University Abandons Dinky as Location for Arts and Transit Neighborhood

Photo by Lauren Wyman

Princeton University will abandon plans to locate a proposed Arts and Transit Neighborhood at the Dinky Station,  after failing to gain the approval of the Township and Borough at a joint meeting Monday night. Princeton University Vice-President Bob Durkee said that instead, the university will begin working on designs for the arts complex in locations that would not need zoning approval.

This decision came after a four-hour public discussion about the authorization of university zoning plans for the area ranging from the current Dinky Station to a tenth of a mile down Alexander Road.  

University officials had envisioned the Arts and Transit Neighborhood to be a public and academic space with dance studios, theaters, cafes, restaurants and residences.  The Lewis Center for the Arts was to be moved from its current location on Nassau Street to Alexander Road, creating a “synergy” with Berlind and McCarter Theatres and making a “gateway to the community,” according to University President Shirley Tilghman.  

“This is a watershed moment for a project that has been in discussion for over four years,” said Tilghman to an audience of Township and Borough committee members, NJ Transit officials, community citizens and local businesspeople.  “This is a go or no-go moment for the University.  If you vote no,  then I will instruct colleagues to start planning for another site.  If you say that you don’t know, then I will instruct colleagues to start planning for another site,” she continued.  

Durkee stressed that the project would benefit the community as well as the university, and projected that during Phase I of the project, the neighborhood would pump $300 million into the local economy, creating jobs and cultural capital.  He said the project would also redesign the Alexander Road and University Place intersection, improving traffic flow and decreasing the number of cars on the street during rush hour.  

However, the project required local approval to move forward, as the neighborhood would have been located within three different zones in both the Township and the Borough.  And most controversial, it would require moving the Dinky station.

Mildred Trotman, mayor of Princeton Borough, vocalized a sentiment felt by many community members throughout the night.  “The opposition most heard of members of the community have been not with the neighborhood but with the relocation of the Dinky,” she said. “Have you addressed the idea that the Dinky doesn’t have to be moved?”

Durkee said that the university could not continue the project without moving the Dinky.  “We’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to figure if there’s a way to develop this project without having to move the Dinky and it’s not affordable, not achievable,” he said.  “We’ve come to a point when we say that we cannot.  We just have to go forward.  We cannot achieve both.”    

Other committee members asked if there would be a guarantee that New Jersey Transit would continue Dinky services after the renovations.  Durkee said that there was no guarantee but that the probability of continued funding was much higher than doing nothing to enhance the current station.    

Dozens of community members brought other points to the discussion during the public forum.  The Arts and Transit Neighborhood would “destroy the existing character” of the neighborhood, said resident Anne Neumann.  Mercer County Freeholder Andrew Koontz wrote in a letter that the neighborhood was “clearly for the benefit of the campus rather than the community.”

Other community members pointed out flaws in the project design and still others proclaimed that it would be more sustainable to move the Dinky to the center of downtown rather than developing this neighborhood.  

However there was support for the project voiced at the meeting.  “Let’s step back and remark about how exciting of a proposal this is,” said Dorothea von Moltke, one of the owners of Labyrinth booksellers, reminding the audience that “participation in cultural life and participation in civic life go hand-in-hand.”

Following the discussions, Trotman summarized her position on the neighborhood.  “I am troubled by the go-no-go language,” she said.  Other committee members echoed this sentiment, and the committee suggested that the University give them more time to contemplate the issue.    

However, Tilghman and Durkee were not responsive to this suggestion.   “I am deeply disappointed, I deeply believed that this project was enormously beneficial to both the community and the University, but we cannot delay any longer,” said Tilghman. “We’ve had conversations for a very long time.  We needed a resolution... and what we got tonight was a resolution,” concluded Durkee.

About the Author

Lauren Wyman

Princeton University, Class of '14

Lauren Wyman is a member of the Princeton University Class of '14, with a  major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  She is from Cleveland, Ohio,  and her work has appeared in her high school newspaper, the Beachcomber, and in the NASA Glenn Research Center Internship Newsletter, the Glenn Gazette.