To the Editor:

We have listened for decades to Princeton’s downtown merchants complain about a lack of parking space in spite of efforts by the town that actually increased the number of spaces in the business district. Now we learn from an excellent parking study that the demand can be met by better utilization and management of existing spaces of which there are a surplus. But that does not explain why officials extended the study to include residential-zoned areas such as the Tree Streets where there are no businesses. Maps used in the study name an elongated stretch from Moore to Linden between Hamilton and Nassau as part of the downtown business district. This area is a distinct neighborhood of homes, some of them more than 100 years old.

Has the Planning Board targeted the Tree Streets for rezoning to mixed use to allow businesses in a residential neighborhood? That could be done with a decision to put parking meters on Maple Street or any other street and need rezoning to do. This would not increase parking spaces. But it does look like part of the plan to transform the village of Princeton into a city using economic development and increased population density as the way to go. This may happen anyway due to judges who consistently render decisions favoring real estate development over local control of growth. Sooner or later it becomes a numbers game counting winners and losers. Ask yourself whose ox is being gored. It may be the whole town.

Louis Slee

Spruce Street