Princeton Borough Council last week passed a resolution to send a proposal to the Regional Planning Board nominating the Dinky station for inclusion in the Borough’s historic preservation plans. Borough resident Anne Neumann and Township resident Kip Cherry, members of Save the Dinky, requested at the March 13 meeting of the Council that the station be considered for such designation.

“We want it protected under local laws,” said Ms. Neumann. The station has been listed as a landmark on the state and national Registers of Historic Places since 1984. Ms. Cherry echoed Ms. Neumann’s request that the Dinky station area be considered by the local Historic Preservation Committee as a Historic District. “This includes the freight station, platform, canopy, catenary, and the associated tracks, with a focus on the fact that this is an operating station,” she said. “I should add that this station anchors what I understand is the shortest scheduled train line in the U.S.”

Ms. Cherry added that listing the station as a historic district would prevent it from being converted to another use. Princeton University, which owns the land on which the station sits, plans to move the station 460 feet south to a new facility as part of its $300 million arts and transit neighborhood. The University has proposed turning the existing station across from McCarter Theatre into a restaurant or cafe.

A zoning change was approved several months ago to allow the University’s plans to proceed.

Henry Chou, the Borough’s assistant municipal attorney, said that the train station is listed as a historic site in the list of designated sites that will go before the Planning Board later this year. The Master Plan Subcommittee is working to bring the proposed historic districts in the Borough into compliance with municipal land use law, he added.

The attorney for the University said he was “disconcerted” to hear about the request from Ms. Neumann and Ms. Cherry. “We didn’t get the courtesy of a copy of that letter,” said Richard Goldman, of the firm Drinker, Biddle & Reath. “The record of getting copies of things is difficult,” he added, referring to the fact that Ms. Neumann is among the plaintiffs in two lawsuits against the University and the Borough, which have yet to be served to them. “It is being proposed to you by people who are litigating both the University and the Borough to try and block the implementation of the zoning that you adopted. It seems that you ought not to be in such a hurry.”

The next meeting of Borough Council is Tuesday, March 27.