By Donald Gilpin

A determined group of residents has successfully taken the first step in blocking a plan to connect Springdale Road to West Drive and then open the combined road as a major artery in and out of Princeton.

Last Wednesday, October 11, the Master Plan Subcommittee of the Princeton Planning Board read letters from the Princeton Environmental Commission, the Marquand Park Foundation, the Friends of the Rogers Wildlife Refuge, and the Nassau Swim Club; perused a petition with 102 signatures, urging the deletion of the Springdale Road extension from the Master Plan; listened to public comments, including testimony from Princeton University, the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association; and then voted unanimously to recommend to the whole Planning Board that West Drive be deleted from the Circulation Element of the Master Plan.

The full Planning Board is scheduled to meet on November 2 to consider the subcommittee’s recommendation.

“It was a successful day for community organizing and for democracy in general,” said Karen Zemble, leader of the Springdale Institute Neighborhood Association (SPINA), recently created primarily to block a provision in the Master Plan draft that would open West Drive (currently running from Alexander Road past the high-rise Lawrence Apartments and dead-ending at the border of the Rogers Wildlife Refuge and the Nassau Swim Club) to through traffic, connect it to Springdale Road, and establish the combined road as an alternative to Alexander Road.

Since the 1960s the town has contemplated trying to relieve pressure on Alexander Road traffic by opening a Springdale-West Drive connection, Zemble said, “but realistically that would just create a bigger traffic jam on Mercer. Nobody at the meeting supported that plan.”

In response to questions about West Drive’s inclusion in the Circulation Element of the Master Plan and what need there was for West Drive in the future, the Master Plan Subcommittee scheduled last Wednesday’s meeting, a public hearing, and invited all interested community members to come and express their views and concerns before the November vote.

Subcommittee Chair Gail Ullman described the discussion and process as “extremely positive, due to the way the residents presented their case. It could have been explosive, but the residents had thought through their arguments, and committee members agreed that we should remove the statement on West Drive from the Circulation Element. I think everybody left feeling good about the process.”

In a statement issued earlier in the week, SPINA said, “We are concerned about the possible environmental impact of making a combined Springdale Road-West Drive major thoroughfare open to car, bus, and truck traffic. What effect would such a thoroughfare have on the air quality of the neighborhood, on the wetlands through which it would pass, and on the animal and plant life, including some threatened species, that currently thrives in the Rogers Wildlife Refuge, the Institute Woods, and along the D&R Canal and vicinity?”
The SPINA statement went on to highlight the possible impact of a Springdale-West Drive thoroughfare on public safety, noting the residential character of the area between Springdale Road and Olden Lane, with 170 private homes and additional IAS housing.

“Alexander Road may at times experience heavy traffic,” the SPINA statement continued, “but with its traffic lights, traffic circle, pedestrian crosswalks and width, it was designed to accommodate that traffic, always has been a major thoroughfare in and out of Princeton, and has only a relative handful of private homes at its north end.”

Additional discussion at Wednesday’s meeting indicated that plans for a bike path, instead of the thoroughfare currently in the Master Plan, could be raised as an alternative proposal.