‘The idea of the Princeton Junction park was to bring people together, not drive them apart,” says West Windsor landscape architect, Dan Dobromilsky, “which is what the term ‘Asian Park’ did.”
After the park was simultaneously criticized and championed in council debate, town hall meetings, and online forums; after inspiring numerous op-eds in the newspapers since it was first discussed publicly about 18 months ago, time has finally come for this “Asian Park” to blossom.
And the first small sign of growth comes from one member of a classic American institution, the Boy Scouts of America. As part of his Eagle Scout project, Garrett Erickson of West Windsor, a 2014 High School South graduate, is building a small patio and signpost for the park entrance.
“I don’t really have an opinion on the theme. I just thought it would be a good opportunity to give my help because it’s something I can do,” Erickson says. “We’ve already put in over 100 hours to build it. We just have to put the pavers [bricks] in.” Headed to Wake Forest University in North Carolina this fall, Erickson said it is unlikely he will be able to continue being involved in the park’s construction.
Regardless, “No more can be done until we regrade the town green so it doesn’t pond,” says director of community development Pat Ward, referring to the site’s drainage problem. She explained that though there are means to get free dirt and fill to regrade the site, volunteer labor and equipment are in short supply.
When and if the resources are mustered, the park — at the 1.5-acre site next to the Valero station and 7-Eleven store — will take the shape of three distinct gardens surrounding a classic New England-style town green. Each garden will be comprised of unique cultural elements, such as a British-Indian flowerbed similar to the Taj Mahal’s, a Chinese-inspired gazebo alongside a koi pond, and a Japanese zig-zag bridge. The New England-style town green will be used for lawn games, says Dobromilsky.
The park’s proponents hope that donations will cover the anticipated $200,000 to $250,000 cost. A little more than $2,500 has been collected, according to Alison Miller, president of the nonprofit Friends of West Windsor Open Space. However, FOWWOS is only facilitating the collection of tax-deductible donations, not actively fundraising. “We [FOWWOS] don’t want to get in between the mayor and the council. We don’t think we need to be associated with the controversy,” says Miller. “It’s not our baby.”
So whose baby is it?
Though the park was originally designed by Dobromilsky and a summer intern, Christopher Perez of West Windsor, so far it appears to be Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh’s. Hsueh says he has diverted some of his campaign contributions to FOWWOS for park construction and that he is willing to donate funds from his own pocket “to set an example for the town.”
Though the park controversy did not halt construction, it may have dampened enthusiasm enough to slow it down until 2016, when $200,000 of the town budget will be allocated to the project. Any use of taxpayer money would then give the council a voice in park decisions, potentially changing the park’s design.
One environmental concern is the planting of invasive species in the park, like bamboo trees. According to Dobromilsky, “There are ways to use physical underground barriers to contain bamboo because it spreads by its roots, like grass.” He also said the park is distant from the town’s “green belt” — a ring of preserved land — so any potential growth is unlikely to affect the natural ecosystem. Dobromilsky says he will take full responsibility to ensure that non-native plantings do not become invasive.
Though this Asian-style park “is not revolutionary by any means,” Dobromilsky says, citing Portland and New York City as places where this has been done before, “It’s something this town is lacking, especially given our diversity.” According to Dobromilsky, the township’s parks, including Community Park off of Route 571, are mostly of British design, with winding sidewalks and rolling hills. He also noted there was already a 9/11 memorial in the Ronald R. Rogers arboretum and European-style gardens at Carnegie Center.
The park’s design concept was defined in 2009 as a way to “create sustainability through social cohesion,” says Dobromilsky. Like the community vegetable garden off of Clarksville Road, the park’s long-term goal is to be completely community managed. “There are strong gardening traditions within our diverse community,” he says, “Through gardening, residents can learn from each other’s traditions.”
