Officials are targeting January for sending out requests for proposals for the construction of a parking garage at the Princeton Junction train station, although the timetable is not set in stone.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers said during the council’s September 14 meeting that the West Windsor Parking Authority reported that New Jersey Transit wants to send out a request for proposals for a garage sometime in January, and Parking Authority Chairman Andy Lupo echoed the idea.
However, “we haven’t been privy to it,” he says about the process. “They are talking to the township. They have been taking to us. All those things are in motion right now.”
He says different parties involved have different ideas but that he is hoping to see some progress with the parking garage. “The Parking Authority made recommendations to both the township and NJ Transit, and NJ Transit is taking our recommendations and also using their own personnel to come up with what they think the best location would be.”
Last November, the Parking Authority recommended that a parking garage be constructed on the Alexander Road lot, with phasing of the rest of the parking improvements to follow. The prime spot is parallel to the tracks located in what is currently the Alexander Road lot, on NJT property.
The recommendation followed a supply-demand report which estimated that about 2,000 additional spaces are needed for West Windsor residents at the train station, out of an overall 3,400 parking space increase.
“From our point of view, we believe the Princeton, southbound side of the tracks is the prime location for a garage,” Lupo said. “That would be in what we call the Alexander lot. There’s a couple of different options as far as placement there. We would prefer it to go closer to the platform,” because that is the shortest walk from a commuter’s car to the platform, he added.
However, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh is emphasizing that township officials want to take precautions and ensure any garage put on site follows the redevelopment plan. “In my conversation with NJ Transit, they already decided to put this as a top priority,” he said. “They are making sure we resolve the traffic circulation issues with the NJDOT. We want to make sure it’s not just garages; we want to include mixed-use,” similar to that in Princeton Borough, the mayor said. There a garage is being wrapped around retail and restaurants.
“We are working together to try to make sure that before they send out an RFP, they follow the redevelopment process,” Hsueh added.
Hsueh also said he is going to have a meeting soon with the NJ Transit director. He hopes to set up a presentation in October for all of the state agencies involved in the process “to make sure all of the state agencies are all coming together in support of our implementation. It’s not just NJT and the Parking Authority. The township is a redevelopment entity, and we want to make sure we’ve got everything coordinated.”
January is “what we’re shooting for, but to get there, we have a lot of work to get done,” Hsueh added. “I want to make sure that every single step we are taking will have the support from the state, not only technically, but financially. First, without solving the traffic circulation issues, nothing can be done. Traffic circulation is definitely a number one priority.”
