 votes.

[break]

KW: Here’s the parking lot. I spoke with Jack Roberts. He says that in 5-6 years the swimming pool complex will be looked at for re-design…not for moving. He said that it will have to be re-built within 10 years. I asked: What if the parking lot and the swimming could be re-considered? He said that that could be on the table. How about these islands up here.

JF: It’s where we should have put the firehouse.

KW: There is residential all down here [Valley Rd]. The Township did a big traffic study and concluded that in a weird kind of way, it works. Basically what they came up with is the most awkward position is Witherspoon trying to get onto 206…and what Mt Lucas is supposed to do in the face of Witherspoon. It’s one of the funkiest pieces.

Sheldon: It is quite dangerous coming down Witherspoon St. You gain speed.

KW: Having Terhune being to cut through was deemed not to be so bad and having Valley being able to get on…

Sheldon: This is a huge piece of land here. What should it be?

RG: Not should…what could it be?

JF: It could have been the firehouse, but the neighbors objected to it.

Jeff: We have to go forward though.

Alan: You say it should be a gateway, for one thing.

Susan: I think it should be green emptiness

Sheldon: That’s better than it is now. Could it be a park?

KW: It also could remain 2 little blocks.

Jeff: A little park

Sheldon: A garden…a big clock with flowers, like Dieppe, to welcome people ..

JF: Chase people out but welcome them in! It’s a dichotomy.

Susan: As a residential community, it’s a little isolated.

Alan: It’s a buffer.

KW: When you consider the impact. This commercial space is on 206, for the most part. The impact on residential is not so bad.

RG: Let me ask a question. Could the commercial expand all the way down? Tha’t not downtown creep, it’s another kind of creep.

Sheldon: It’s satellite creep.

Jeff: But the thing is that might create a traffic problem here. People getting on & off of 206.

KW: That might be an issue.

Sheldon: What if Witherspoon went straight to the 206 light? How hard is it to move the street?

Alan: What if that were just thought of as a buffer. The garages could re-locate.

Sheldon: The public Works is going to River Rd…right?

KW: That’s right. They are going to River Rd. I hope that the Boro and Twp will unite their public works functions.

Themes and issues discussed:

1. Mix of uses

2. Gateway

3. Historic path from Nassau Hall to Rocky Hill, historic community gardens

4. Bus routes

5. Erosion of neighborhood identity and feeing

6. Sense of transition to less personal public area at northern end

7. Downtown creep versus institutional/municipal service sector at north end

8. History of zoning changes

9. Problems with spot zoning, undermining goals of land use and master plan

10. Zoning “devices” for maintaining residential character

11. Two Township garage properties and community pool will be in the mix in the future, plan now

Comments and questions:

1. A residential neighborhood is more than homes. How can we keep other components from overwhelming homes? How can we support the residential character of the existing fabric?  It’s a question of balance of power in decision making. What is the goal we hope to achieve?

2. Design considerations: reinforce plantings along the street edge (for example at Community Park School and the Municipal Building parking lot); consider the possibilities of one way South on Witherspoon, if the hospital vacates, would this help preserve and improve the streetscape?

3. More open space is needed in this community (not just next to it).  How to improve this?

4. Is Witherspoon Street going to be made an integral part of the community… or something separate with its own unifying character?

5. Kevin made a forceful summary statement to the whole assembled group. Maybe that was taped and will be available later.

Selected notes by Sheldon Sturges from the back of his copy of the Witherspoon Street Plan:

1. We should be in anticipation of change

2. Make it more residential in all new planning… repair past “damages”

3. Consider character of the street from the resident’s point of view and from the visitor’s point of view

4. Collective values: inclusion, diversity, affordability

5. A street can divide… or bring together. Street as neighborhood commons.

Holly Nelson’s Table

Barrie Royce, Phyllis Suber, Mike Suber, Charlotte Bialek, Wanda Gunning, Karen Jezierny, Gene Imhoff, Heidi Fichtenbaum, Andrés Reinero, Wendy Benchley, Jennifer Potash

[break]

Barrie: Give us your thoughts.

Heidi: I wished I had photographed the building a year or two ago. I know there are things that have changed to something worse. One of the first things: what does the Master Plan say about this portion of Witherspoon St? “Princeton’s land use priorities are preserving the existing character of the community.” That’s the mission in one sentence. “The 1996 land use plan endeavors to maintain and enhance the diversity of residential options in Princeton. The scale and integrity of existing neighborhoods should be protected from incursions by incompatible land uses or changes in density. The balance of mixed residential and commercial buildings in neighborhoods should similarly be retained. The appearance and the pedestrian environment on Witherspoon St should be improved. Existing trees should be retained. Lower Witherspoon St is intended to provide areas for small-scale retail and office needs of the community while preserving their essential residential character and existing residential use.”

Gene: There are lots of inconsistencies between what you are reading and what is!

Heidi: I understand that. “This district permits office and retail on condition that some residential use is maintained.” It is a regional plan. What often happens is that the zoning isn’t always updated to reflect the Master Plan. The most important to understand is: What is that vision? That we have. That our town has. It is ok to talk about the particulars, but unless we can get our heads wrapped around the big picture, then we get caught up in a lot of little details. And then you are surprised that we haven’t ended up with something that we want. Change is a part of who we are. Everyday we wake up and we are a little changed! Everything is in constant motion. It is something we should feel pretty comfortable with. The question is: I shte change moving in the direction that is comfortable, or is it moving in a direction that is uncomfortable?

[break]

Wanda: It has always been intended that the Master Plan would spur laws that could direct in that way. That’s why it doesn’t match. The other problem with the Master Plan is, and, again, this is something Princeton Future pointed out to us and this is a very valuable thing, and you went to Marvin’s meetings on Princeton Future’s Plan for the Downtown. Things are scattered throughout it, because of the way the State wants the Master Plan written, you cannot put together the big picture….unless you through the various parts, the Land Use…Transportation and so on to see what it says about your particular piece of Princeton. I think we should deal with what we’ve got. This is what preservationists do when they look at a town. They “what’s here? ”. If we restored it, would it look better? and have a certain cohesion? and so on. I don’t think the myth of what Princeton once was is what we’re going to restore at this point.

Heidi: I think preservation is actually working with a number of preservation architects. I think our firm has a pretty strong record on this. And watching preservationists and having helped out, but definitely don’t call myself a preservationist, the very first thing they do is look at the history of the place and try to figure out what’s left, what’s valuable, why was it valuable…they look at all of those things about making decisions about what to do in the future.

Barrie: But Wanda has told us that.

Wanda: Let me tell you something. In 1980, the Boro and the Township commissioned an historic survey. The ordinances for the Boro & the Township came out of it. The whole town. The Historic Preservation Commission was started. Each street was done. Each streetscape. This document is available at the Public Library. It is available at Bainbridge House. The University has a copy. You can sit and look at the streetscape and the way it was 25 years ago. All of us did some supervision and it was done by a team from the Columbia Preservation Program. This is something worth looking at. It is surprising how little the town has changed.

Charlotte: We don’t have very much time. There are two huge areas along this section of the street, & a series of small ones, which are facing tremendous pressure. The hospital is in the middle of a task force…and Valley Road, everybody is looking at it. And all of those residences have all sorts of things going on. What Heidi was trying to present to us was one possible view that we could take into the future.  If there are, not necessarily, historical bases, that is interesting. It is something we live with as you know better than any of us, Wanda. But the idea of the street as town commons is fascinating to me and I think it is a worthwhile consideration as we are looking at Witherspoon St. That is why we are looking at Witherspoon St. Most of Princeton Future’s work has focused on the Boro. I am delighted to see it come out now as far as Valley Road. I think we need to move along in the next 20 minutes so that we have something to present to the group in terms of what ideas all of us have. We have heard from a few people, but we haven’t heard from others. And now we have new folks in the group.

Wendy: I have always felt that Witherspoon St is a mixed-use neighborhood and retail, basically. That that is the vision we should keep. I think it is more important to do everything we can to keep modest pricing, a variety of prices in the homes and in the retail spaces…and to not let the institutions begin to overwhelm not just this area but also all of Princeton! I think there tends to be institutional creep in Princeton. We have so many talented, high-powered people and so much money and every institution wants to expand. More concerts. More lecture halls. More ballet. More theater. There is just so much we can do that way. To me we have to really work to balance the neighbors and homeowners. What I see more and more: it is the homeowners who come to say “Please think of us…as you allow apartment buildings on Princeton Ridge, which wasn’t part of the Master Plan. Please think of us as the High School is expanding. Westminister wants to expand. And when the neighborhood groups come out, they say ‘Oh, they just neighbors!’” Well, they are not just neighbors, they are important citizens trying to keep some of their neighborhood the same.

Phyllis: I’d like to see the mixed-use maintained. Not to lose any of these house as residences. Keep them on the scale that they are.

Heidi: I think there is just as much pressure from business

Wendy: Yes, retail and office.

Barrie: A million dollars an acre.

Heidi: It’s easy for it to become mono-culture up and down the street.

Karen: We have a problem here. We have the Township business zone here. We have to figure out how to make the transition from Township Residential to Boro’s business.

Wanda: It isn’t.

Barrie: As to the Boro’s zoning, here is a small section is RB- mixed-use. All the rest is R4. So we are trying to preserve residential.

Karen: One of the things we haven’t addressed is the traffic issue. You’ve got a bottleneck.

Gene: Witherspoon St in the Township is wider. As soon as you hit the Boro it narrows. I think the reason the street developed this way is because the street is wider here. Big institutional things… And there are many fewer trees.

Karen: It doesn’t feel as if you’re constrained. It’s wide open.

[break]

Michael Mostoller’s Table

Antonio Reinero, Michael Floyd, Joanna Kendig, Mildred Trotman, Hans Fiucyzinski, Orlando Fuquen, Stephanie Charney

Antonio: There is a Master Plan, and I think it is important that we…

Joanna: What does the Plan say? All the civic buildings are in R6, which is spot zoning, determined by their existence, if you will.

Michael: It is important to look at that. Because this too is embedded in the residential area.

Hans: We walk every day to Community Park. I am using the pool in the summer. I am using Township Hall. I am using some of the shops. The hospital if I have to. I attend some courses at the senior resource center here. As to the rest of Witherspoon St, I avoid it like the plague! Because of the traffic and the bad condition of the roads. So narrow. If I have to go to the library, I don’t take Witherspoon, I take 206 and then Paul Robeson.

JK: You don’t walk as far as the library?

Hans: I should.

JK: To answer your question: a good part of this section is zoned residential. But the reality is that it is not functionally.

Michael M: From there to there is B1. Small business…This is a dentist, Town Topics will be there.

JK: Mixed use is encouraged and required. So if Town Topics says it wants all of this to be office, we are…inaudible

Michael F: So the municipality basically approves the complete conversion of the use.

JK: Until zoning changes.

MF: In some people’s eyes it is not a problem. Inaudible. They assume it will be allowed. This is a business here…this is a business.

MM: …special conditions of residential, in the sense, if there were less the character of the street would change. My personal feeling, and we’ll see how the workshops turn out, is that all residences should remain residences. I don’t how we say that because it is written in the rule book now that this is a business opportunity for people who have houses.

JK: It increases property values.

MM: On the other hand we want to prevent the enlargement of footprints. This building should not become all red…and become that big. I agree with you on that at the moment.

Mildred: The problem is this, and this is how it gets started and it is going to continue creeping south, even though the Township doesn’t control Boro zoning.  The basics will be in place. These were all residences. Some of them continue to look residential even though they are business. You don’t see signs hanging out when they are businesses.

[ break]

JK: I don’t know how you do that? It will help preserve the residential character if…

Orlando: There are several gateways to getting into downtown Princeton. This is one of the key ones from the north. This way or that way…If you invite more traffic, it will make it worse. Whatever is done here is very critical. We should discourage anymore opening of traffic onto the street…anymore welcoming.

JK: At least slowing down.

Stephanie: I walk on Witherspoon everyday. The traffic going South is always backed up, from the Arts Council to the Hospital.

Mildred: I live on Witherspoon, so I see traffic backed in front of my house every day. If the same amount of traffic were going North. That is why I say:  If you have lights, you have a back-up.

Michael F.: A couple of things. You talk about the park systems and school properties. I thought I heard ‘improving them’.

MM: What I would say I mean by that is where we could have better landscaping.

MF: OK

MM: This is an area that would stand improvement from landscaping. Another thing is that this pool is very awkwardly located. This parking lot is a huge interference with this as a park, although it is needed.

Also the circulation back in here is kind of awkward [Race St]. So it would all be working it out as a better park. Could there be improved pedestrian ways? Could there be improved trees, maintenance?

MF: And then my second question is the concept of the gateway. I think we heard a couple of perspectives that it could be improved. Well, do you want it to flow better? Do you want it to slow down traffic actually?

MM: I agree with that. That is part of traffic management.

MF:  I was looking this area this morning. I grew up in this area. I spoke at the last meeting about myths. One person wrote in the newspaper that this lower end collapses into chaos. I consider that type of statement a myth. I am not sure that there has to be a beautiful gateway that says Princeton. There isn’t that much wrong with it now.

MM: How about the trucks?

MF: It’s a reality of life. I worry about changes based on collapsing in chaos. It’s not that bad.

JK: Because that to you sounds inflammatory.

MF: Yes. It’s meant to be inflammatory to get you to change stuff.

MM: We are going to recommend keeping the trucks?

Antonio: The trucks are there all the time. It doesn’t matter. We should make a recommendation that the neighborhood in this area should be maintained. And we should make a recommendation as to how that can be achieved.

JK: I would go one step further to say that residential use and some mixed use should be encouraged in the re-development of a couple of properties... One is the Valley Rd building.

It could have housing, senior housing, community facilities. It could have school board offices .. We have continuing challenges here. I suspect that is a place of transition in the next 5 years.

MF: Yes. I think that is an area of concern.

JK: Which way it goes matters to us and matters to this entry point, let’s not use gateway.