##VIDEO ID:vF3KatYe0VY## [Music] she good evening everybody thanks for joining us it is September 9th 2024 this is a meeting of the mayor and Council of Princeton New Jersey could we have the meeting statement oh sorry let me tell a joke till Raina gets to the chair Raina could we have uh the meeting statement please yes adequate notice of this meeting was provided in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act including the time date and location of the meeting in addition the agenda and all related materials were posted electronically and made available to the public on Princeton's meeting portal in advance of the meeting thank you I'll read the L acknowledgement We Gather today on the land of the Lenny lopi as members of the Princeton Community we aspire to show appreciation respect and concern for All Peoples and our environment we honor the LPI and other indigenous caretakers of these lands and Waters and the elders who have lived here before the indigenous today and the generations to come can we have roll call please miss Peron lambrose here miss Neer Gan is excuse Mr Cohen here miss Sachs here miss froga here Mr nulan AI mayor Freda present you have Quorum thank you if you'd like to stand and join Us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay got a number of nice things coming up first up we have a proclamation celebrating welcoming week and Leighton I think that's you first thank you mayor Proclamation from the office of the mayor Municipality of Princeton Proclamation celebrating welcoming week 2024 whereas our Princeton community's success depends on making sure that all residents feel welcome here today new residents are a vital part of our community bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas starting businesses and contributing to the vibrant diversity that we all value and whereas this week we honor the spirit of unity that is bringing neighbors together across Princeton during welcoming week I invite all residents of Princeton to join this movement of communities Nationwide by renewing our commitment to our core American values and by taking action in the spirit of welcoming by working together we can achieve greater prosp erity and make our community the kind of place where diverse people from around the world feel valued and want to put down roots and whereas regardless of where we are born or what we look like we are residents of Princeton United in our efforts to build a stronger Princeton by recognizing the contributions that we all make to create a vibrant culture and a growing economy we make our community more prosperous and more inclusive to all who call it home and whereas let us come together to build communities where every resident has the opportunity to create at his or her best let us come together to create more prosperous communities and to reaffirm that Princeton still stands as a beacon of freedom and opportunity now therefore I Mark Freda mayor of the municipality of Princeton and the Council of Princeton County of Mercer state of New Jersey do hereby proclaim the week of September 13th through September 22nd 2024 welcoming week I call upon the people of Princeton to join together to build stronger communities across New Jersey given under my hand and seal this 9th day of September 2024 Mark Frida mayor Princeton New Jersey thank you Leon Leticia thank yes thank you so I'll have the honor of uh reading a proclamation observing September 15th through October 15 2024 as Hispanic Heritage Month whereas National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed each year from September 15th through October 15th to celebrate the histories cultures and contributions of those Living in America whose ancestors came from Spain Mexico the Caribbean and Central and South America bless you and whereas the theme for 2024 is pioneers of change shaping the future together and whereas the observation of national Hispanic and Latino Heritage man month began in 1968 as Hispanic heritage week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15th and ending on October 15th and whereas the day of September 15th is significant because it is the anniversary of Independence for the Latin American countries of Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala on Honduras and nicar Nicaragua in addition Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16th and SE September 18th respectively finally day of the races or the other La rasa which is observed October 9th Falls within the 30-day period and whereas the Hispanic and Latino Community has helped build and strength our society for Generations at every level in government science business culture Sports education and the Arts and whereas Hispanic and Latino Americans represent a significant and fast growing demographic and we honor the invaluable ways they contribute to our community as friends family members teachers elected officials essential workers co-workers and much more and where whereas Princeton municip IP ality hereby commits to highlighting the rich diversity of peoples and history without within the Latino Community now therefore I letia Fraga on behalf of Mark Frida mayor of the municipality of Princeton and the Council of Princeton County of Mercer state of New Jersey to hereby Proclaim September 15th through October 15 2024 as Hispanic Heritage Month and call upon the people of Princeton to join in this special observance by seeking out celebrations educational programs and community activities to learn more about the role of Hispanic and Latino Americans have played in our nation's history um uh going to follow that by as a Prelude uh to this year's Hispanic Heritage Month celebration it is my distinct pleasure to introduce a Remar remarkable group that has already made a Mark and Princeton enriching our community with cultural awareness education and pure joy through their music estan huarez Gonzalez a proud native of East Los Angeles and a current student at Princeton University hardness his passion for mariachi music to establish Mariachi Los tiges de Princeton the first officially recognized Mariachi student group on campus alongside Katherine Ruiz they have been instrumental in recruiting other students and starting in 2022 teaching and Performing mariachi music on campus and also at community building events fostering a deeper appreciation for this beautiful and traditional Mexican folk music members of Mariachi tiges the Princeton joining us tonight are estan huarez Gonzalez Ash Ashley Kim Emily Leon donah Metta Silva ector qua berera eastle monar Katherine ernandez wear Jorge Rees Isabella buos and Kiara araga on behalf of the municipality of Princeton along with the mayor and councel I want to extend our heartfelt thanks for your DED dedication and the vibrant passion you bring to our performances to your performances which beautifully celebrate our Rich Mexican culture and [Music] Heritage thank so much good evening everyone good evening uh I'm estan Gonzalez um originally from Los Angeles California I'm studying a chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University and I'm currently a junior sorry thank you um it's such an honor to receive this recognition Mari has been a part of my life since I was 8 years old it connects me to my family as my father and my brothers also play uh I'm super happy to have brought this tradition here to the prin Community as it not only celebrates culture but it also brings people together over a shared platform of music and I'm super happy to have brought this music to Princeton and hope to continue sharing this music with community and building more bonds with the people and on the behalf of Mariachi loses at Princeton thank you so much and we can't wait to continue doing more work with you thank you for out more want that [Applause] spe thank you okay thank you take care okay we're not done we still have another Proclamation the proclamation celebrating the th anniversary of the center for modern aging Princeton and Michelle will take us through that please right so Proclamation Office of the mayor Municipality of Princeton Proclamation honoring the center for modern aging Princeton on the occasion of their 50th Anniversary whereas the center for modern aging has acted as a catalyst for Mo mobilizing the creativity energy vitality and commitment of the older residents of Princeton since September 19 74 when it was founded as tenant services in Spruce Circle and which continued as it later evolved into the Princeton Center Senior Resource Center and whereas through the wide array of services programs and activities offered the center for modern aging Princeton empowers older adults of Princeton to contribute to their own health and well-being and the health and well-being of their fellow citizens of all ages and whereas the center for modern aging Princeton has been a community partner in ensuring that older adults in our community are able to stay connected safe and healthy and whereas the center for modern aging Princeton affirms the dignity selfworth and Independence of older persons by facilitating their decisions and actions tapping their experiences skills and knowledge and enabling their continued contributions to the community and whereas the National Council on Aging has design ated September 2024 National Senior Center month and whereas we further recognize the dedication and tireless efforts of the center of modern aging Princeton staff volunteers and supporters who have made this Milestone possible their compassion empathy and unwavering commitment to the older residents adult residents of our community have transformed countless lives and inspired hope for the future and where whereas we honor the center for modern aging Princeton's Legacy of service and in Innovation we reaffirm our commitment to supporting older adults and their families as they navigate the Journey of Aging together may we continue to build a world where aging is embraced and older adults are valued for the richness of their experiences and contributions now I Michelle Peron lambrose on behalf of Mark Frida mayor of the municipality of Princeton and the Council of Princeton County of Mercer state of New Jersey do hereby Proclaim that on this auspicious occasion for the center for modern aging Princeton's 50th Anniversary we celebrate its steadfast commitment to enhancing the lives of older adults and their families we commend the center for modern aging of Princeton for its invaluable contributions to our community for Champion championing the cause of active healthy and engaged agent given under my seal and my hand and seal this 9th day of September Mark Freeda mayor thank you on behalf of our board chair Joan ggas and all of the board and staff of senator for modern aging Princeton we are incredibly grateful for the continued partnership that we have with the municip IP ality your commitment to serving the older adult residents and the future that we have in store uh to see another 50 years of uh great service and Innovation as we serve the older adult residents of this community so thank you and we look forward to celebrating with many of you on Thursday night for our 50th anniversary gala celebration thank you thank you [Applause] all right okay actually yes okay and up next up announcements and reports any uh council members with announcements or reports for this evening okay great GL to see that uh Isaac kemer executive director of experience Princeton is here to tell us what's happening hello mayor uh good to see you tonight uh again Isaac executive director experience Princeton uh four things we worked on last month four we're doing this month and one big item for you to know about as usual so uh to lead off uh the Princeton monthly eblast that went out on September 3rd had 4,469 cents in 258 opens that's our second most opened of the 23 we've put out and 187 clicks um we're we completed an 8 week internship uh with a high school student savaris inavi uh She interviewed over 60 businesses and employees on their parking uh how they handled that and we're working to get all that data together with an executive summary that we're going to be sharing uh which hopefully will inform some of our future discussions on that issue uh she also assisted with the roll out of the direct install program uh for businesses uh we also had a kickoff of the work with our planning consultant on updating allowable uses and I was really pleased to see some of the emails going back and forth today connecting both with staff uh but also with our elected officials um so we can really take a Cooperative approach um to updating those rules and making it welcoming for the types of businesses that want to open here we've projected about a f- Monon period uh in which to complete that work and last but not least we had the ribbon cutting uh for the cor Corin group at 195 Nassau Street uh gorgeous location uh with some really wonderful Innovative uh rotating art exhibits uh in there too uh so really enjoyed that it was a standing room only uh for that event uh last week um so four things we're doing this month we're finalizing our annual report and we'll release that digitally and also in print uh when we're complete you may recall the one we uh did last year um we're planning an experienc Princeton Meetup at the Princeton Symphony Orchestra headquarters uh newly located at 1000 herent toown Road on September 26th at 400 p.m. of course you're all invited um our shop local to wind sweep Stakes is going to begin October 28th and run for 8 weeks so whenever someone shops in a local business uh during that period of time and shares a receipt they're going to be entered into a drawing for $1,000 prize each week and a $1,500 grand prize uh when it ends um so this is really to encourage people to shop local especially as we lead into the holiday season and last but not least our fall local Banners are getting ready to be installed so to wrap up uh big thing to let you all know about um our board is meeting next week and we're hoping to finalize the work plan um each team has weighed in and provided different goals and objectives uh for the upcoming year uh through June 30th uh when our fiscal year ends and we're preparing to provide quarterly progress reports to businesses and stakeholders on our success with implementation uh and that'll include the mayoring council uh so you'll be able to see each quarter uh our progress towards the goals in the work plan with that that's my report Isaac thank you we have any questions for Isaac yeah thanks Isaac I'm just wondering if in all of those goals and priorities at the top of uh hopefully towards the top of the list is dealing with the pervasive waste uh issue in the center of town um yes we're very much aware of the trash uh and recycling issues um and also cleanliness in general we've had had multiple meetings this uh summer on that uh including with the engineering department and others um and we're also aware of some of the ideas and suggestions that have been brought forward uh from engineering uh from the town planner and others uh so we're taking all of that into consideration uh I don't think there's a silver bullet uh solution for that uh but definitely we've heard that that's a priority so I just want to put out there that the town has asked nicely and so now we're beyond the asking nicely phase um and you know we really need for the businesses to work together to come up with a solution whether that's a collective time for pickup or whatever it is but one of the things I will say that I personally looked forward to in voting to support a special improvement district was um coordinated action on on things such as waste so um I hope that we can see some action on that great thank you for your feedback sure any other questions or comments okay Isaac thank you very much for being here tonight all right uh next up second quarter report on the 2024 mayor and Council goals and priorities Jeff thanks mayor uh good evening members of council uh I'll start things off and then I'll hand things over to Deputy Administrator danana Stockton as you recall the Strategic priorities and departmental goals were initially discussed in January and then reviewed at a council work session in February although on tonight's agenda the goals update is stipulated as a second second quarter update uh Administration is going to be providing mayor and council with more of a third quarter update on progress thus far the update this evening will be a synopsis of the year uh with more detail in the agenda packet as you recall this year the goal setting process was restructured uh wherein departments set their own goals within the council's overarching priorities keeping a higher level mindset with goal setting and progress tracking facilitated the successful execution of Municipal goals and priorities uh those priorities were broken up into six overarching themes that mayor and Council have agreed upon uh with staff support these themes and priorities for for the municipality are as follows social Equity resilience and climate action Transit streetscape and parking affordability good governance and land use planning for the built environment we'll briefly touch on the Department's work towards those goals and then we'll leave room for clarification uh or questions at the end looking at the Department of Health and Community Services uh all of our departments remain committed to various cross- departmental goals notably Health and Human Services have been continuing to collaborate on various initiatives to integrate Catholic Charities also known as pron integrated Behavioral Health into Municipal operations the new cares committee also began meeting this may the structure of the new committee allows for cross-disciplinary collaboration and offers a nimbler and more effective way to address multifaceted social justice issues facing our municipality the group has met monthly thus far and has already created subcommittees uh focused specifically on mayor and Council strategic priorities looking at the health department all necessary documentation for National re accreditation were submitted in June pending a review and site visit the mayor's Wellness campaign is also in full swing uh looking at events on harm reduction including a mental health awareness month flag raising with Catholic Charities and Narcan training with PS plus other activities with Princeton Public Library uh We've also implemented Governor Murphy Murphy's recent rental Le law uh which we've seen over 200 lead inspections um this legislation commits to Health Equity where children are protected from lead hazards on an even playing field specifically with primary prevention in mind looking at Human Services and the affordable housing offices they've ramped up their Outreach by teaming up with Community Partners like Catholic Charities they're ref referring individuals to them for case management which includes rapid rehousing and rental assistance they've also seamlessly Incorporated eight youth programs into their Department human Services has also been strategically spending this year's emergency housing funds from Princeton University to support residents dealing with homelessness they're also putting opioid settlement funds to work for prevention and treatment and Recovery with a stronger focus on on social equity and from the affordable housing office they've updated the Community Development block grant annual plan and they're also working on building a list of contractors for Princeton's Home Improvement program and lastly uh with Recreation they're wrapping up one of their busiest years with over 75,000 visitors to community park pool and regarding CP South they're awaiting design service proposals for the park reconstruction which are due September 18th they're also waiting for approval to use a remaining Mercer play grant funding for playground upgrades at smoyer Park and the funding would allow them to install an inclusive playground at the park either later this year or early next year um at this point I'll turn it over to Deputy Administrator Diana Stockton for her update from the Department of infrastructure and operations thank you Jeff uh beginning on page 15 of the agenda packet is um a detailed update on the various goals and priorities within the department of infrastructure and operations which is comprised of sewer Public Works engineering parking buildings and ground Fleet Urban Tree and open space um to highlight a few of our different projects on the mobility and infrastructure projects um we have tonight with us Dave leberg with the group arterial to discuss the Nassau streetscape design project that is uh on schedule and looking to be in construction next year we have or are submitting plans to put projects out to bid for the Cherry Hill Road side path extension Dickenson Alexander University Place and um the tury Hune Road Improvement project which is from Grover to Harrison Street um additionally we are continuing to work on the Hamilton Avenue Corridor project the Harrison Street Corridor project and we've kicked off the Transit Mobility study uh under the category of environmental we continue to work on storm water system mapping and and uh storm water mitigation plans we actually will be at the planning board in October uh to ratify the storm water mitigation plan as part of the master plan and uh we continue to look at opportunities to make improvements uh in Open Spaces like Mountain Lakes preserve and um working with those groups to do replanting projects and other infrastructure improvements uh on the sewer front we continue to work on our inflow in infiltration projects to reduce the clean water that is moving into our sanitary system requiring treatment and um our tree canopy assessment project continues to be on track we're looking at preliminary numbers coming in in the next few weeks so that we see what has occurred with the tree canopy over the last 10 years uh moving into the facilities group uh we're wrapping up a hind Plaza concept plan with arterial as well we will be coming to an upcoming council meeting to present that concept plan uh as Jeff mentioned we're working with Recreation on the Community Park South design Contracting project and uh we're working prelimin arily on Grover Park improvements as well uh one notable success for the year already that's been made is the uh adoption of the outdoor dining permit process and new code and we've actually also um crossed a hurdle with do and getting their authorization to move ahead with outdoor dining on the state highway so that was that was a a good step forward in the last couple of months uh with that uh I can answer any questions on any of our goals and priorities for 2024 or turn it back to Jeff okay well let me thank you both for giving us all the update on that I mean the whole process is pretty important and it's good to see that we're all moving together on following the goals and priorities Council questions or comments Michelle thank you it's always amazing to me the amount of work um product that our staff is able to accomplish and kudos for bringing this back to us I really like getting these updates I really think it's important to keep uh tabs on our goals and our progress so thank you very much to to both of you to the whole staff uh one question I just want to make sure under facilities uh that we don't lose sight we did a facility study and I just want to make sure that we don't lose sight of making sure we address the underutilized uh public properties that we have um there's I know there's a lot of work um that's being done right now but I just want to make sure that that doesn't get dropped I know that was on the original goals um so I just wanted to mention that appreciate it okay thank you other questions or comments um so for the LPR um policy creation um it says waiting for State guidelines I know we and maybe this is a trishka question but I know we were uh when this issue came up before there was um quite a bit of concern expressed by the uh local residents about the use of that information and how long it would be held and who would have access to it and we agreed we were going to pass the uh the ACLU and and other civil liberties organizations have model templates for that uh municipalities can pass which uh would uh you know provide some constraints to have we passed I mean have we where are we with that I know we haven't passed it I think I remember but is it in progress Lisa Maddox from my office has been working closely with engineering and with the police this because there are also the Attorney General's office has also issued a number of directives and guidelines to police departments for how they use the information but it was important that we coordinate our efforts on the parking end public Contracting end with the department and make sure that anything we're doing is consistent with the state so it's in progress great okay thank you and chief Tash is working with us now and making uh the connections into the state folks um our position is that in the parking Department this information is not connected to any databases that will tie a license plate to a person it's merely a photograph and a timestamp of a license plate so that we can track if that license plate is still in that same location say 2 hours past p and that's the clarification we've been trying to work on is to distinguish it from LPR systems that the police department use which are connected into those various databases so it's it's all part and parcel of the same thing to make sure that the state agrees with our distinction of the systems and to see if they are issuing specific regulations to our type of use in the parking Department um and then that will follow with the protocol that's written with the data management clearly there's a lot of thought and effort that's going into this so I know when when we get to that point of of um discussing those those systems I know it will be uh reassuring to to the residents who were concerned about this so thank you other questions or comments yeah mayor I I just want wanted to Echo what Michelle started off saying that it is fascinating to me uh as you look at municipal government and you see you know on a daily basis I'm I think I'm plugged into everything that's going on but when I read a comprehensive report like that I just want to say thank you to team Princeton starting with Bernie our legal team Jeff Deanna Jim Justin I'm gonna forget somebody but everybody who has anything to do with us doing business here in Princeton you are an outstanding group of individuals thank you for your advocacy and your work it's much appreciated I just want let let let the people in on online here and if you're online and you're listening to this tell somebody thank you can I say what he said yes okay all right I think we're done with that thank you very much again public hearing uh public hearing reward of new motel hotel m Hotel 36 planetary retail consumption liquor license so mayor would you like me to just would you please give a two second overview of what we're doing yes uh so this all relates to The Graduate hotel for which you are issuing what is the shorthand is a hotel motel license it is treated like a new plenary retail consumption license in town albe it limited to a very specific use and there's a three-step process uh in order to issue one of these types of licenses first uh and you did this uh oh it's I'm going to forget now at which meeting but the first step is you pass a resolution basically announcing your intent to do this and soliciting applications once and providing a deadline um once the deadline is met whatever applications you've received and I'll ask our clerk to confirm that the only one we only ever received the one correct uh the council then at a public hearing evaluates those applications determines to whom to award the license step three then is following a public hearing to actually issue the license and the reason those are done in two separate steps is that there are times where the applications come in you award but it's a provisional award contingent upon the successful applicant than passing the background check everything else in this situation as our clerk just confirmed Highgate hotels which operates The Graduate Hotel was the only applicant that application was already vetted and you know thoroughly everything was noticed so although you're doing two separate resolutions you are able to do them sequentially on the same night um and I guess the final question I would ask the clerk for the record and the benefit of the council is whether any objections were submitted either to the award or to the issuance no rejections were received okay thank you very much okay so just help me as I look through the agenda both item number one and number three are labeled public hearing correct so we're having two public hearings here because you're doing two different things these public hearings thank you are a formality so it's simply open it to the public see if anyone has a comment award and then do the same thing with the next one got it just want to make sure we do it right thank you okay any Council comments on this before we ask for public input no a motion on anything first oh do you do you think that would help if You' like I be happy to move I would like to make a motion to go do yeah Michelle's got the motion yeah thank you we'll get through it I'm sorry Laticia beat you to it leticia's got the second did you have a question or did you want to Second just excited just excited I I hear you all right any questions or comments up here okay public comment on the first public hearing on this good evening Dy balinsky I'm an attorney with fager Drinker I just want to let you know I'm here tonight I'm here on behalf of Highgate hotels for the hotel so if anybody from the public or anybody on the committee has any questions just let me know on any of the four agenda items thank you thank you okay so what we're voting on is actually the resolution 24266 okay so I I just want to so Michelle I'm just gonna I'm going to read the title of the resolution so we can attach it to your motion just so we have it correct for the minutes so it's uh 24266 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton awarding a new planetary retail consumption liquor license to Highgate hotels LP pursuant to the hotel motel 36 exception set forth in njsa 331-1122 for premises known as The Graduate Hotel graduate Princeton and that's Michelle's motion to a second by letia I just want to make sure there's no other public comment from anybody either in the room or on Zoom all right seeing none I'll close that public hearing all in oh that should be a roll call vote doesn't have to be doesn't have to be okay all in favor say I I all right so now we're going to have another public hearing and that's going to be on resolution 2 4267 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton authorizing the issuance of a planetary retail consumption liquor license to Highgate hotels LP pursuant to the hotel motel 36 exception set forth in njsa 331-2200 for premises known as The Graduate Hotel graduate Princeton and do you want to tell me what the difference is between the two of them since they're worded almost exactly or maybe exactly alike one is awarding the license the other is issuing the license okay thank you perfect I just wanted to make sure there was actually I'm not saying that like with sarcasm or anything that really is the only difference okay I just wanted to make sure I was following what we were doing okay would someone like to Michelle thanks G to move that the TC is going to second that so let's start up here any questions or comments I have yeah I have one comment and that is we are not familiar with doing this because the laws in the state do not allow us to do this very often if they would change it we would be more familiar with the whole process just thought I'd me just thought I'd point that out I think 100y old laws are very good they should never change all right any other comments all right public comment any one in the audience or anybody on Zoom that wants to comment on this all right we'll close the public hearing all in favor please say I I I I okay that's everybody on both that is done thank you very much thank you on behalf of the hotel thank you very much thank you appreciate it thank you okay we have five sets of minutes um does somebody want to move all of them together letisia are you moving them all together David seconding them Michelle and I'm going to abstain from the first three for being absent okay thank you all right uh been moved and seconded so uh all in favor noting Michelle's abstention on the first three please say I I I any opposed and the exstension for Michelle is on the numbers one two and three thank you okay thank you all right next up is public comments for items not on the agenda if anybody in the room or on Zoom wants to make a statement or ask a question about something that's not on the agenda this is the time to do it all right nobody in the room nobody on Zo Zoom we'll close that part of the meeting next up is a work session review of The nassal streetscape Chamber Street to more Street design components of L A material ink all right thank you mayor uh with us tonight is Dave lustberg from arterial he will be providing an overview of where we are in the design process process um as you're aware we started a concept planning process back in 2023 with arterial for improvements to The Pedestrian space on Nassau Street uh uh concept plan was presented to council at the July 24th 2023 council meeting and in January this year Council um adopted a resolution to have a professional service agreement with arterial um Arial has been progressing through the design process we're at approximately 75% completion of design and so Dave is here to uh provide updates as to where we are and um on some of the refinements to the scope and to materials that are included in this project and to also uh briefly look at where we are in the budget process as well related to what the uh initial estimates were so with that I'll turn it over to you Dave we're good okay how's that good yeah just try to keep it close to you because the people on Zoom won't be able to hear you if you're not speaking close to it thanks just all let me know uh well thank you uh thank you Diana thank you mayor and members of the uh Council for your time tonight uh so I will as as Dian mentioned you know we've been hard at work developing the plans um for the Nassau Street streetscape um in coordination with the engineering department and a number of other uh stakeholder groups uh Etc and um so what we're going to present to you tonight is is the current state of the plans um we could discuss the details of that the budget the schedule uh Etc okay so just as a reminder uh the limits of the project are Nassau Street from Chambers Street to Moore Street and uh the majority of the improvements are occurring on the town side of the street on on the North side um to the sidewalk area with the exception of certain intersections which will include intersection improvements that span across Nassau Street uh to the other side of the street so a little just refresher I know you know we've we've been here before but uh just a refresher on the schedule um you know this really started back in 2016 when there were guidelines established for the street um that was refined and a test uh implementation was done um following that uh there were some concept refin M ments uh that we worked on uh with the town um and the engineering department then January 2024 we entered into schematic design which is really where you start getting into the detail and hardlining things um in February we had a very important site walk that was with shipo so we met shipo on site and we walked uh the length of the street and we discussed uh what they felt were the historically significant aspects of the street that we had to sort of consider uh in May uh we really uh launched full-fledge into construction documents full design documents um and you know ultimately we're targeting uh spring 2025 uh for construction kickoff and we're we're we're on track for that currently so this you know this whole process started through really a public process uh we had many many stakeholder meetings uh with with several different groups uh we hosted the public openhouse uh about a year ago which I'm sure many of you attended uh where we showed boards we sort of met with constituents uh discussed design ideas and sort of the initial uh Concepts there was also an online survey uh following that uh to gather additional information um in through some of the stakeholder uh meetings uh you could see here this is a list of the the key stakeholders that we met with so and what some of their um interests were so uh starting with experience Princeton um they discussed shade public art covered bike parking additional seating and creating really experiential nodes along the street for people to sit and gather um the office of emergency management uh they were really concerned about functionality truck turning radi emergency vehicles Etc uh the DPW um discussed having new trees and creating proper planting environments for those trees uh trash pick up was also discussed uh Princeton University was really focused on safety and making the crossings safe uh the HPC this initial meeting um was really uh discussed playing off Witherspoon Street using the a similar color palette so that it didn't look uh you know entirely different that they sort of worked together um disability awareness uh making sure that all the corners were ADA Compliant the ramps that there were no heaving pavers and sort of Blu stone pavers and things like that and then the property owners you know always the number one uh concern is parking maintaining parking uh additional seating and activity and really creating a place that's um comfortable to be and that properly represents uh Princeton uh so additional now in 2024 uh we had that more detailed meeting with shipo that I discussed um their focus really was that you know they they felt that the um you know the really historically significant period on that Corridor was prior to the streetcape that's in there now so everything that's sort of constructed now is not from that historically significant period that being said they always support replacing materials in kind uh where possible uh Etc U additional meetings with property owners we've met with do um to discuss the various improvements and the process um and then just most recent recently uh just a few weeks ago we met with HPC with the uh HPC and presented this this concept to them to them and got a sort of uh memo back from them on sort of their their feelings towards it and here we are today so just a refresher on how you know the approach to the design uh really the vision um was to respect the historic context of the downtown and of Princeton to make sure that the design is timeless that it's not really of any period period so that um it really feels um fresh you know even 10 20 30 40 years from now um and Community you know focusing on a creating a gathering place for the community Through um you know proper seating and encouraging that social atmosphere uh on the street so now I'll just start to walk through the design so first the materials palette um and I'll show you how all of this applies through plans and renderings afterwards so uh first the sidewalk itself the paving material of the sidewalk itself so um you know we try to be cost efficient uh with these improvements so we want to typically the corners are where most of the Gathering happens so that's where we like to invest a little bit more money so the main paving material for the sidewalks for what I would call midblock between the corners will be scored concrete it'll be poured tinted concrete with a finish that will be scored in a flag pattern which I'll show you what that looks like but that's almost looks like large pieces of staggered blue stone the Highlight material that'll be used at the corners and along the edges will be this Granite pav that you see here Granite paver highlights and this is actually a photo from the Princeton University campus so this is a contextual material um that provides richness you know really a sense of permanence um so that will be used at the corners and along the curve Edge as a highlight Granite sets will be used adjacent to the tree pits as a permeable pav to allow for additional water to get to the roots of the trees the corners will use the standard tactile pav that you see out there today which is a a um which is a steel P steel uh tactile p and then finally uh we will have the these um engraved highlighted Granite bands that will occur at the tree pits and this can denote anything from uh events that the that the town would like to celebrate historic moments or it could just be branded for Princeton and kept simple so however the town deems the best way to move forward with that uh the opportunity is there and I'll point that out to you in a little more detail did you have a question yeah just uh on the concrete it looks from this image like it's an exposed aggregate yes is that what you're proposing we H we haven't finalized what the surface is going to be yet uh so we're kind of working through that with the engineering group but we I mean every time we you know we really feel like that finish is important because there's it's very wide sidewalks there's a lot of it um I abut walk we walked it today and we looked at it again today and you know we're trying to decide is this you know what what is the proper tint what what is the proper finish so we're not quite there yet uh but um you know right now at a minimum it will be a tinted concrete that's scored whether or not there is a specialty finish on top like an exposed aggregate um you know is still to be determined okay I'm going to put in a vote for exposed aggregate I think it really is a more elegant um look on the material so okay okay can can can I ask so the exposed aggregate is would look more like the pebbley thing that we kind of see today what we want to avoid and is is what we did between Barrett and bank which looks very industrial and doesn't look like our brand at all so I know we've talked about this and you know so yeah so I agree with that is that's that is noted and that that is uh you know I think our one of one of our top uh challenges is is getting that right or one of one of the top things we're trying to address is getting that finish right so um and trying to find the balance between you know cost maintenance and and finish that's the uh that's the that's the goal and try to avoid buyer remorse oh I know I know yep okay uh so in terms of the furniture pallet you know we we we look through a number of different styles of furnishings and and uh you know just generally speaking Furniture is when we're designing streetscapes Furniture is where we can deviate a little bit and be a little bit more creative a little bit more modern if we want to um because Furniture not that we want to replace it regularly but Furniture is is sort of the least permanent aspect of a streetcape and it's you know it's typically updated over time um so the number one thing that we think about when we're selecting Furniture is durability right we want long-term durability we want Variety in seating right so if you look at at the suite that you see here of seating there's a backed bench there is a backless bench and there's what we refer to as a cube bench which is a single seat so it's a 2 by two single seat so this is a family of benches that allows you to have that flexibility to create these social situations for groupings and different which I'll show you uh what I mean by that but um so and then obviously design style uh we want it to be appropriate so there are a number factors that we think about when we're selecting a Furniture pallet like this uh next is a bicycle rack you know these we find these to be the simplest and most effective the inverted U uh bicycle rack trash receptacle and this is you know this is a a Tres recepticle that we selected that works with this Suite of furniture but we're still working with the engineering department on finalizing the actual receptacle um many of you may know a lot goes into the selection of receptacle uh between functionality and cleanliness and operations and volume um so this is where we are right now but we're vetting some different options uh with the engineering department as well but style-wise we'll be in this realm and then uh raised Planters and this is just a nice um simple concrete planter uh that we've used before it's great quality and um you know very nice Sleek design okay so now looking at how these different finishes apply to the streetcape so this is a typical corner so this is what I mentioned about you know spending a little bit more money on the corner from for materials right so the corners this this uh sort of fuchsia color the infill will be this Granite paver so the corners will be fully Granite um the ramps themselves will have the concrete and then the tactile pavers and then at Each corner we're trying to integrate some amount of of green or Landscaping at each of the corners just to give a little punch of color and to sort of soften that edges a little bit uh the other thing is it's also for safety uh that it sort of funnels people to the crosswalks so that's what you see here uh in green so this is the typical organization of a corner yes yeah so I just want to point out that a lot of times these curb bump outs M are have a functional aspect which is to shorten the crossing distance across the street Street and so there are often crosswalks that will come into them and obviously the planting doesn't make sense if there's a crosswalk Landing there that's correct so you know I hope we'll see at some point a plan for the length to see how realistic this you know how much green are we getting once you take away the green where you have other crosswalks yes so that that was another thing that we did today just before this meeting we probably for the fourth or fifth time walked the length of the street and looked at each of those Corners individually and to see how much between the Turning radi ey and things how much green we can actually fit at Each corner and if we want to expand it into the sidewalk area a little bit uh to give even a little more green space uh so that is it's noted and and we do have a plan that that shows that um you know the overall plan of the street that we can chair I'm sure I would love to see that yeah David we can sit down and go through it with you thank you so then the midblock treatment right so this uh this color here that's the main sidewalk with right so that is that scored concrete that you see here and it's scored in a staggered flag pattern so these are 3x6 rectangles 3ft x 6 foot rectangles staggered uh and that's a saw cut joint which you you know for it which makes the cut very clean so it almost looks like a pav uh it's not like the typical framed concrete that you're used to seeing uh Granite curbs along uh the length and then at the tree Pits on either side of the tree pits are these uh Granite sets which are permeable uh so those are 4x4 small pieces of granite uh with the tree pit in the center of them and so that creates a nice wide area where water can infiltrate below grade there will be a system that prevents compaction of the soil so it creates a nice big root Zone uh beneath and that's called a silver cell so that's a structural piece that goes under the sidewalk so the soil does not get compacted so these trees will be in an ideal situation um and then finally on this front edge of the tree pit that's where this engraved Granite band will go so you create these little moments where people can sit and then on the front of the tree pit there's some little educational component or something celebrating the history or something to that effect so and that can be one per block it could be two per block depending on how many we would like to have uh so that is the setup of the the interior of the sidewalk can can I chime in for a second on so on that engraved uh band the timing seems perfect that as we're doing this in in in preparation for the 250 um a lot of our Nassau Street was part of the Washington russan boow trail there's other historic markers so um so we need uh to really you know put our thinking caps on and do a little history uh research but it might be a really great opportunity to highlight some of that history as you're going down nasau street I think would be pretty cool so anyway I'm excited about it yeah and and just in terms of you know because we're discussing schedule uh just in terms of that when the project goes out to bid we can put a generic assumption on those Granite bands and to tell the contractor how to so that the contractor can price it so that you don't have to have that list necessarily day one it could give a little more time because I know that that sometimes takes some time okay then the typical alley Crossing and this the photo here is this is the bank Street crossing and this is pretty similar to how The Crossings will be treated so you can see on either side there's the granite sets which you see here in the photo of Bank Street and then the crosswalk itself will be that scored tinted concrete same as the sidewalk so basically if you're not familiar with this Crossing you're going to cross and this is actually flush so The Pedestrian cross is flush it's there is not a a curb ramp where you're ramping down to the street instead the car comes up and over this sort of tabled uh Crossing okay so now I'll show a few renderings of of what this might look like so to point out the key things here so this is uh this is the Witherspoon intersection here in front of us so uh you know we're looking towards the Witherspoon intersection so here you can see in the foreground the main uh sidewalk field this is that staggered bond pattern 3T x 6 foot here you can see the variety of of furniture right so this is the back lless bench and then here are two cubes tues so you could imagine that if someone wanted to sit here and face this they can actually use this to put their laptop on if they wanted to and sit this way two people could face each other so it gives a lot of flexibility in terms of the use of that space and then you can see here in the distance at the corner that's where that Granite where those Granite pavers pick up and then along the edge here which is behind the curb that's also if you can see that Granite along the edge there um one thing that I'll note you know in terms of you know being uh just cost conscious about the project and and uh you know trying to you know deliver a really nice product but also be sensitive to the budget uh we at one point we had granite and that you may have seen along the face of the buildings which was a pretty wide uh swath of granite that ran the length of the building um the length of the streetcape in front of the buildings um we we decided to remove that for a few few reasons um there was constructibility uh questions about it um construction phasing questions and then also budget um so we ended up removing that and that was a nice reduction on the budget which I could get into more and we get to that but I wanted to point that out here because in Prior renderings you probably saw that there okay so now this is looking the other direction towards towards with I'm sorry excuse me yes I don't I'm sorry to interrupt but this is a good time if we can go back to that sure last uh picture something I've been thinking about in a few things that I made mention of in the conversation we had was just a few things the the color of the Granite as we see going down uh Witherspoon Street uh from Nassau down toward toward uh Quarry Street was great when we first started it it looked great but now it doesn't look so good and one of the things I commented on in our conversation yes was thinking about starting off with a deeper color mhm so that there was less discoloration uh I'm looking at the same thing here and I see the same thing this is very bright damn near White and what is it going to look like four or five months after it's done that's number one just a question though number two these benches they're beautiful very eclectic but if you're an old person or a young person with a child you need a back on these benches number three during this whole landscape I'm looking at here I see absolutely no bicycle racks M and as I walk around Princeton and I do often and I sit down bicycles are a pain in the butt and you know why because for some reason we have bicycle racks like there are all over the world but people they they tend to allow people the way they're designed to leave their bikes there forever and if you really pay attention to what's going on in Princeton that's what we have we have bikes that sit on bike racks forever because their design lends itself to that so my request is if we're going to make Princeton fora future to look at the possibility of starting with a darker color so it doesn't discolor number two benches strategically need to be positioned so that we have I think more for older people and younger people than we do for young people I think benches need backs on them and and number three we need more bike racks and we need them soon and we need them to be designed so that people don't leave their bikes there forever and ever that's my comments thank you all all great comments and I I can discuss those one at a time if can I just ask and maybe Michelle or mark because you both seem to know what Leighton was referring to where exactly what are we talking about I know there was That Hideous thing down at the end of NASA which the the uh which was the original attempt which you mentioned in the timeline which the town moved away from that that's that's what what which which is the part you're talking about that was discolored it's just they're staining on it it's a light it's a light it's a light some with SP just the between on Withers spoon between uh top of Nassau and hulfish all got the stuff that was recently put in yeah where track you know it's because of trash and stuff like that if it was darker it wouldn't look so discolored yeah and and so if maybe there wasn't so much trash put out and left there as I mentioned earlier and it also needs to be power washed on a regular basis great all right well why don't we thanks I mean I think we can all pop in with stuff I know I'm a list of things I want to say but why don't we get through the presentation but if people have yeah I'll I'll Circle I'll make sure that I address these when we come to the end here okay so some of them may be addressed as we move as we move through this um so this is just the other view uh looking towards Witherspoon so again you can see that Granite pav the seating the landscape at the bump outs the granite Pavers at the corners so this I think is you know maybe a little bit more along the lines of of uh you know a nice seating pocket so this is where we're now using the back bench which is one of the options in this family of benches is this backed bench and then we couple that with two single seats so this can be a family sitting here this can be someone sitting eating lunch uh Etc so these little social Pockets there's like two or three of these per block right so these mid block little seating Pockets this is where we want people to sit and St and feel comfortable spending some time on the street um now you can see that the beneath those are these Granite sets right so this is that pervia so each of these seating areas has a sort of carpet below it that's the granite pavers um that denotes that and then the engraved P along the face of the tree pit uh also each tree pit will be enclosed with a black RW iron fence 18 in tall so that will keep people and pets and trash out of the uh landscaped areas so uh this is a view at uh Tiger Park uh so this at this point there's there's a new bump out that's going in on either corner and the island here is also being extended out the distance of that bump out so there'll be an additional four to six feet of this sort of Island area at the park um we will use that space to provide additional seating so right now the way that that space is set up you can fit a single bench where now we can actually turn that corner and create a nice little social situation here with two benches and then a backed bench uh creating that little U shape um again coming back in with the planting to buffer and then realigning the crosswalks to make that Crossing this will be entirely Granite as well so this is a nice little gathering space um while I'm there you know I'm just going to mention about the granite right so just to be clear about the materials the pavers that were used on Witherspoon Street are concrete unip pavers those that's not real Granite so what we're using here is actual real granite the stone so there's a lot more texture to it so there you're not going to see the gum and the staining as much number one because there's texture to the p and number two because it's a hard Stone it doesn't absorb that's standing the same way uh so that's why we use it at the corners and at the higher pedestrian areas so here where people are going to be hanging out Gathering a little at the corners Etc that's where that granite's being used can I ask Dean a question um to the point yes Granite is that's why people use it on their kitchen counters for the reasons you described but um and you just said that Granite is used in hight traffic areas so um why didn't we use it on on Withers Spin Street were we trying to save money and now we maybe should have spent a little more money and yeah it would be a lot more it's a very expensive material in the quantity that we would have been using on Witherspoon street so the concrete is sealed uh yes it will require more maintenance where we will have to go and reseal it periodically after um this is the concrete pavers uh where we will clean it and reseal it periodically um but it's also it's Witherspoon street is a different animal from Nassau Street you know Nassau Street really is the focal point when you think of Princeton maybe more so than Witherspoon and that's that's why we're looking at these finishes I feel like you're treading in some very dangerous uh I know ter I think you might want to back off of that I I I think the implications of that de I I it's complimentary to materials that are also being used on the other side of the street at the University so I'll I'll leave it that I think that's a little better yeah let's go with version two okay okay so um so I'll move now um if we're kind of finish with this conversation I'll move on to budget um so the total project budget right now is estimated at $6.5 million so that's um inclusive of everything that you just saw from furniture to landscape lighting um you know the pavers concrete uh Etc um including the improvements to several intersections which um some of them include tabled Crossings like there's there's more to this than uh than when we first looked at this back you know a couple of years ago there's been additional things added to it so um so we're at about 6.5 million uh right now um and the breakdown just sort of we wanted to just put things in big buckets so that you can see generally how this money is spread out uh you can see the sidewalk uh sidewalks are is the biggest chunk right I mean these are very wide sidewalks and it's a long run so that cost sort of is what it is uh the intersection improvements that I mentioned here around a million dollars Furniture um I wanted to just touch on the furniture for a minute so um just to touch on the the bicycle rack thing and then a few other things so the furniture right now is 350,000 give or take so that includes um 37 bicycle racks right now so that's around six average of six per block six bicycle racks per block we're happy to increase that number uh if we feel like that isn't sufficient uh that just in looking at the blocks it seemed like that was a decent amount but yeah and I'll comment to um to leighton's concern because we did talk about that um in during some of this process one of the things we also need to address is that long-term bike parking so there needs to be some covered bike parking probably at Spring Street um you know it can't you can't have long-term covered bike parking right on the sidewalk but you want transient people that are just coming in to have a place to park their bike and you can't clutter it up with a bike racket every you know step so so we need we do have that we talked about that in the Hines Plaza design which is coming uh to do something for longterm because of the tenants that are parking and they're leaving their bikes long term so we are aware of it but it's a really good point so should um the property owners of those buildings be providing um the bike parking as opposed to a situation where those residents are using the municipal bike racks long term same I see a lot of nodding heads well I don't know if you're asking me that question but yeah but that's not you know no but that's not for Nassau Street so we're not doing it on Nassau Street so I'd like to to put off that conversation for another day because we have a lot yet to go through on this one okay but but that was a question that Leighton brought up so so basically the answer is no more bike racks on nasau the the an the answer is that this project includes 37 new bike racks around six per block it we can we can include more you know we can include additional um you know I can't really speak to um the residential I'm sorry my computer just slept the the residential bicycle parking you know many places that that require that to happen as Mark said that that's a conversation for another day um but but I mean to leighton's question I don't think that there actually is any in the design of a bike rack I don't think there's any particular design that would preclude someone using it you know long than than the town would like them to right I mean unless you had some I me I think no I mean that would just be an enforcement thing I don't think there's anything structural you if you come up with that design and patent it you'll be a millionaire multi-millionaire it it may be a little thinking outside of the box but I'm thinking of a a bicycle rack where it is intended for one bicycle only because the way bicycle racks are designed it it just l itself to bicycles not only being attached there but just slipping and falling over it it's you know maybe that's Shark Tank okay yeah the these ones are you know are single racks it's for two bikes at a time but it avoids what exactly what you're concerned about the ones on Nassau just I'm I'm you know I'm I'm out and about and if if you're sitting in front of jewels or in front of Olives it's a mess mhm and you know if we can clean it up and make it better we'd be more welcoming and and people would have a better time sitting and having lunch in Princeton that's all so I just want to say l just to underscore the the issue is that those long-term bike parkings belong to Residents who live in those buildings and so really the solution is for the owners of those buildings to provide bike parking so I look forward to having that discussion y yep that's that's a big part of the problem so all right so so here so that that this is an overview of the budget you know H I'm happy to discuss any aspects of this uh next steps so here we are today at the at the uh working session uh we have to get an application into shipo uh with uh we have to submit shipo application with the HPC comments that that we've received um then in October we plan on getting the dot plans for review uh because they have to review and approve the plans uh final bid doc by the end of this year is the goal uh with a spring construction uh we recognize that there are a couple of important dates coming up one being Princeton University Art Museum uh opening and that we would like to be uh as largely cleaned up as as we can by that point um and then the the 250th anniversary um that was mentioned earlier so th those are those are our sort of Target dates and uh so but we're we're we're moving mov as quickly as we can look we dragged it out since 2016 so you know the bar is low I I got a long list all right let's do it Granite curvs the existing Granite curbs what are you doing with them so they can be reused uh that is an option um we were proposing initially to to replace them with 12in curbs today they are 8 in curbs um this is an aesthetic Improvement it's not a necessary it's not a necessary Improvement um so this is we walked it today and we were discussing exactly that right so the curbs are 8 in Granite curbs right now we were proposing to replace them with 12-in granite curbs um we are trying to run the numbers on what the difference is between those um it's probably a couple hundred $1,000 uh to replace them uh and that's kind of that's as far as we've gotten with that uh the one detail that we have to work out is um sum of the curbing at the corner of Wither spoon is 6 in so it's actually a thinner curb so we have to decide what we're doing there you know if we're going to leave those intact or replace that with the new curb as well okay let me just try to run through my list quick and we'll just short answers are fine so don't don't worry about insulting me um the sidewalk okay we have the concrete sidewalk so the color The Tint that we're going to use are we going to hopefully be aiming for something that's readily available which I know changes over years but I mean the biggest question is what happens when the water pipe sewer pipe whatever breaks for you know Justin's building on nassal street that he's going to buy tomorrow and then he's got to rip up the sidewalk and we want him to match the same color that's there you know so I'm just as long as we're thinking about it we're thinking about it yes okay the exposed aggregate I'm not a huge fan but that's whatever but I'm more worried about the Finish M right because depending how you do that some people do it and it's a pretty rough finish and some people do it and it's not a rough finish so what I know you have a whole bunch of competing needs there but what do you what is your pie in the sky hope for a finished product could accomplish in terms of what the Finish will be or or how to handle that variation it's you know that that is the number one challenge with tinted concrete is that tinted or any finish on a concrete is that over time Street Scapes are replaced utilities go in and you have to replace it even Poes day to day yeah oh exposed aggregate specifically yeah it's the same you know it's the same it's the same issue you you try to spec exposed aggregate is not done the same way it was done years ago so it can be more uniform now um but it's handled the same way you know you write a specification and you try to make it as tight as possible and uh people get as close as they can you know and over time it's going to look a little different and then over time it wears and it all sort of Blends together U I'm just yeah I just want to make sure yeah people understand exposed aggregate makes I I think brings other future challenges um the granite p at the corners where you have a large section what I think is a large section of of pavers mhm do you have a breakdown on average what those Corners are costing us to have all that Grant it and again you can say no and I can figure it out I don't I don't have that broken out separately right now I just have that lump sidewall cost okay I I'm just concerned right basically a lot of my questions are going to have to do with the total cost of this project so I'm just concerned that that that feature is a pretty expensive feature mhm and and I know there's a balance here between hey you want it to look really really nice uh and you know I don't want to strip everything out of it obviously but at the same token I just want to make sure we're being as as balanced and reasonable as possible between cost and and Aesthetics understood Granite overall I'm worried about slippery how slippery is the granite could to be so you know again I I don't know how much option there is on finish on the the surface of the Granite but I I there's a yeah there there's a very wide variety of finishes that you can get on granet all right so we're not going to create the ones that are used for pavers are meant for for walking on so the surface is meant made with that texture yeah you're not going to slip on it well I don't want to I'm not going on records not like a kitchen counter right um any idea with the granite treatment by the tree Wells if you do a couple of those per block any idea what that cost the cost or yeah cost I I don't have that broken I don't I didn't break out those those individual items okay so those Granite sets wherever they are M how do they work and how do you maintain them so that you still get the water to pass through them so the way that they work is there's you know it's it's similar to the uh permeable pavers that are on Witherspoon and we were you know some of the issues there were brought to our attention with the um potential for you know having to clean them out Etc so they would have to be maintained the same way any permeable paver would be maintained right which is vacuuming time to time and replacing the the the gravel that's that's in between um if you don't basically what happens over time is they just silt up and it looks like any other P it's not it's sort of it just becomes not per not permeable the water just doesn't go through it right exactly at that point it's not functioning but it's right so I mean it to to me it it sounds great yes and when it works it's it is great y but I'm just concerned about the operational cost and time and effort to maintain it yeah because it's I mean there's a cost to put it in and if we are not going to have the resources and the equipment and the Personnel Etc to maintain it then it's anyway yes um the landscape beds by the corners yes how how are we to me the corner is a it looks great but I know how most people are when they're crossing the street they don't give a crap about what's in their way if I want to save myself from walking 13 inches I'm going to walk across that little landscaped area so what are are we thinking of doing anything to help protect it so people aren't actually walking across I mean at the corners we weren't we weren't putting fences at the corners uh you know you could it we've done this many times and it you'd be surprised people you know people pay attention and they they they tend to not you know not walk through them surprisingly uh it's a different story with Park Long parking you know when people are getting out of their cars they will walk through them yeah of course you know but at the corners people tend to move to the to the right spot okay the bump outs which in theory are great ideas but and how they work in the real world and I'm really concerned about the ones we did at Witherspoon street because if you drive down nasso street and you look at how people use the bump outs the pedestrians come to the edge or Beyond the Edge of the bump out and now they're either in the street or so close to the street that when you have delivery trucks and any large vehicle going by it's actually problematic MH so I'm just concerned about how are we is there a way to keep people from being on the edge of the bump out and are we paying attention to how far the bump out is going because at some point I think it's counterproductive having such a large bump out it sounds like it's a great thing but I think we're actually making the some of the intersections more dangerous so you this is something that we're looking at very closely this again we we walked today the the purpose of me coming down earlier today was specifically for the corners and bump outs and we looked at everyone that we're bumping out together and we're adjusting them some of them were pulling back some of them were increasing the radius a little bit to make sure to address uh some of these concerns um but generally speaking bump outs are a safety measure that are recommended you know so as but we have to you have to do it within the context of the specific location right so that's why you know there were certain Corners where we looked at them together and we said you know what this probably isn't the right idea here and and we're pulling those back okay go ah yeah so I mean that's really concerning what you're describing about what you've observed at the existing bump outs um but I know that there was a lot of discussion in advance of those bump outs which is why um we were going to have those um uh the retractable thank you yes um weren't we supposed weren't we going to have those to to provide some protection to make sure that there couldn't be any vehicular now I think the baller discussion was about for being able to close off Witherspoon Street if we wanted to do like a street fair or something like that okay but wasn't there okay maybe the ballards weren't there but there was something like Planters or I there was supposed to be something so that what you were describing Mark there was some buffer there yeah I I think when we look at the bump outs and I understand why we're using them and again I think the theory is tremendous but I think 10 years from now people are going to look at accident statistics and say well maybe these aren't doing everything we hope they would achieve so whether the curb on the side stays raised and it's only you're only meeting the street on the front of it where you're actually hitting the crosswalk or maybe you're putting a planner there I don't know but as long as you guys are thinking about it I mean if you go spend time at Nassau and Witherspoon Street and you see how people use those bump outs MH I tell you but Mark wouldn't they I mean even if there's no bump out even if it's like whatever the size of the bump out is people are always going to go to the very edge right unless you have right but without the bump out in most places you have a parking space not too far away so the vehicle making the turn can't go right to the edge of where the person is standing with the bump out the vehicle can literally come within inches of somebody okay so anyway this concerning Michelle did you want yeah I mean you know the whole idea of the bump pad is for pedestrian safety and I mean I'm I'm walking it every day many times a day and what I find is and people are just kind of pushing it they're pushing the lights and they're Crossing even when they don't have a light so they have the right away but it does I mean maybe they just feel so much safer that they're just taking advantage of Crossing but I I see them do all the time but I don't know that not having I think having bump outs it seems would be making it safer than not having yeah and I'm not saying we shouldn't have just the design no I just want us to make sure we're thinking about how do we make the bump out as safe as possible got it right because we have to protect people you know you have to protect people from themselves yeah I think I think our engineering staff have a really good sense of how to make these things safe and it's not like they're brand new they've been in place for 20 years and there is data and they do make people safer it's a fact it's not like an experiment that we're waiting to see how it turns out oh that's why whatever it's still go stand there what are we doing with the kios the two kios I think that's TBD right that's TBD that will be a uh a conversation that will be occurring at this same Pace as the completion of the design project okay as long as we have that convers controversial items are held off because we wanted to make it to the to Triumph but you know at this point we're missing it so de you could just add them back in well I just want to throw all this what do you mean it's only it's only quarter a five we got plenty of time yeah anyway Michelle if you're done Mark I just I just wanted to summarize in terms of the bu buget 6 and5 million is a huge price tag it's eight I think it's about eight blocks um if we're talking about doing this once every 40 years um it's our it's our main street it's our brand uh and I you know I wish I'm really thankful that we have our tal on board with so much expertise in terms of the materials and um I feel you know if you amortise it over 40 years it's $62,000 a year for our main you know focus and I just think it's our brand it's it's what Princeton is and I think we need to put our best foot forward so I love the granite great idea to reuse it if we can save a little here and there and nibble at the edges but the bottom line is that this I think is a beautiful design so I thank you great yeah just those 100,000 here 100,000 there starts to add up but David yeah and I just want to spend a little of that money that we just saved on the granite curbs like I like the idea of reusing the curbs if we can but I would love to see us do something a little more custom with the bike racks you know those u- shape I I've been in a lot of towns where they have something that's sculptural that's specific to the town um and you can really make a statement uh with with a custom design on the bike racks and I don't even think we'd save we'd spend all the money that we're saving by changing the width of the Granite curbs yeah yeah I I just want to Echo you know I've been in these meetings and I want to thank you for a superb job um and my my recommendations or suggestions are just tweaks to what I think is a fantastic uh job that you've done so thank you very much thank you so I just want to say I think there de are because there's more you're going to have to come back again right with some of these other things that weren't included tonight or is this is this the penultimate or the final this is supposed to be it um what what I suggest is that we could work on um getting the answers to the questions that were raised tonight and Jim and I and jus can come back and present that okay that's that's what I was Wonder I mean I think basically the the consensus is that overall this is fantastic but I to Mark's points you know if there's some ways that we can save money and it doesn't impact the overall impression you know of course we'd love to do that um and thank you Mark you know um but uh I I have to agree with Michelle I mean sometimes we come here and you know there was there's you know a lot of money I'm I'm going to pick on the on on the vehicles again but a lot of money spent on trucks and I don't know things that all sorts of vehicles that do all sorts of things and you know this is to Michelle's point this is the center of our town um it is a town that a lot of people visit it's a historic town um and I think we should you know put our best foot forward there in the center and with a you know make sure that it's durable because my God this has taken so long almost almost this will be 10 years by the time we finish this so whatever you do you really do need to make sure that it lasts 40 years so that it can be amortized on Michelle's schedule but also I just wanted to thank Michelle for finding arterial because you are really unique in the state the only firm that does what you do um and it's been such a help to us that's that's why we've finally been able to move forward more rapidly and you've done a great job and so thank you Michelle Deanna thank you for your patience with us um and thanks so much for a great to thank you that was very nice thank you yeah and I just don't want you think any of my questions or comments are meant to detract from the overall great job just I'm a very I'm a facilities guy very practical guy so those are the questions I got to ask but I do agree you guys have done a tremendous job good job all right we have other okay what else do we want to beat up on here no I'm sorry any other questions or comments that we need to share oh we do okay no that's great okay uh we have a hey Adam we have a couple hands up can we just uh ask people to come in and see what they want to well big expense and Jessica Jessica hi can you hear me oh now we can yes oh hi um I'm actually right at the corner of Witherspoon and Nassau as I speak with you it's so perfect because I've been watching and listening to all the things you've been saying and it's really impressive it's beautiful all the plans are amazing but no one's talked about traffic and a lot of people have brought up pedestrians they' brought up bark bike parking which is wonderful and very needed and I agree that you know we could you know things are looking a little bit dated and old and worn but it's hard to imagine the things you're talking about when it's not safe to bike and it's not safe to walk so I would hope that in the money that you're spending you would allocate a certain amount to some element of traffic study especially as relates to our main artery as all the reasons that you've brought up please focus on the fact that if we continue to see the increased density and we continue to see the increased traffic no matter how beautiful the road is and how beautiful the sidewalk is it's not going to be safe for our inhabitants I urge you I implore you to think about safety and when you're spending this quantity of money to think about the fact that people are not safe as we stand right now thanks so much thanks Jessica all right Adam can we bring in the next person okay hello can you hear me yeah we can thank you if you could just say your just say your name for us hi this is Hali Nuka y um thank you so much uh for this presentation uh this looks like a fantastic design um a couple of comments um going back to uh the comment earlier about Princeton's brand I just want to emphasize that part of Princeton's brand is the charm and the walkability and it's really I understand the challenge of trying to design and mass out street streetscape when you want to make it walkable but it's one of the main connecting roads in the county um so with regard to that point I just want to say that given the money that this project is estimated at it would be good to see a couple of more safety improvements that could be included in this and specifically it would be great to see a raised crosswalk at all the crossings and not just the alley Crossings um I think with regard the bump outs that have are proposed in the design are a terrific Improvement on what we already have I think if we could go one step further and raise the crosswalks um at Palmer square at Nassau Street and at Washington that would be amazing um and a huge boost for pedestrian safety as you know mayor Freda pointed out people tend to cross willy-nilly and feel like you know while it's hard to control what people can do at least we can make them a little bit safer while they're doing it both for the vehicles and for the pedestrians the other point I'd like to raise is just the with regard to the furniture um one of the nice things about the current Furniture is that the benches do have backs and that provides a little bit of protection between a very busy street and very active parking along that street as cars are always pulling in and out um having those benches makes people who are sitting there feel a little bit more secure and it's a little bit more of an intimate setting to have a conversation so I would encourage you to think about that um that people may not who are on the sidewalk or sitting on the sidewalk at the benches don't they need a little bit of a buffer and a protection from the activity on the road with the cars with people exiting Park cars and so on um so those are my two cents and um thanks to council and arterial for all the work on this thank you okay looks like all the hands are up so we'll end the work session and thank you very much for being here thanks for your time actually thank before we close up I do want to just respond on P's comments um so while we focus today the presentation on the sidewalk materials and the sidewalk improvements um as Dave alluded too that as we moved from the concept phase into this design phase we added in pestering Crossing improvements so uh down by Thomas Sweets um we are incorporating a raised crosswalk across nasau street that had come about as part of a a pedestrian safety audit project that do had envisioned their timeline to construct it was not until I think 2027 so that has been incorporated into our project and I think it may include a rectangular rapid flashing Beacon as well and lighting um at at the crossing at South 2 Lane that Crossing is being reimagined shifted it will also be a raised crosswalk and we are considering at do suggestion a rapid flashing rectangular Beacon there as well um down at Palmer Square there will be a curb extension in front of the church which is in the intersection of the two Palmer Squares on the University side um we are also doing uh creating a concrete pedestrian ref refuge in place of existing striping at one of the crosswalks so so we are making significant improvements to those pedestrian crossings that do not occur at signalized intersections the the Washington van dender you know we do have the exclusive pedestrian phase we are working on changing the timing at at Witherspoon as well with do because that should also operate the same way so I think all of our improvements combined with Do's improvements at the signalized intersections really goes a long way to address the pedestrian safety issues that we have had thank you Deana that's great okay thank you very much again and enjoy the rest of your evening wherever you're going maybe Triumph for the next 15 minutes okay moving on we have a public hearing ordinance 20 24-33 Bond ordinance providing for the replacement of the heating ventilation and air conditioning system at the municipal building in and by Princeton in the county of Mercer New Jersey appropriating 1 million $200,000 therefore in authorizing the issuance of 1,1 140,000 bonds or notes of Princeton to finance part of the cost thereof and obviously the public hearings tonight would someone make a motion thank you Leighton is there a second thank you Laticia questions and comments all right why are we doing this that nice cool air that you can feel in here right now we want it to continue um the the cooling system that we currently have in the building is original and it is on its last legs we've been working with um a consultant to design a more energy efficient and environmentally friendly system um when we went out to bid we're actually on our second round of bids right now and the prices are they're higher than we anticipated um there's certain items that we had rolled into the bid that could have been outsourced in a different way but in general um we think the the prices that we're getting are reasonable unfortunately we just did not have enough budgeted um through previous year's capital budget process and so we need to supplement that to be able to make a bid award um to do this replacement so what is the total cost of this project it's about two million we have applied to PSC and as well to get um some Energy Efficiency rebates to uh offset some of the cost thank you Michelle are you that was my question I I figured I I I knew you were way ahead of me but I just thought I'd bring that up um PSG is being um very uh aggressive about helping um I just um I know from my own personal experience so um so thank you okay any other questions from the governing body okay any uh questions from anyone here in the room no any questions from anybody online all right seeing none we'll close the public hearing and could we have a roll call vote please miss Pon lambrose yes Mr Cohen yes Miss yes Miss froga yes Mr nulan yes Carri thank you we have two ordinances to introduce ordinance 2012 24-34 Bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of property and various Capital Improvements to such property in and by Princeton in the county of Mercer New Jersey appropriating $50 million therefore and authorizing the issuance of 49,500 th000 bonds or notes of Princeton to finance part of the cost thereof the public hearing will be October 14th 2024 four is there a motion thank you Le Leticia Michelle's got the second uh roll call vote Miss Peron lambrose yes Mr Cohen yes Miss Sachs yes Miss Fraga yes Mr nulan yes carried thank you ordinance 202 24-35 an ordinance by the municipality of Princeton County of Mercer state of New Jersey authorizing the acquisition of real property by negotiation purchase com Commendation or eminent domain of the real property located at 101 Walnut Lane Princeton and designated as block 31.0 lot 1.05 and block 7301 lot one on the official tax map of the municipality of Princeton the public hearing will be September 23rd 2024 is there a motion Mia's got the motion uh leticia's got the second and that is a roll call vote please miss Peron lambrose yes Mr Cohen yes Miss Sachs yes Miss froga yes Mr nulan yes carried thank you we have three resolutions 24268 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton to accept the mobility and transportation Innovation program Grant to fund the installation of real-time digital signage at 10 Transit stop locations along the Princeton mun transit route thank you Leighton thank you letia any questions or comments I see none all in favor please say I I hi 24269 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton authorizing the award of a Professional Services agreement to I never say this right hin scarin whatever Hollenbeck LLC whatever they can yell at me later for special environmental legal services for $165,000 is there a motion thank you David is there a second thank you Le any questions or comments Mia so this is the ongoing saga of River Road right yes um is there any end in sight or or can I when I think it's been a while since we last heard from them just just so members of the public know this is um actually not residents of Princeton suing the town this is the town suing um the insurance company or litigating with the insurance company to be reimbursed for um million dollars right uh coverage for claims uh related to the River Road uh right um so it's been a while since we had an update from our friends at sceny or scrunchy um I think we if we could schedule that that'd be great okay thank you other questions or comments all right all in favor please say I I I I 24270 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton in the county of Mercer New Jersey making application to the local Finance board pursuant to njsa 4A 2-7 D and njsa 4A 2-11 c n is there a motion thank you Michelle leighton's got the second questions or comments all right seeing none all in favor please say I I I seven items on the consent agenda if nobody needs any of those pulled out someone could move it in Block thank you David moving them all right yes yep thanks Mia's got the second all in favor say I I I David move to adjourn is there a second thank you Lon all in favor say I we're done good night goodbye