Princeton Could Make Minor Changes To Witherspoon Street Redesign

Princeton NJ

14 October, 2021

4:55 PM

Description

PRINCETON, NJ – During Monday's council work session, the engineering and design department made a presentation on Witherspoon Street redesign. Urbanist Jeff Speck was in town recently and reviewed Witherspoon Street and made some designsuggestions, said Municipal Engineer Deanna Stockton. During the meeting, Stockton presented Speck's design suggestions to Council. "He thought that our plan is a 'decent' plan, but from his standpoint, it had complexity, inflexibility, tree loss, tree provision, suburbanism and it lacked ambition," Stockton said. Speck not only recommended a pedestrian plaza stretching from Nassau Street to Spring Street but also suggested pedestrianizing from Hulfish to Paul Robeson. "He did not like the wiggles and 'woggles' and curb lines," Stockton said. "He just felt it was an incredibly fixed and inflexible design." Speck made 12 suggestions in total. You can find them here. Based on Speck's suggestions Stockton posed five questions to Council: Should Witherspoon from Hulfish to Paul Roberson be pedestrianized? Is stormwater management important for this project? Does Council support green infrastructure? Should additional time be spent investigating a curbless design? If curbless, which speed controls are preferred – raised crosswalks or portable planters? The Mayor, Council, and engineering and design team agreed that some of Speck's ideas could improve the overall design. But most would be impractical based on the research and work already done by the Princeton staff. Council agreed that stormwater management was important and showed support for green infrastructure. Councilwoman Michelle Piron Lambros said that changing the pedestrian design at this time could be "pretty disruptive." "I would like to see us make tweaks as necessary, and otherwise move on with the plan we've had," said Councilwoman Eve Niedergang. Mayor Mark Freda said the Council will look at the green infrastructure and decide on it. Council also agreed to give the design team a week to look at bump-out designs. Overall, the design team is expected to come back soon with minor tweaks to the design. Thank you for reading. Have a correction or news tip? Email [email protected] Get breaking news alerts on your phone with our app. Download here. Sign up to get Patch emails so you don't miss out on local and statewide news.