##VIDEO ID:zwAAv61Nt1E## good evening everyone thanks for joining us tonight it is November 12th 2024 this is a meeting of the mayor and Council of Princeton New Jersey Madame clerk could we have the meeting statement please 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 material were posted electronically and made available to the public on Princeton's meeting portal in advance of the meeting thank you Leti is going to do the land acknowledgement this evening thank you we gather today on the land of the Lenny Lenape as members of the princent community we aspire to show appreciation respect and concern for All Peoples and our environment we honor the Lenape and other indigenous caretakers of these lands and Waters the elders who lived here before the indigenous today and the generations to come thank you could we have roll call please miss Peron lambrose here miss Neer gang here Mr Cohen here miss sax here miss Fraga here Mr nulan here mayor Freda here you have Corum thank you if you'd like to join us uh please stand and we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you all right we have a number of proclamations and awards of recognition this evening uh David's going to start us off and he and I will do the first Proclamation this is a proclamation proclaiming November arts and health month whereas the Arts Encompass many forms of creative expression such as literary performing and visual arts which are used to evoke emotion convey meaning and provoke thought and where as the municipality of Princeton recognizes the vital importance of promoting the health and well-being of its citizens as well as fostering a deep appreciation for the Arts and whereas roughly 28 % of people living in New Jersey suffer from anxiety depression or a combination of the two and whereas research has demonstrated that engaging in arts related activities can reduce symptoms of anxiety depression and stress by 73% and whereas individuals with regular exposure to the Arts have a higher likelihood of reporting better overall health compared to those with limited or no engagement and whereas the intersection of arts and health has been shown to have positive effects on mental emotional and physical well-being and whereas on an arts and health month support supported by the municipality raises awareness of the Divide between high and lowincome areas and supports the those local organizations such as the Arts Council of prinston art Against Racism Princeton Public Library Princeton University univers art museum morvin museum in Garden Princeton University concerts Princeton Symphony Orchestra westrik Music Academy grounds for sculpture and West Windsor Arts by providing free and lowcost arts programs to individuals across Princeton and whereas low-income communities are better empowered to explore the connections between artistic expression and health outcomes and whereas by designating November as arts and health month individuals will be encouraged to engage in creative activities that lead to improved Health stress reduction enhanced social connections and increased self-expression now therefore be proclaimed I Mark Freda mayor of the municipality of Princeton and the Council of Princeton County of Mercer state of New Jersey do here by polame November 2024 as arts and health month in Princeton so I'd like to thank Adam from The Arts Council who brought it to our attention to please do this so hey you know Adam I think you should be the recipient of the Proclamation okay enough we have a proclamation that Leon's going to take us Mark before I do I just want to recognize the outstanding job that everyone does through our and health in Princeton and uh a shout out to Adam and his crew with the Arts Council thank you for all you do I am pleased to read this Proclamation from the office of the mayor Municipality of Princeton Proclamation recognizing our own Leah Khan whereas Leah Khan grew up in Princeton and graduated from Princeton High School school she earned bachelor's degrees in English and philosophy from CW post college and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and whereas she wrote for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina before returning home to Princeton and working for the packet group and whereas Leah has covered Lawrence Township for the Lawrence Ledger from 1985 to the present and where whereas Leah began covering Princeton for the Princeton packet in 2019 and can be found as she is right now sitting in the front row at every Princeton council meeting and whereas she has won 13 awards from the New Jersey press Association including five awards for coverage of government and whereas she is dedicated to the craft of community journalism and strives to ensure that the reporting of meetings and events is fair and accurate and whereas Leah constantly demonstrates unwavering commitment to her work ensuring that every story is reported with accuracy and integrity and approaches every assignment with a fair and balanced perspective reflecting her deep commitment to journalistic ethics and whereas her quiet demeanor belies a fierce dedication to the truth earning her the respect and Trust of the community that she serves and whereas Le's low-key and unassuming nature allows her to connect authentically with those she serves fostering a sense of trust and openness and whereas Lee's steadfast presence in our local media landscape enriches the community making her a valued and respected voice in Princeton New Jersey and now therefore I speaking on behalf of Mayor Mark Frida mayor of the municipality of Princeton and the Council of Princeton County of Mercer state of New Jersey hereby recognize and congratulate Leah Khan for her outstanding accomplishments and extend our deepest appreciation for all her dedicated work and wish her well and all her future endeavors thank you come something balance one two three can hear you yeah I just wanted to say wanted to thank the mayor and Council uh you know it's one thing to be acknowledged by your peers in the New Jersey press Association and it's quite another to be honored recognized by the people that you cover um I also just wanted to add to to paraphrase Mark Twain reports of my retirement are greatly exaggerated I'll be here in two weeks sitting right there so thank you all thank you okay we have two Awards of recognition tonight and TD Bank is first up so please gentlemen come up and okay good evening Mr Mayor city council Chief uh my name is Greg Branch I'm the uh vice president of physical security at TD Bank I'm accompanied by uh Mr Ray Casanova he's the regional Security contact for for this area uh we're here tonight it's a pleasure for us to be here tonight to honor one of Princeton's finest uh detective Dan shitan Dan come on up here you can't stand in the back back in uh July it was a very quiet Beautiful Sunday I happen to be visiting my mother about 20 miles south of here uh one of our banks here on State Road was uh robbed it was a takeover bank robbery uh and uh about 60,000 was stolen from that bank but more importantly the few uh employees that we had in the store that day were just rattled beyond belief as you can understand uh Princeton PD responded they did a great job um and Dan and several other officers came inside I'm a retired FBI agent uh Ry is a retired detective out of Galloway Township and so I've been to hundreds of bank robberies and I'm not just saying this because we're giving him an award but I've also uh had the opportunity to go to other Banks when they have been hit and uh it doesn't happen the way it happened here um he was meticulous with his interviews the patience that he showed to the victim teller and others and uh I stayed until the very end just until the Bank closed and uh I I'll be honest with you I was getting hungry he was that he was that detailed um he had really literally nothing nothing to go on this case I kind of looked at the evidence you know we talked um and it's limited as to what he could tell me because I'm I'm a civilian you know he's a law enforcement officer but what I could see he had very little to go on and in a matter of weeks he had this this case I could you know I would check in with him to make sure he had everything that Ray provided to him and that we could give him pictures video and I remember uh one time I called him towards the end and uh I guess I called him around 11: and he had been up since 4: doing whatever he was doing to bring this case to to to conclusion and he said uh Greg I'll give you a call when this is over and I just put my hands up and Ray and I talked and I said man he's got this thing it's it's over and sure enough uh he executed the uh the arrest and so uh this award that we're giving uh this is a new award from TD Bank from the global security and investigations unit uh at the bank we've only given it out once we gave it out once last year and uh this is the first award the year is almost over that we've given it and Dan is just so deserving and uh again I want to commend the department because some of these guys were probably there I remember you being there and chief you should know they were they were first class so on behalf of uh everyone at TD uh our CEO Leo Simon we want to thank uh Dan and we congratulate him we like to present him with this award can I say a few words yeah please um obviously what Greg said was a a gross overstatement um if I had him in a room he' change his story however um Greg and Ry are very special people without their communication with me with the questions that came into my head on an instant I could send a text message and get a response and I think without their uh ability to communicate effortlessly with me um there's some things that may have gone unnoticed but um two former Law Enforcement Officers working with a current for former a court current law enforcement officer we were able to uh you know put our heads together figure things out the way you're supposed to get done um and I had the backing of the Princeton Police Department the entire way so um I Know Chief Tash would check in periodically with me about uh the case and where it was going but he allowed me to run with my own leads which I truly appreciate I think that uh was able to uh lead us to this this arrest of this person who committed the bank robbery so again uh it's not me it is I'm just a a peg in the wheel is every member of the PD who was there from the start to the end um but special consideration to uh Ray kasanova and Greg Branch for their exceptional work from the private side so thank you everybody thank you D did did you get the pictures you need or do you need to take thank you thank you thank you all for being here for that okay Michelle I think you're up next thank you thank you um so tonight uh we have an award of recognition for share my meals um their founder Isabelle L lomot I first met her back in January of 2020 and she told me all about her new nonprofit organization that she was starting a food recovery program that would address food insecurity in our Princeton Community I thought wow this is wonderful but I wondered hm the logistics if they would work out but boy was I wrong and she exceeded her own expectations so barely off the ground in early 2020 Co hit and Isabelle and her small group of dedicated volunteers pivoted taking advantage of New Jersey's sustain and serve program to buy meals at cost from local restaurants and provide them to families and seniors in need the board and volunteers worked tirelessly to deliver 140,000 meals throughout the region during covid they partnered with many of our local restaurants including mesaluna the meeting house gretalia group and JM group of restaurants the program served both to help address the growing food insecurity in our community and also help keep employees paid and business doors open so as people then began to return to work share my meals and Isabelle and her leadership pivoted once again and was able to return to its original Mission of recovering Surplus meals known as their meal recovery program and deliver those meals to households as well as Community Partners in the region they recover and distribute Surplus meals from cafeterias of local corporations schools universities hotels and restaurants and de deliver them to food and secure members of our local community and it's astounding in 2024 they have so far delivered 100,000 meals and are on track to deliver 125,000 and they serve 2,000 people weekly through 25 Community Partners and directly to 60 families and 20 seniors they mobilized 200 active volunteers from the Princeton community and last year alone they saved 83,000 pounds of food from being wasted but Isabelle and her team didn't stop there they co-founded the Statewide meal recovery Coalition an organization that works at the state level bringing together Service Groups focused on tackling food and security and the environmental impact of food waste across New Jersey the meal recovery coalition's goal is to recover a half million meals annually annually by 2026 which is a huge Target but one I have no doubt can be achieved given the enormous leadership and Vis Vision that Isabelle and her board of directors at share my meals all have it's really an honor to recognize Isabelle lambot the founder and chair of share my meals I know that there are other additional talented board members volunteers and staff that all work Tire tirelessly to make this organization the success it is for our community and with Isabelle's Vision there has been no obstacle they haven't worked to overcome thank you good thank you Michelle Isabelle I also wanted to say a few words Isabelle I don't know if you could no over here Leia over here okay I just wanted to say family I want to say few words as well cuz I don't you know I was actually trying to refresh my mind when you and I first met it was actually in late 2019 yes when you first came uh reached out I found the initial email yes when you first reached out uh to discuss your initiative and I said at the time it was to avoid food waste uh and we connected uh we met with our Human Services director and uh our uh Health off officer to disguise uh to discuss some uh guidelines on how to comply with food regulations and collection and distribution of donated food how to safely collect and donate uh but at the time like I said it was just the focus was on how to avoid food waste who knew about Co like like Michelle mentioned and when Co hit that's when in our community many in our of our residents who had never experienced food insecurity it became an issue and you were already had started you were already there and ready to address the issue of food insec insecurity in our community and look at you now I just uh you have really come a long way and we truly appreciate the work that you're doing thank you thank you I I I I'm obviously I'm very honored and very touched because I'm in the moment of my life I'm going back to Europe so Karen is here is going to take the leadership of share my meals I will remain in the board and still have crazy idas so don't worry for the township but I I really want to say that from the very beginning you supported us and when I say us is obviously not share my meals and the board it's really the community and I will not just I will not talk about uh numbers and our achievement because they they will change tomorrow and we are in an exponential growth so the numbers don't mean anything what I really want to say is that when you invite people at your home and you really want to do a big dinner and a special event for you need you need a good recipe you need the good ingredients and a glass of wine and so the the the recipe is definitely the vision and there is nothing we have to discuss about that I think it makes sense food waste and food insecurity this is no way ingredient it's really you my team I mean just tonight it's just her but she's representing and when I say my team is the team that we were able to to attract because we were doing something that made sense and and it's it could be volunteers but when I I talk about um the ingredient it's also the nonprofit organization we are working with because it's not about us it's really about what we can do together and the glass of wine I would say is the joy that I want to instill in this organization because I think we have all its art and very I would say very difficult issue that we are dealing with but it has to be made in in in a very joyful atmosphere otherwise nobody would like to come to work so thank you very much I'm very honored and um I mean I will still be there and I hope you will still support us thank you thank you we thanks buddy a lot of moving this thing than okay next up on the agenda are announcements any uh members of council have any announcements or reports uh Eve I just want to I have a a real announcement but I just want to uh say something uh first in the in the week of uh Tuesday's election um although um stepping off council at the end of the year I know that my colleagues will do everything in their power to protect the rights of vulnerable people in our community and to uh fight for what is good and just um just felt like I couldn't let this moment pass without saying something um so my more official announcement uh is that uh this Friday at 2:30 we have a ribbon cutting for the 153 acre parcel that we acquired in 2021 it's at the intersection of Province line and stoud Lane and you can uh Park on stoud there'll be uh a hike after led by uh the Ridge View Turtles which is a a student group that works uh on some of our open space areas and uh so if you're available please join us thanks thank you other Council announcements or reports okay seeing none let's jump to the uh I'm sorry I missed that go ahead my apologies yeah I just want to I'm happy to announce that the pron Housing Authority has opened one classroom at reading Circle as part of the prin Public Schools Universal full day preschool program uh they anticipate the second classroom at the Henry F pel Center to be opening within the next month so really happy that they have uh want to also acknowledge the work that our engineering department Tiana Jim and uh their team has uh acknowledged the help that they have given them to achieve this Monumental uh um situation that they've been able to achieve so we have pre-class rooms at one of our locations and we'll be having another pre- classroom at another location so hats off to the staff and the uh the board of the Princeton Housing Authority thank you mayor thank you L all right let's go to the police department's monthly report for September Chief uh good evening mayor councel um just two things one I want to congratulate Lea KH again and say thank you she's always been a strong supporter of the police department for as long as I can remember so thank you for that um one thing I want to note on the uh September Chief's monthly report is um our crash data um we've recognized that the crashes for this year um have increased especially involving um pedestrians and motorist or bicyclists we're working our traffic department is working to identify um the areas where these are happening and we're looking um into it and doing a uh education and enforcement campaign to try to uh drive those numbers back down like I said we do recognize it's Nationwide the accident has gone up but we're going to do our part to make uh try to drive those numbers down here in Princeton uh that's the only thing I want to uh mention mayor thank you Chief any questions on the monthly report okay seeing none I'd ask Isaac ker from experience Princeton to come up and update us on what's Happening good evening your honor uh typical format four things we did last month for this month and one big thing you need to know about at the end um so last month uh we sent out the Princeton monthly eblast uh that had over 4,234 cents 2,123 opens and I want to highlight we've featured over 177 businesses and organizations across the 25 uh eblasts that we've sent out over the past two years and now start of our third um so that's become a really useful tool for us uh secondly we're continuing the work on allowable uses we especially want to thank staff uh who met with the consultant uh that we're working with and we're looking forward to wrapping up the stakeholder interviews uh hopefully this month um additionally we've registered a booth for two people uh to attend the international Council of shopping centers deal show uh at javitz in New York uh from December uh 11th to 12th uh it's going to be a great visibility opportunity for us I believe we're the only municipality in New Jersey uh that will be represented that show uh and lastly um we're pleased to announce that we've launched the Princeton 250 page on the experienc Princeton website uh This was done with some funding from Mercer County uh and also supported the Princeton Heritage Tourism Committee uh there you'll see events related uh to the leadup and then of course the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 but we got got an our start and you can go to exper experience prc.org pr250 to see that um so what are we doing this month uh We've launched the shop local to win uh sweep Stakes um and I'm pleased to report we've already awarded $2,000 um over two weeks uh week one the winner was cosmo blue Salon uh who is really happy uh to have been selected and their customer Michelle Meyer ship uh so each of them receive $500 um and I just found out today with a drawing and notified Witherspoon Grill uh and also James diorio uh who uh are also going to get 5, $500 a piece and um uh we have four more weeks to go uh and another $4,000 to give away then a grand prize at the end of $1,500 um so we really hope that the word gets out uh and people um go shopping support local businesses upload the receipts and have a chance to win um next up our holiday decorations are going to continue and be expanded this year um and also our shop local Banners are getting ready to install hopefully right before Thanksgiving and of course we'll coordinate with that um and the volunteer recognition event is going to be held on November 21st from 4: to 7:00 at morvin uh this will also serve as our holiday party uh RSVPs are required and can be done through our websit spaces is filling up quickly uh certainly we'd love to see all of our uh colleagues with the municipality uh mayor and councel uh to be present if you're able to um and last but not least we're seeking Services of an IT contractor to provide ongoing support for experience Princeton uh the RFP will go out shortly so to wrap it up uh one big thing that you should know about um is we've had a total of 33 business openings um that we've documented in Princeton since October 202 too uh when experience Princeton started um and while we can't take credit uh for all of them or even many of them uh we have contributed to making Princeton a better place for businesses to locate um we're excited to have 10 more business openings uh coming up uh that we know of um and most immediately uh alala uh will be opening their Princeton location at 140 Nassau Street uh and their cutting will be on Friday December 6th at 10:00 a.m. uh everyone's welcome to attend uh I personally visited uh their location in hackin sack uh and can tell you I think it's a perfect fit uh for Princeton taste and interest very healthy lifestyle gluten-free options um it's just one of those wonderful businesses that you're proud to have part of your town uh so with that that's my report thank you Isaac any questions for Isaac okay thank you very much appreciate you finding time to be here here with us next up on the agenda public comments for items not on the agenda so if anybody in the room or anybody on Zoom wants to make a comment or say something about again an item that's not on the agenda this would be the time to come up forward nobody in the room nobody on Zoom oh hand went up on zoom two hands okay oh three hands wow it's contagious okay Anna hello are y'all able to hear me okay yes there we go yeah just I'm sorry just if you just give us your name and your address and then you have three minutes for whatever the topic is thank you okay I appreciate that my name is Anna conva I am a resident at 18 Bank Street um and I would like to express my concerns about the vote held at the meeting last week regarding the demolition of the flyer kiosks on NASA uh I believe that these are spaces that have great cultural importance for a community and I'm extremely concerned that this decision was made without sufficient space for input from the community um I believe that uh the concerns expressed by council members that these uh kiosks are ugly or to use the words from the last meeting um isour uh is a subjective and aesthetic Choice um and one that uh does not necessarily reflect the beliefs of your constituency um as evidenced by the fact that this debate has been ongoing for at least a decade and has uh received significant like public input and uh backlash so whether or not these kiosks are ugly is subjective and it's one that I personally disagree with because I think that these are important cultural spaces that have been used for Community expression and free speech um and I guess I'd like to include with a quotee from Eve neang from the last meeting in which she said I think they're hideously ugly and I would love to move to a digital display the digital display is then under our control and ceases to be a place for the community to interact and I hope that the council will take under consideration um the concerns that I have with this belief that uh these important cultural spaces are going to be removed in favor of government control over what is going to be expressed and that concludes my comment Anna thank you very much okay Adam could we bring in the next person hello can you hear can we all right yes we can okay great uh good evening my name is Kira gusos I am a resident of 18 Bank Street um I'm also here to express my objection to the recent um vote regarding the removal of the flyer kiosks on NASA Street um I would also like to emphasize that these kiosks play a vital role in our community as an expression of free speech and Community organization and the removal would be a significant loss for many residents um secondly I think that uh basing the removal of these kiosks uh based on aesthetic judgments that aren't reflective of the broader Community is an issue and claims regarding that the kiosks have an environmental impact and pedestrian obstruction lack substantiations um especially if these kiosks are replaced with electronic signs I think we need to consider the broader implications of placing giant electronic advertisements in the middle of a street I think there there many potential environmental issues with this and threats to pedestrian and driver safety um that haven't really been considered what troubles me a lot about this decision is that there has been a lack of community input leading up to the vote um the vote seemed to have been conducted with minimal notice and without regard to public opinion and ironically they should highlight some of the issues that residents would face if the kiosks were removed um I believe that the kiosks are an important and integral part of Princeton's cultural landscape and in theme with today's Proclamation concerning arts and mental health I think that the kiosks serve as a pretty visible intersection of art freedom of expression and Community engagement that is necessary for a thriving Princeton um so thank you for your time and attention thank you Kira hi can you hear me yes sir hi um I'm Hunter acrid and I'm a concerned resident at Princeton um 311 Court Drive um I am also um against a kiosk removal on Nassau Street and I would like to implore the city council to reconsider their position um I'd like to Echo the previous two comments and emphasize that in my view this is a waste of City resources um I want to address a couple of issues um raised specifically um in favor of kiosk removal um one I the traffic Princeton's traffic and transportation committee back in 2013 found that these Kos posed no threat to traffic and pedestrian flow and as a regular pedestrian on Nassau Street um I find that they don't obstruct um you know my pedestrian traffic I've never seen um this become an issue on the street um and two the replace uh removal and replacing of these kiosk with electronic um screens uh has a likely will have a deeply negative environmental impact um and uh I would like to see sort of a datadriven impact evaluation for um the decision-making process here it seems like uh the process so far has been centered around um various sorts of aesthetic judgments um without bringing in community input um or um doing substantive evaluations of um the argument claims being made here um so so yeah i' emplore the city council to um reconsider their position um do more digging into the um the substance behind the claims being Advanced here um and lastly provide a timeline for what the demolition looks like um as a someone a resident who believes that these are a vital part of our community um I'd like to know at the very least when the demolition is supposed to happen um and timeline going forward thank you I appreciate your time and consideration thank you Hunter hello can you hear me yes sir hi I'm Lucas fry I'm at 600 hibb and Maggie Road um I would also like to urge the council to reverse its decision to direct the removal of the kiosks um I think that it's a little bit silly that this just sort of came in a work session uh without prior announcement after this is an issue that's generate serious push back in the community every other time that uh the Chamber of Commerce whoever's asked for them to move 2013 2017 2021 to just sort of issue it in a direction you know related to streetscape which had a community input period that has already passed and which a lot of the drawings for show the kiosks um as they are uh yeah I think this was done without sufficient Community input and uh I think it's something that you're going to see a lot of people upset about that the council is is acting this way um in a way that doesn't seem to follow Democratic procedure uh furthermore the chaos as people expressed uh in the previous times that people have talked about changing them um these are like a Vibrant Community space where people can uh interact with without having to necessarily negotiate with whatever the restrictions of local business bulletin boards or university spaces uh you know this is sort of open for everybody and um we don't even have a plan from youall about what the replacement if there is one will be and so to remove them without that plan uh seems ill advised in premature um I certainly don't want you know local kids trying to advertise for you know a band they want to start to have to go through you know local government uh permitting or or ask have to ask whoever that we've leased the keyos to for permission um so thank you and I urge you to uh reverse the directions um to the engineering department about that Lucas thank you all right anybody else on Zoom anybody else in the room okay we'll close the uh public comment part of the agenda and now we have a presentation on the Harrison Street uh Carter so just to give a little uh and introduction uh in February 2023 Princeton Council uh approved a professional service agreement with Michael Baker to conduct a multimodal corridor study um along Harrison Street and Ewing Street from our Southern border all the way uh to the connection at US Route 206 joining us tonight are uh Pete Kramer and Tom D biasi um from Michael Baker to present the a summary of the recommendations that are included in the report that uh we distributed to council yesterday great thank you so volume's okay all right great so actually we just start by looking at the diagram you see that thin Ren line that's the corridor starting at the at the canal uh top path on the bottom right and going all the way up to the intersection of uh the designation actually changes uh towards the end to it's called Ying street so Ying Street at us 206 it's about a 2 and a half mile Corridor um and as uh Deana mentioned we did provide a detailed report and I believe that you all have that so um so I'm just going to uh I know you guys are busy want to go through this pretty quickly give you the highlights and then if you have any questions or you can reach out to us later as well um going to talk quickly about the project purpose the study findings that led us into our design options give you a quick summary of the recommendations and the timeline and take your questions and comments and from the very beginning the purpose of the project was was uh stressed that it was really about safety uh not so much moving traffic we do need to move traffic but we need to do that safely as well uh we heard from the police uh the uh chief of police today was a little surprised to hear the uh increase in pedestrian and cyclist crashes and a lot of reasons for that but um what we do is focus on the cause and try to make uh recommendations to address those problems um we always start with this slide here this picture uh kind of tells the whole story people say why do we need to slow down traffic why do we need to do these things if you look at the bottom um so if a car is driving at 40 m an hour and there's a Collis collision with a pedestrian there's an 80% chance that the pedestrian will be killed by that Collision uh and this is from National Data the number kind of varies from year to year but these are the you know the general numbers if you're able to slow that to 30 or 20 M an hour so at 20 M an hour there's only a 10% chance of fatality so the kinetic energy behind a moving vehicle especially the vehicles that we have today big trucks SUVs they weigh a lot more than the cars that we drove when we were younger and they're much more advanced bodies haven't changed cars have be become better it's much safer to be in a car and it's a lot less safe to be outside of a car so we always start with this uh figure to kind of stress why we do this um so overall uh what we did uh these are some of our findings and the existing conditions we looked at the crash data again the chief of police mentioned that uh we looked at five years of Crash data typically we look at three to five years we don't isolate on any one year Trends can happen things can change weather covid but if we look at a long enough period we get a a good picture of the distribution and the types of crashes where they occur and and that sort of thing so there were a total of 249 crashes in that 2 and a half mile Corridor and that was about 7% of all the crashes in that 5year period in Princeton which is very significant for one street uh we what we do is also a hotspot map so we look at where the crashes are more frequent and more severe and those locations were Nassau Street Valley Road 206 uh heart L Avenue and Lake Avenue and we have improvements at all those locations with with the exception of Nassau Street as you know that's the state highway the state has jurisdiction of that location we did look at that uh we didn't really see too much that could be done there uh on our end and the state has uh done some improvements recently and I believe there are some other uh improvements coming there but all the other locations is where where we focused our improvements and you'll see as we go through that uh we also collect traffic data um the volumes were about 12,000 to 14,000 per day that's pretty high but it's very consistent with a two-lane uh roadway one lane in each Direction uh and that kind of cross-section can very comfortably handle that kind of traffic so it's not really an excessive amount of traffic uh we also look at intersection performance there's a a metric called the level of service it's a kind of a statistical analysis of capacity and demand and um you know basically if you look look in the report you'll see the numbers but it really were very good uh there were only a few traffic moves that have a little bit of delay but nothing really significant um we also recorded speed data uh we set up our tubes and they record speeds of vehicles as they're traveling you know throughout the day um the highest average speeds really not surprising at Lake Lane and Valley Road Lake Lane you're coming over the the lake uh it's almost like you're going through a tunnel there's nothing to slow you down speeds are very quickly there when you come around that last turn before the canal Crossing people really start to pick up speed um and if going the other way you're going downhill so it's sort of a natural not surprising that that would occur and then uh at Valley Road is where the road widens out U there's really maybe some excessive capacity and again uh that's where uh the crashes are occurring that's where the high speeds are uh and you know looking at that there's really no evidence of any kind of significant traffic problem no really high traffic volumes no delay or no congestion uh but we did aler observe a lot of uh kind of problematic Behavior excessive speeds aggressive driving passing Maneuvers especially in the four-lane cross-section a lot of people running lights uh red lights at certain locations as well there are a lot of places in New Jersey Tom's actually working on Easton Avenue right now in soret County excessive traffic excessive congestion a lot of red light running but you can almost understand it there you can see the cause and effect here it's it's a behavioral thing I think as much as anything else people losing patience or maybe they waited at Nassau Street and they don't want to wait anymore but uh the comments that we uh Deana and Jim passed on a lot of the comments and questions that have been coming from people and uh they they noticed that as well and we just didn't see any kind kind of data you know caused for that uh so what I'm going to do now is go through some of the high points some of the details behind that and then uh give you a little bit more data and we have a couple diagrams as well so um as you come up to the DNR Canal Crossing from Route One there's a change in jurisdiction it's West Windsor and then it's uh in Princeton the canal Crossing is there as well merer county has jurisdiction of the roadway there not Princeton uh we think that really multiple design options would be needed there one thing a narrower Lane a sign that says 25 M an hour one little thing doesn't doesn't do it you really need multiple things at that location uh but because of the jurisdiction being complicated it's not just Mercer County and West Windsor it's also the canal commission so there's State jurisdiction there as well they believe the state owns the bridge as well right we looked at the the age the age of the bridge is you know not problem so I don't I don't see replacing it at anytime soon but you wouldn't need to do quite a lot of coordination there um and it really would need quite a few things uh to slow things down I think you could probably do maybe some rumble strips or something like that similar to I don't know if you put them back down on hjj but the way Hodge used to have those um rumble strips leading up to the intersections maybe that kind of thing might in the short term might do something so there's a lot of need there speeding crash history but right now uh the coordination is is a bit of a problem uh throughout the corridor uh so moving up you know from uh from Carnegie up towards Nassau we think that about four intersections in the corridor could uh accommodate roundabout design Tom's uh my civil engineer uh he does the traffic assessment this is one of his diagrams and you know each time we recommend this kind of thing we look at the roadway cross-section uh to make sure that uh the design would fit so each in each of these cases we did determine that uh with some you know minor impacts they could all fit um anything would go through a detailed design to look at drainage utility poles that sort of thing uh any impacts to right away so uh we think at Prospect Avenue would benefit from uh from a roundabout and that uh then we have three roundabouts in a row proposed for Valley Road tuno and Bud Drive Bund Drive especially has a very very uh inappropriate not appropriate to this kind of context that right-hand turn is really a very high highspeed right-and turn um and it really encourages uh excessive speeds there's a school right there D so U Pete what intersection is pictured here is that Prospect of I that's Prospect right Tom yeah okay um I'm just curious because you're suggest on the slide similar designs to current roundabouts on facult faculty Road in Alexander I think those are a lot larger than the circle in this one and well the valley turun and Bun uh would be more similar to that more similar yeah this would be a narrower cross section it's bigger than the one well you don't own it but at Johnson Park so it' be in the in between those two so what Tom's able to do is look at the crosssection the property lines that sort of thing and determine whether or not it fits and this is you know very a very preliminary design but it has a lot of the features that uh you would want to include in that kind of design great thanks yes uh okay um then uh starting at nasau Street up towards Franklin Avenue uh you know you have the intersection with with Hamilton Avenue as well uh we looked at Hamilton in very you know significant detail there's really not a a way to uh add any capacity for left turns or lengthen in the left turn Lanes uh we looked at the timing and phasing of the signal there are very little you know opportunities in an engineering sense to to do anything there so we have a series of traffic calming recommendations there the roadway is a little wider than it would need to be for one travel Lane so we have um a uh raised median traffic Island similar to what you have on on Hodge Road that sort of thing to neck things down a little bit to get people to slow down so so there are series of traffic Comon improvements recommended in that area um then uh going up to the shopping center is where we recommend a road diet and as I said before the volumes there are really not uh they're consistent with a two-lane cross-section you really don't need four lanes there um I don't know exactly why when it became four lanes the roadway configuration changed at some point but um there was probably open land and maybe that's why they did it they thought they needed it but in terms of traffic uh we really don't think it's needed so this is a cross-section right now you have uh you know the center median Island you have the four lanes um we think that there's an opportunity if we could take two of those Lanes away could repurpose that payment for bicycle and pedestrian improvements and uh just a something that's a little bit closer to U reflecting the local context because even though the shopping center is on one side you have some new residential development and everything on the the southbound side uh there's not a sidewalk um and there you know it's very uh inconsistent with the generally the residential context there uh so uh we have a series of these cross-section diagrams so that's the same uh current cross-section of of U the roadway in front of the shopping center it has four tra travel Lanes there's no bicycle accommodations I said the same Center wide wide Center median uh that's somewhat landscaped with the trees and there's only one sidewalk in a Northbound Direction it's interesting that the opposite direction is southbound is where the houses are a lot of them are businesses but there actually no sidewalks there at all um so what we would do is an interim build you take that existing configuration and as I said we can repurpose the roadway uh in the interim uh to provide uh the road diet some bicycle facilities and then a sidewalk in both directions and as you can see we retain the exact dimensions of that Center median right now and if you look at the top diagram and then the bottom you basically see we gone from 13t travel Lanes 13 ft is uh not even a highway standard I think the interstates highway standard is 12 feet 13 ft is much too excessive plus you have the opportunity to pass people when you go from one lane in each direction to two people jockey for position they pass each other that's where the speeding comes from that's where the safety risks come from so we can repurpose and this is something that the township can do on their own take that excess 2 feet of the lanes plus the other travel Lane and repurpose that so on the on the Northbound side we can provide an interim bike facility a planter to separate the traffic you still have the one travel Lane and in the southbound side You' have the travel Lane the planter uh a bike lane and a sidewalk on the same grade and that's something that could be done in the short term and in the meantime could start working on the design and getting that that stuff uh into the pipeline uh so then after the intern build is in place again I move that diagram up so I can show you what the final build would be you can see that the uh just look at that real quick again again we retain the dimensions in the median you can see the poles don't move we've converted uh the uh interim area into a bike lane and a sidewalk that's now raised so it's up uh what is the curb height Tom 8 in probably 6 to 8 in something like that 4 to six yeah so it would be you wouldn't have the barrier but a vehicle and again the speed is actually higher here as well so I think we lowered the speed as well I think it goes up to 30 or 35 uh so the combination of those slower moving traffic pedestrians and the cyclist on the raised area and it's something that would really reflect the local context and I think especially with the new Resident IAL areas than a new look at the shopping center something that really reflects that context as opposed to um on a nice residential streets 25 mil an hour and then all of a sudden I'm in a highway and it's you know doesn't reflect that context so it's not just uh a design it's really an aesthetic compliment as well um if you spend any time at the shopping center you see a lot of people on cyclists on bikes excuse me uh going to and from the shopping center uh so I think it would really accommodate that and we by that sidewalk on the southbound side um we talked about the three roundabouts they would look similar to that other design but but it's a larger cross-section yes David yeah I'm sorry if you could go back one slide I just had a question um in the interim solve you have a bidirectional bike lane on the shopping center side of the road because there's more room there you know you would you could have a 12T bike lane in One Direction or we it could be it could be anything you could have uh a wider median you could have an you know 10-ft bike lane yeah but you have basically if we go back to the original so let's see we've got uh 13 and 12 15 1 12 ft plus the bar one and a half so you have about 17 feet to work with it's it's it's a question the key is you keep the curb so there's no cost to changing that and you just repurpose that area yeah the medum could be as big as you want the bike lane could be as big as you want yeah I I mean my question was really why you didn't keep the bidirectional in the uh permanent build because it looks like you got a ton of space for pedestrians more than you really need oh it could be anything it's this is It's a concept yeah okay so may be we we did so many different versions the key is that it's there it could be used differently it could be safer it could be more reflective of the context and if you really wanted it it you know it would work because you already have a sidewalk yeah um it just seemed to make sense to have one in each Direction and it's not a you know super long as well as you'll see I have another diagram for the bike Network right right that'll be something that we'll have to look at for connectivity exactly either end and if it makes sense to have a b directional system for a short area and then have to transition it to you know mono Direction on each side yeah yeah it becomes complicated at the intersections you I don't know if you've if you ridden the protected bike Lanes in New York you think you're you're perfectly safe and then all of a sudden you come to an intersection and where the car is coming from from and it's uh the new uh mutcd the design guidance that we have is very stringent about um right turns across bike Lanes so it might be easier jurisdictionally to do that but the key is what do you got now what's wrong what do we have to work with and what kind of things we could do we know we have that say 17 ft you know plus or minus we could do a lot but I think de's point is that when you get to the intersections what do you do and even the bikes could be Crossing each other so yeah could be I appreciate the the complexity um but I I just wanted to make the point that I think there may be a desire for the bidirectional lanes just because of my perception of how traffic flows in front of the shopping center which is the area where we have the extra space you know we people coming on Valley Road on their bicycles who may want to get to the South but they want to cross safely there because the next opportunity to cross safely you know is yeah where Franklin you know it's I so I think that I I'm just I'm not saying it's the answer but I'm putting in a plug for trying to keep the bidirectional bike line on that side sure and I think one you know when the rear connection to the shopping center opens to tune and you have a bike lane there and you have have some of the other local connections you can reevaluate again you know cuz we don't you know the timing of how all the little pieces come together could influence that but most of the cyclists that I've seen do come up Valley you know so should be going through that spot yeah so um okay now we talked about the new traffic signal uh y Street at 206 um you know we did an engineering evaluation it is a high crash location there are a lot of unsafe and illegal moves people uh you know despite what you see every day the shoulder is not a passing Lane it's not just recommended it's it's illegal I know people have gotten tickets for that it's illegal for a very good reason there are utility poles right there you see in the diagram where the shoulder widens out there a little bit and people think maybe it's a good idea but it's really not a good idea um it you know it would need um you know engineering evaluation in terms of of sight distance uh but it meets what we call the signal warrants which is a numerical analysis there're eight or 12 different tests and if you meet certain criteria uh then it's just a traffic signal can be justified um I think it also would give a little bit of relief the Cherry Hill traffic signal at 206 um just north of here um is really constrain B did a previous study for the township there um this would give you a safe regulated controlled way to um you know make that turn that left turn left turns on to 206 from anywhere can be problematic so I think it has that uh that uh you know potential to to prove it but like at the canal uh crossing the dot jurisdiction is an issue you know money is always a problem but we least we think at least in terms of uh demand the warrants uh does it fit does it work we you know we think that that is definitely definitely true um also we have you know series of cor wide improvements um see this little diagram on the right Federal Highway Administration has a program called The Proven safety counter measures it's a series of it keeps growing it used to be 16 now it's 28 or 30 these are uh different things lighting speed management different type of intersection treatments Pro improvements for pedestrians and cyclists that are statistically proven by looking at historical crash data and for each one of these and if you look in our report there's this cmf thing that's the crash modification factor and it's demonstrated that lighting will give you x% reduction in crashes over time uh so all the things that we recommended are from this list and in each case we didn't just pick things out of thin air we demonstrated that you know there's a statistical or proven benefit benefit to those so you can you know refer to that as well um so and then the last thing is the existing bicycle Network so a lot of lines on this map but basically the purple lines are primarily what the bicycle network is right now so Wiggins Nassau Street Prospect Avenue have those shared Lan markings nobody knows what they mean nobody knows how to use them I sometimes I'm not sure myself uh it's the pro you know next to the no right turn on red and don't um use the shoulder as a passing Lane it's probably the most unknown uh you know un adhere to thing I I really don't think there's one thing that's even less known which is bike Bullards bike Boulevard yeah it's but it's a little clear I think um so anyways uh also the shared lanes are supposed to be traffic common they're supposed to be traffic cmed they're supposed to be limited to 25 M hour and they were never intended to be a network at some point people thought oh let's just have these networks of sharrows and now these little symbols are all over the place and they really don't provide a lot of benefit so point being that's what you have right now you can see the canal all the way at the bottom the brown line is pretty much isolated because of the you have to cross the bridge uh and there is the uh bike Boulevard designed the bike Boulevard does have some some traffic coming built into it and the signs are a little bit clearer uh so right now like I said you have the the shared Lane markings and you have the uh bike boulevards mostly around the shopping center area it's sort of disconnected and um doesn't really provide a lot of connectivity and it doesn't provide all the research all the surveys we do all the people we talk to they want to have separation from traffic and you can only do that if you have really a wide Road or you can go Offroad so we really it's very limited in our ability to provide that uh so uh part of the uh study we we created uh an enhanced uh bicycle Network so you can see the on street bike Lanes uh on Harrison Street by the shopping center you can see we have a connection using broad meat Avenue turning Prospect into a bicycle Boulevard um Wiggins is proposed for bike Lanes so you can see it's become if you compare the two that's much more uh robust uh and interconnected Network it's not perfect the opportunity to provide the protected separated facilities is still pretty limited but it would really be much better and it would you know part of the uh road diet and the things that are happening at the shopping center there's that small SE section on turun road and I think there's something didn't you guys have anything something recently on tune um yeah yeah yeah and that's part of the point is that this is what we've got right now but things are always coming online that that enhance that so that's a bicycle Network that's also uh discussed in detail in the in the memo so overall um we these are the things that we talked about enhancing the canal Crossing traffic calming at various locations I mentioned uh The Limited options at Hamilton Avenue uh converting a series of intersections to roundabouts the road diet at the shopping center at the new signal at 206 uh and the pros bicycle Network um really Harrison Street is a little narrow to have bike Lanes on it um a lot of trucks uh the curb really limits you know technically a bike if you have a curve a bike lane is supposed to be a minimum of 5 ft and if you have 30 ft that leaves 10-ft Lanes you have buses and big trucks on Harrison Street so uh the encroachment Factor can be significant I personally don't find it very fun to do that and I I go up rad meet Avenue it's a nice quiet little Boulevard there's not a lot of traffic um it's not as direct but I'd much rather it's Scenic you know I I feel comfortable there so it's a you know I think it's a big factor for a lot of people we also designed not for me or the experienced cyclists really designed for families people that uh you know are less experienced uh people that don't want to spin their head around all the time seeing where the traffic is that's that's another factor and that's why we stay away from certain places in terms of recommendations can you comment at all about how this bike Network that you just showed compares to the bike Network that was envisioned in the bike Mobility plan that you actually worked on it's some of the recommendations we did recommend a bike on Wiggins but I think we also said that it had to be a little wider um I think I I'd have to go back I know we talked about the road diet in the bike plan um I had never thought it broad me before we did talk about Prospect uh as a significant you know Gateway I know the prin that the University is doing work there so that fits in with that yeah uh but there's also I walk around Princeton all the time there are dozens of buildings that are just gone up I mean it's it comp it doesn't look anything like it did 5 years ago and there's a brand new campus on the other side of the river so uh some of the things have mov forward but I think that the the uh the clay we're working with is changed under our feet right and so you know I think that a lot of people when they come to Princeton they think oh I'm just going to park on Witherspoon Street like they did 30 years ago and or at Palmer square and it just doesn't work you have to you know evolve your habits with that and the other thing questions now was yeah I'm just about asking questions now yeah jump in sure yeah okay so I'm sorry did you just say that you don't think that Harrison Street is wide enough to have bik Lanes Harrison Street south of Nassau yeah numerically I don't south of nasau south of nasau plus you have several places where there's on street parking which make it narrower uh there were uh a high a disproportionately high number of uh during crashes of struck Park cars um and there are several places where there are left turn Lanes plus the left turn Lanes at at uh Nassau Street and the problem of you have a bike lane you get there and there's no place to put the bike and the new guidance in terms of withs for for tonight cuz this you know Council had very little time to review this in advance we haven't actually read through it um and I'm not even really clear on what is being presented and what we're being you know I thought this was about the uh putting bike Lanes on Harrison basically from tur Hune to Nassau I thought that was the focus there's a lot of other stuff in here right um well I can you just like put in a context for us what exactly it is what what this is even that we're seeing tonight we have a very detailed report that's got a lot of information a lot of numbers so what I tried to do was give you sort of a big picture flavor for that we don't expect an answer tonight I ideally you would and I think you have the slides I would read through the report make your notes you can get us questions you can call me and GL uh you know remember this it's all conceptual as well it's not designed but um that's why Tom is on the team to confirm that things fit and don't fit but what's the objective the objective was as we said in the beginning to make uh Harrison Street a safer corrid or reduce crashes by to do that we need to reduce speeds we need to pull pedestrians and cyclists away from moving traffic heavy trucks um buses people making illegal um you know unsafe Maneuvers that contribute to crash that contribute to higher speeds so overall the goal was to make it a safer Corridor yeah I think part part of the question tonight is what is the objective of tonight which I see as being this is introducing this to the governing body and to the public yeah that there's a more detailed study that we'll make available to the public and that we have some idea of where this is going and I imagine we'll be looking at doing some sort of work session on this because there's a lot in that report and it might be multiple work sessions on whether we're going to try to do it in sections or all at once but there's a lot of work yet to be done and we might want to try to focus on certain areas that we probably would have more immediate success than trying to do this whole thing at once but anyway I think tonight is just oh by the way this is coming at and I think we have other other groups to pull into the discussion so the point being there are a lot of different recommendations things would move in different speeds some things would need coordination with others some things can be done by the township or the municipality uh in the short term and the longer term and we're just trying to give you a flavor of of what it is there a lot in here a lot of numbers um and we try to make it as understandable you know as possible but we could spend 3 hours talking about this thing and show you all the little diagrams and your three hours is five for us but that's okay yeah I you know it's been a long night time to did you want to anything no okay all right so okay let me let me just run up and down the podium up here whatever this is called sorry Eve you want to go go ahead um thank you I did have h a chance to see this earlier when it was uh presented at Ino and I did at that point read the entire study very carefully and I think if I remember had a lot of questions I I didn't have a chance to look it over that carefully uh so I'm glad this is an introduction but I have a couple of questions and a couple of points um the what you started with on uh pedestrian and bike safety that is that is it that is what this is all about is how do we make this vital uh Corridor uh safe for for people of uh you know all different ways of of getting around uh and and rather than have a street that as it has been designed serves uh cars with everybody else and an afterthought and you know I think that's our philosophy as we look at the construction of any reconstruction of any roads in Princeton is how do we flip that from you know how do we get the car from point A to point B as quickly as possible to how do we make sure nobody dies as the car is getting from point A to point B so I wonder um if you could talk a little bit about the roundabouts which I love but I know many people feel a little queasy about those and um do you have any data on safety enhancement if you take an intersection that has stop signs and you then put in roundabouts or you know if you take an intersection that has a stoplight and then put in roundabouts like what what are we gaining from those do you have any data on that there is in the report those modification numbers for the round I don't remember what it is I'm pretty sure it's it's a 20% or more reduction okay um it's also the benefit of the roundabout is also for several things one is that the RightWay is built into design yield on enter there's no question about who has the right away also that turning movement requires you to slow down when you slow the speed that goes back to that first diagram if I can slow you down from 35 to 20 I've already dealt with a lot of the uh severity crash severity so um it has you know multiple benefits also when you this is what people don't remember oh I had to wait at that round about for four cars to go through nobody ever says that about a traffic light you could wait if you you up to Route One you could wait three or 4 minutes before the light turns green and then you have a limited amount of time that's if you make it through it on the first yeah so also when you're stopped that traffic has to cue back that's why many of our intersections we have like like on on Wiggins at Witherspoon it's one lane it fans out to two lanes in most cases because you need to put a place to put those cars it uses up capacity that could be other things U so if you have the roundabout the delay is much longer and you can retain that one lane approach so there you know there's an aesthetic there's a payment Improvement there's a safety Improvement uh and there's the crash reduction the speed reduction so there's a lot of benefits to it and if you go to that Federal Highway Administration proving safety counter measures there's detailed explanation about that so okay yeah uh thank you um so right now my memory is not good about these things but right now if I I think that the the speed limit on Harrison varies from 25 like by the shopping center I think it's 35 is that it's 30 or 35 30 and and 25 so I don't know if this is part of your plan or this is something we decide but what would you envision the speed limit being essentially from the bridge to 206 well I think we recommended that at the shopping center it would be 25 and then 30 or maybe 35 on that uing portion where it's lower density um I'd have to go back and look but it certainly doesn't need to be any higher than that right it's the main area where you would need to slow traffic like I said was the bridge over the lake for that so yeah I mean I'd love to see it as as slow as possible um you know 20 or or 25 um which leads me to another question is as these changes are made to Harrison the uh roundabouts uh other uh steps taken to slow people down obviously some of our drivers are you know on Google Maps or ways or whatever they're going to look for Alternatives is this something that that you have looked at like where might excess traffic go and if you haven't looked at that yet I don't know if that's within the scope of your uh you know uh responsibility but but I am concerned about that because on the one hand I would like to slow down har I would like to slow down all the streets as much as possible but if we slow down Harrison you know where does that traffic go like for example Grover really wide street with very little traffic and I can just see people zooming over there and heading down there at 4045 miles an hour and how do we make sure that that is not you know well some of those same streets are the the bike Boulevard sections and you could traffic C some of those you already have it at Hodge so it's not you know that unusual um we did not you would have to build a pretty robust traffic model to gauge the the um you know the diversion but it's only 14,000 it's not like it's 35,000 you know I so you would be concerned about the volum good and bad um to go from Route One North to Montgomery and 206 there just aren't very many streets Princeton has some really good roadway Network and some really limited Alexander stops at 206 um Washington ventor stops at Wiggins this goes all the way through um so it it has a regional benefit in terms of connectivity that none of the other streets have and you've got to go to Province Line Road right to get and then River Road just too far right yeah it's very it's very odd that you cannot drive across Princeton very well but there's a huge demand to do it okay you won't attract more traffic you know okay so so two more kind of related uh questions slash comments at the uh section in in front of the shopping center you had presented the quick build option which I love and I think that we should you know do while we're trying to figure everything else out you know I'd love to see that implemented and as kind of a uh side benefit of that can we uh enhance the shrubs or trees or rain Gardens or whatever that that go in that uh divide that's already there that frankly is you know kind of not that aesthetically pleasing or that functional in terms of what it does um could that be a much denser oh it could be anything it could be much more we we talked about that but we were sort of the advantage to us is if we don't change the the footprint there's a lot of cost that doesn't right you know but yeah you could certainly do that on Route One in Lawrenceville uh the business Route One South of whitee Head Road first they did the road project and then they got a separate Street scaping Grant and did some stuff like that so you know the the nice thing about interim build is that's the new normal and then you go from there right you wouldn't want to go to Six lanes and then down right yeah so and it gives you flexibility during uh if you were to build the roundabouts as well because there'd be a lot of construction staging to to make that work thank you no sure great thank you uh there's a lot here to digest which I haven't been able to do um we do also have The Pedestrian bike advisory committee um that would you know like to um take will need to take a look at this as well um I I see this as obviously we do this in phases um you know the you know the the circles I know are very expensive to do uh and I'd like to look further at the data but in terms of being traffic calming it sounds like that's that's an option four of them close together I mean you know that again we'll we'll take a look at that um but in the shorter term the idea of having this interim build where you have a two-way bike lane on the shopping center side I kind of agree with David and that may be something that we want to have as a final build um something you know to to to kick around but it just seems like it's logical because there's a lot of traffic on that side of the road um and I love protected bike Lanes I love the idea of a raise protected bike lane as a final build um but again you know we need time to digest this I'd like to talk with the um bike advisory pedestrian bike advisory committee more and just delve into more of the details and obviously see what the phasing would be so I guess maybe the next steps will be work session and um coming back with more questions uh and and just letting us um digest a little bit more of this information there's a lot there do a committee presentation was that oh that was the traffic group right infrastructure infrastructure yeah okay yeah yeah I mean we haven't even SE they're here tonight and they'll be able to see this from from the tape but it's you know it's it's it's nice it's it's good to get more input um you know from from the from the group as well right thank you you're welcome yeah let's finish up on this side and we'll work our way down thanks yeah I I asked all my questions as soon as they occurred to me so I don't have any questions but um I just want to comment that um I'm really happy with the the plan overall um I think it's a great idea as you said um to use broad meat you know to divert some of the traffic off of Harrison the bike traffic um you know we do have these parallel um roadways that are so much less trafficky I think we have to think about um how to really make people understand that that's an option for them you know and figure out how to publicize it and then I just want to say you know I fought really hard for a traffic signal at rosale and general Johnson and I am so glad I lost that battle roundabouts are miraculous uh in terms of how they slow people down and move traffic better they move traffic better than traffic signals and I seen it again and again and again it's true at the uh University Place traffic circle um for those of you who go to the train station if you remember what it was like at the end of Alexander um before they put that traffic circle in that intersection was a nightmare and the circle completely solved it so um yeah as many traffic I I like a traffic circle at every intersection in Princeton and especially at my Crossing I'm across if you want people to get on your side say roundabout don't say because they think that traffic circle the New Jersey like the Pennington Circle you don't want to get involved in that so but thank you David appreciate it mayor Freda do we have any additional comments or yeah just brief uh so I my colleagues have already pointed out there's a lot to digest here I haven't had the opportunity to review but um expect there will also be opportunities for public comment cuz I'd like to hear especially those who will uh live in the neighborhood and that will be uh whether bike riders or pedestrians who who will be making use of that Corridor so right remember it's a corter plan but it's a series of individual Concepts and each one right now is just an image and uh Dimensions it would have to go through its own process C design looking at impacts drainage and you know um right away utility polls all that sort of thing so this is a starting point for a dialogue to thank you know to do each one of these individually thank you I thought the presentation was wonderful it was well thought out and I think it's a great start and we certainly need to mitigate the traffic that is and will be uh through that entire caror thank you thank you y yeah good so um Pete a few things I was involved with the bike Mobility plan which you know went on for years and years and years and so I was a little we finally got it pasted was a little bit concerned to hear from you tonight that you already feel it's no longer um well I think that you just have to accept the things that have changed and adapt to those as all yeah in all things in life yeah um so the other thing I'm concerned about and I'm speaking as a you Laticia said she'd like to hear from people in that neighborhood I am in the center of that neighborhood right um I thought that this was um the focus of this exercise was about the Harrison Street corridor basically from turun to Nassau and I really the reason why I'm just um a little bit concerned is that the presentation tonight went so far a field and I feel like whenever we try to implement bike infrastructure we become our own worst enemies and we analyze every every aspect and impact from you know one side of Princeton three Towns over and you know you had there was a lot of discussion tonight about many things apart from those few blocks on Harrison which was my understanding was supposed to be the focus of this um and I I would like to to keep that priority um I I agree with uh my colleagues councilman Neer gang and and and councilman Cohen that roundabouts are an excellent solution um there is as you pointed out a tremendous amount of density that's going in in a very small concentrated space yes that intersection those two intersections there are critical particularly the one at Terhune and Harrison there will be traffic backed up in both directions if we don't prioritize that roundabout um and it is really a shame that with all of the residents coming in that area and all of the kids who will be biking to school that there is no way for them to bike safely um and again I'm speaking as a resident of that neighborhood um with a child who has not been able to bike to school safely so I just don't want us to lose sight of the critical need to put to focus on the roundabouts and the bike Lanes right there where the density is going in sure yeah yeah I understand that a good segue um just to give you a little bit of understanding of where we are in terms of this report so Jim and I um with Council support submitted an application to the state for a grant to make improvements on Harrison Street between um Nassau and Franklin uh that would be the first phase it was kind of the easy e EST lift um in terms of the grant program which requires uh that you have a buildable project within 2 years so we should be hearing any day about whether we're getting the grant to do that project uh so that's something we can advance the interim improvements for the road diet um in front of the shopping center we've already been working with public works to see how we can Implement that the idea being that um we'll get the design moving forward for the valley and tune roundabouts um at next year that is how we're working it so that we can put that in as our next Grant application next year um and be able to expedite a design process and get that built very soon after the first portion which is that NASA to to Franklin so um while we're having this overview of the whole Corridor we are prioritizing the area um from turun to Nassau Street right now looking at it as two distinct projects um and so we welcome the opportunity to come back uh and have work sessions about the the design that's proposed for those sections and I just I just had one quick question if I could if I could add something um also keep in mind that uh the Alice as it's being developed is making improvements to both tune and Harrison Street along its Frontage and the right turn lane from Harrison Street to ter Hune is going away it's going to be a bike lane a separated bike lane that was part of the planning uh approvals so um the interim improvements that we would make with DPW are going to tie into that bike lane we also have uh we are out to bid on T hun Road improvements on the north side of ter hun road to which include a bike lane on the North side along with the traffic calming of intersection um raised intersection tables at thanet Circle and the new Connector Road which I understand is going to be called Magnolia Terrace um and um we also have a grant from NJ doot and we're in design for uh Safe Streets to Transit uh program to put it to finish all of the and and improve all of the sidewalks on ter hun all the way from North Harrison to mount Lucas um so all of these moving parts are taking place at the same time and so um it there's really a lot more connectivity to the Harrison Street improvements that aren't clear in this study because it wasn't part of what Baker was studying um but they are aware of all of the other uh interconnections that are taking place thanks Jim Mia and then Michelle yeah just um so some small part of this did come to Ino and I had the same um the feeling that you did David about the the the bifurcated Lanes on on the shopping center side and and Jim I I thought I remember either you or someone else there was some issue with that or or can can you refh I've got it um our traffic safety officer does not think the idea of a two-way bike lane in front of the shopping center is a good idea um we really have to look very carefully at that because there are a lot of driveways in and out of the shopping center and a lot of turning movements that we would be introducing some conflicts if we had a two-way bike lane so we have kind of backed off and and said that it should only be in the direction of of traffic movements um we also want to be working with Edens as they uh look at what they're going to do for modifications within the shopping center CER um because if if the destination is the shopping center um there's a lot of opportunity to create safer bike movements in the shopping center and not have to have um cyclists uh heading south on Harrison Street in the Northbound uh facing the Northbound traffic you know it it it's kind of frightening thinking about traveling south on a bike when someone's coming out of shopping center and turning right um to go Northbound um that's a that's a conflict waiting to happen so we're not really much we're not fans for the two-way we'd like to look at improvements inside the shopping center and work with them to uh to have southbound bicyclists there right and that that diagram is a remnant of before that thought process came up so yeah you I would think of it as the Lawrence hell Trail if you remember there was a mile here and there was a mile over there and it people said oh this is a trail to nowhere and suddenly did you go 15 miles you have to take the path of least resistance what you can do now yeah this one gets done that one gets done and and all of a sudden the pieces start to connect together and it does take a lot of patience um but ultimately you can have a network but it won't be you know tomor tomorrow in our lifetime okay let's we're going to try to wrap up we've been on this for about an hour now we're not making any decisions we're not supposed to be so yeah anyway I just had a quick question to Dean um you said uh and I always like to hear about Grant applications and I know uh that you're really aggressive about finding grants which is great but I wasn't clear on what the nassa to Franklin improvements would be what we're what we're um what we're looking at there so builds upon the recommendations in baker's um report um included in it is a center median while Baker is looking at something that's raised we um I think in turn are looking at um a vegetated median that could also do storm water management so it's a green infrastructure um median rather than a um hard surface uh we're looking at Lane narrowing we're looking at pavement improvements to high for um not gripping but friction thank friction surface higher friction surfaces um we've been looking at the traffic signals to see about timing changes uh to benefit pedestrians uh and then sidewalk improvements for for pedestrians so bike infrastructure wouldn't be included because you have that on the bike Mobility plan going down lyen like running parallel to that area parallel right we would be utilizing parallel system so going down Franklin which we have to look at and then um and then turning left to to lynon after right okay right all right just thank you okay okay thanks for the report thanks for all your wel apologize for the lengthy discussion but just happens sometimes but thank thank you for your time okay thank you all right moving on next up on the agenda is a public hearing on ordinance 202 24-36 an ordinance by the municipality of Princeton concerning Solid Waste and Recycling and amending chapters 15 and 21 of the code of the burrow of Princeton New Jersey 1974 would someone like to make a motion Michelle is there a second me thank you very much all right so why don't we I'm sorry I have yeah I I have to I have to start off as in saying that as much as I'd like to move this forward tonight um I do uh I I do feel it's necessary to share some concern that came up um Mark and I were on a recent experienced Princeton Zoom call and uh someone brought up uh an issue that I had really hadn't thought of and that is that some of the retail establishments in town not all but some um including some of these services like banks for instance they close at 5:00 not 6 o' so I just want to bring it up to um to my colleagues if that's something we want to consider and if it's something that's not a substantive change if we did want to change it what we would need to do so anyway I just wanted to open that up for discussion and feedback what what you all think of again I I hate to belabor this I'd really like to move it forward um but I do want to not create a real additional burden on Staffing for some of our businesses right and let me just before we get to comments on that on that on that call some people even said 5:30 might make might be an acceptable in between because if you close at 5: it's not that you're as an employee not everyone is actually walking out the door at 5:00 right usually you close your doors you lock them up and you're doing a certain number of things inside the establishment before everybody leaves but it does make it as Michelle said difficult for some people to wait till six o'clock because nobody's thank you thank you thank you like I was thinking of restaurants and restaurants you know they stay longer because there's cleanup and things that they have to do whereas retailers they generally they're pretty pretty much they're at the door yeah maybe a little bit of uh of things so anyway I I just wanted to open that up to discussion okay David was trying yeah I just wanted to respond to that I guess with a question um it's my sense that most office type uses tend to have custodians you know custodial worked on after hours like they don't have the custodians emptying the waist baskets and vacuuming during when they're open so I would think that it would be just as easy for the custodial staff to put out the trash at the appropriate time rather than good good very very good point hadn't thought of that either so that's a good consideration yeah for the custodial staff for that would be more of like an office type building great Michelle mentioned Banks I I'm not sure who's closing at five who wouldn't have custodial staff after hours I'm maybe there's somebody yeah well I mean having worked in a retail store for many years you you don't usually wait till after your clothes to like you're usually cleaning things and keeping things tidy throughout the day so I don't know how many are anyway it's just when I worked as a janitor in high school I was working outside of business hours all good I I don't really mean to debate it but anyway any other comments why don't we so you can comment on that specific issue or you can comment on anything having to do with this ordinance whatsoever Eve uh yeah I had a a comment on on that um issue I don't know if the ordinance could Lisa you're GNA you're GNA look at me and go no we can't do that I don't know if the ordinance can say that um uh you know trash needs to be put out you know at if you close at 5: you can put your trash out at no can't do that okay so all right I'll abandon that um I think you know the concern uh that was was brought up is you know is something we need to pay attention to I mean if we could split the difference at 530 that would be great I don't know how well that would go over but you know if you think about a little retail store like Mandalay or something like that like I don't think they have like janitorial services coming in and they're going to be finishing up and you know anyway um I had a uh another issue to uh bring up um for uh discussion so this in this could could we just are we I want to comment on that issue if we're yeah I'll wait I I just want to say like as a general principle to change an ordinance that's been introduced based on anecdotal um um you know suggestion that several people on a zoom call had an issue with something from my perspective is not really you know um and I understand Michelle you felt like you had to bring that up but you know I mean we can't satisfy everyone like how many people compared to you know were two people on the call as opposed to 100 people who are well served by what was originally introduced and do we have some data or some basis to support the original recommendations that were part of this ordinance um you know and and if so then why would we change it based on you know several people on a zoom call you know I I mean like we don't generally generally when we introduce an ordinance it's because a lot of thought has gone into it there's been input Outreach um and you know but if these this was very significant you know I you know then I think we would need to flesh that out about why this is so these these few people on this call were so important that we should change the entire ordinance um that that's just my and I'm and I'm willing to but I that's just my feeling about that like if we were to go down that route with everything we introduce I'm not sure we'd ever move forward I that's you know that's the idea though too when you put something out and you introduce it that you have a hearing and you get feedback and this was you know part of the are those people here I I I don't see them they're not here okay so it seems like maybe it wasn't so urgent for them I would I would just jump in and say I'd be concerned that there isn't Isaac is here I get it representing experienced Princeton but there are no business owners no restaurant owners there's nobody here in the room I think a couple people well at least one on Zoom but I am worried that is our has our Outreach been significant enough that people understand what we're about to do with this ordinance um I don't know that we've achieved the Outreach we had hoped we would achieve to be honest um so I'm I'm I'm a little I'm a little concerned about that I'm still concerned about a 6: a start to pick up trash in the central business district because there are a lot of people that live in the CBD um anyway those are my concerns but I would defer to I mean you Mark and Michelle are the Liaisons to the Sid Isaac is here if there hasn't you know I I think if we need to maybe we needed another work session um I don't know I mean remember too we originally were started at 6:00 a.m. so you know we wanted to make it um more palatable for the businesses we have committee that is looking at this we need to get the streets clean I'm anxious we're all anxious to move something forward I didn't want to hold this up but I really felt obligated to share that comment um but if we feel that we're ready let's you know let's go ahead I've moved it um you know and we have a second so yeah so um I had some issues about this last week which are not not 100% resolved uh for me and you might say this is I'm not sure that these are important but I want to bring them to everyone's attention um so right now we have a Time established for pickup uh in the central business district a new time which would be 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. that is a change uh in in our current ordinance the way the ordinance reads now we then have a pickup from for residential outside the central business district from 7: a.m. which is unchanged to 6:00 p.m. which is a couple of hours later for commercial and multifam residential units outside the central business district the pickup hours are 700 a.m. to 400 p.m. and then in uh section 4 chapter 21 one which is kind of a different part of the ordinance we have a 700 p.m. end time for pickup for everybody for pickup transport everything having to do with garbage so again I'm not sure how important this is but it seems unnecessarily complex to have these four different standards of what the hours are and I think it would be easier if we were moving forward tonight to have a time for the central business district and then a time for everyone else and we just have two very simple easy everybody can understand it um I think though that that would require uh for my emails back and forth with Lisa enough changes that we could not uh move forward tonight so again in the scheme of things how important is it maybe not very but it just simplifies things in a way that I find appealing and I just wanted to at least bring it up for everyone to hear so that if we do decide to ignore it and move forward we we do so knowing that we have this complicated schema of all different times and so that's what I wanted to bring up Eve th those are great catches and I and I think that's I would think that that's more of just an oversight on our part that we missed it and that we could either try to put this off and correct it and do it all at once or we move ahead with this and we come back and correct those sections later there's a number of options but it is it doesn't Mak sense to say that my single family house I can have the garbage picked up till 6 but David who lives half a block down and has four units in his building they have to have it by 4:00 I mean that literally you could have two different times on the same block so that is not logical so yeah but well can I ask a question about that which is I mean I think there was a a strong rational I think the history that led to this was that the end time was 4:00 and then somebody made the point that people work and for them to get their can off the street by 4:00 if they work until five that so we extended that this is not this is simply sorry I mean been clear this is simply the hours that trash is allowed to be collected by the professionals has nothing to do with when you as a homeowner or commercial entity at least the concerns that I brought up okay I I mean I still think that there can be a rationale because res single family residen is its Municipal pickup yeah and it's private contractors for the multif family residential so you know I think we want to give our Municipal um huler the amount of time that they need to cover the town and they do often come I think late in the day so but I'm not hearing anyone complain about the 4 4M so but I'm I'm more I sort of zoned out for a second about the 7 p.m. thing what's what was that could you say that again so there is a section section four chapter 21-2 at the very end of the ordinance which is the overall kind of uh ordinance about when solid waste can be collected it says that collection Transportation or disposal of all types of solid waste recycl and other refuges by persons engaged in the business of Scavenging or solid waste or recycling collection whether private or Municipal at any time on Sundays or other than between the hours of uh 6:00 a.m. and 700 p.m. on all other days so basically it's setting up that the earliest time you can be involved in anything to do with this is 6 a.m. and the latest is 7 p.m. but again again I don't know how important this is it just doesn't adhere to any of the other rules and regulation you know to any of the other things and and I just in my mind we're here doing this I would reconcile but I can't argue that it is the most important thing or we should hold things up necessar can we hear from staff yeah yeah and we might need Lisa may need to opine on this that section is State regulation right according to the noise ordinance that's 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. I I thought I understood that we really couldn't edit that that is under the noise ordinance so it it's it just prohibits anyone from collecting Solid Waste outside of of the times um that are permitted so 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. but it's it is separate from the solid waste Provisions under chapter 15 so they're supposed to be read together and they they're really not in Conflict one the the noise ordinance's goal is to ensure that the noise is at a certain level at certain times and and this is a very common provision it could be amended but the issue is that you you these are the outer limits so I don't think you want to change this in your noise ordinance the other provision under chapter 15 that's that's really addressing different type of behavior which is you know the actual core solid waste collection and the activities of the private contractor so they address different Behavior although they they kind of overlap they are are they are different Provisions so I don't I don't see a problem legally with them I understand what you're saying when you see all these different times it it could be very confusing but um and I I don't think that the state regulates this there might just be it might be from Wayne the consultant Wayne Deo he may have said in in some of our discussions that this is something that you don't necessarily want to touch from a from a a noise and nuisance perspective but so so it's it's a separate issue and it it does allow our huler if they're running late or anybody's holler um that they can still work and not be subject to um a summons for a violation of our noise ordinance it also extends to recycling which none of the other Provisions do that's provided by the county so it is yet another holler I mean it doesn't seem crazy to me to have different a different rule for them okay Michelle I just didn't want to lose sight of the fact that we were really amending this with existing ordinance to solve a problem in the CBD correct to get the trash bins off the street and you know I would really like to see has move this forward as I said before I felt obligated to share the feedback uh that we heard um but I'm still ready to stand by my motion okay thank you very much any other comments Lon I agree with Michelle we we went through this uh last month and we asked for the changes that have been made we want the trash picked up between 6 and 10 and we didn't like the 6:00 a.m. for the rest of the town and we changed it to 7: Let's do this we we we we need cleanliness in the central business district and this does that um I think we we we got what we asked for and I think we should move it thank you any other comments up here yeah we're get our public comment now Isaac come on up uh thank you Mr Mayor uh so just to weigh in uh not officially taking a position on behalf of experienced Princeton but sharing information uh that's come up as we've tracked this issue over the last two years uh that we did do a survey of uh businesses in the central business district asking them about uh their trash pickups and recycling uh and the times that it commonly happened at uh one of our volunteers actually charted all of that data uh day by day with hours um and uh based on the respondents uh there were 30 38 of them that um uh the proposed ordinance would conform um to the schedules that the businesses um uh largely said uh work for them um so we do have some data to back that up and I want to reiterate uh and clarify on the experienced Princeton virtual meetup on Thursday there was discussion Thursday last week there was discussion uh about the timing of uh uh 5:00 p.m. closing business um but the follow-up to that um was that um there may be some latitude or flexibility um both on the side of the business but also in the enforcement um and the last piece of information I'd like to share with you um is that uh I have been tracking and monitoring this issue we've formed um what we informally call the trash working group uh where we have four members of it volunteers um but um they actually already have provided valuable feedback we've created info sheets that were prepared to circulate um with businesses and owners in the central business district and we already have a release on our website uh about this issue so thank you thanks Isaac thank you Isaac is there anybody on Zoom that wants to comment on this uh ordinance in this ordinance before we vote on it okay I'll close the public hearing and could we we have a roll call vote please miss Peron lambrose yes Miss Neer gang yes Mr Cohen yes Miss sax yes Miss Fraga yes Mr nulan yes carried thank you very much okay let's jump to resolutions 24323 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton authorizing an increase of $155,000 to the not to exceed amount for the Professional Services agreement with puuy mcder uh Mastro and Murphy PC for labor Council legal services for a new not to exceed amount of $45,000 is there a motion on that thank you Leighton David's got the second any questions or comments all right all in favor please say I I I 24324 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton authorizing the submission of an award extension request for the Cherry Hill Road shared use pathway bikeways project 223 db-15 to New Jersey Department of Transportation Eve's got the motion Michelle's got the second questions or comments all right all in favor please say I I I 24325 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton authorizing the extension of a contract with Eastern Armored Services Inc for 20252 26 armored car services for an amount not to exceed 24372 is there a motion on that thank you Leighton is there a second second thank you David questions or comments Eve I think this was on our last agenda if I'm not mistaken okay can someone remind me why we pulled it right people people were concerned that the only money being transferred was money collected from our meters um but a study was done within our municipal buildings and there are amounts of money over a million dollars being transported by the armored car company to banks on a regular basis and obviously that those amounts of money are not something we're throwing in the back of a municiple vehicle and have an employee take to a b so once further research was done by the staff it was quite apparent that there is a significant need for these Services perfect okay I was having a Deja Vu like wait we didn't we did we sorry we I I I think we had a little disconnect and that we did this we did the research but we didn't get the research out to everybody so thank thank you for asking thank you for sharing that research yeah information is helpful when it's shared so all right any other questions or comments all in favor please say I I I 24326 resolution of the mayor and Council of the municipality of Princeton approving police promotions for 2024 thank you letia is there a second Michelle questions or comments all right all in favor please say I I I 24327 resolution of the mayor and Council and Municipality of Princeton determining the form and other details of 32 m63 th000 General obligation bonds series 2024 consisting of 29,9 3,000 General Improvement bonds series 2024a and 2,700,000 Redevelopment area bonds series 2024b of Princeton in the county of Mercer New Jersey and providing for their sale is there a thank you Michelle is there a second thank you David questions or comments all in favor please say I I I I 24 328 resolution of the mayor and Council of the mity of Princeton determining the form and other details of 7, 935,000 General Improvement bonds series 2024 C federally taxable of Princeton in the county of Mercer New Jersey and providing for their sale is there a motion on that thank you Eve lon's got the second questions or comments All In favor please say I I I I 24329 resolution of the mayor and Council of Princeton of the I'm sorry Council of the municipality of prinston providing for the combination of certain issues of General Improvement bonds series 2024a of Princeton in the county of merer New Jersey into a single issue of bonds aggregating $29 m93 th000 in the principal amount thank you David Mia's got the second questions or comments all in favor please say I I I hi consent agenda has one two four items if everybody's fine with them staying there somebody could move them in Block thank you Mia 's got the second all in favor please say I I somebody named David have a motion I move that LE CH thank you is there a second thank you Eve all in favor say I I I we're done thank you have a great evening you get a proclamation and you still hang out last