Borough Council discusses Dinky, Merwick-Stanworth apartments

Residents in the Borough said that they were placing trash outside of their homes that were not being collected. Borough Council President Barbara Trelstad said that this was troublesome for the multifamily homes and apartments in her residential area.

Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said that these issues were unlikely to improve following the consolidation in 2013. Currently, property owners have a five-day period in which they have to remove their trash.

In some cases, however, shorter notices were given, such as along Hawthorne Avenue, which had a three-day notice. The Council resolved to review the current standards in more detail so that when the merger between the municipalities is completed, there will be more enforceable standards.

The Council then moved on to discussing repairs in the town. Trelstad mentioned that sidewalks will be repaired this spring. Councilman Kevin Wilkes ’83 mentioned that the streetscape along Nassau Street looks better than that along Witherspoon Street.

Once the hospital moves from its current location on Witherspoon Street to its new location in Plainsboro, Trelstad explained, “Witherspoon will come to the front of the revamping list.”

The Council then discussed the status of the Dinky, which will move 460 feet further south with the construction of the Arts & Transit neighborhood, which the Council recently approved.

Councilman Roger Martindell said that Assistant Borough Attorney Henry Chou had previously informed the Council that he would provide documents that would designate the Dinky as a historic site. Bruschi, though, noted that these documents had not yet been received.

Martindell asked for more clarification on the Borough’s involvement in the University’s construction at the Merwick-Stanworth site of new faculty, staff and graduate student housing. Merwick is a former nursing home and was owned by the University Medical Center of Princeton.

Now that the medical center is relocating to Plainsboro, the University purchased the nine-acre Merwick site to develop and provide greater housing.

Borough Mayor Yina Moore ’79 explained to Martindell that Princeton Borough is “out of the picture” and that the development plans are strictly the University’s.

She also mentioned that Merwick-Stanworth will develop independently of the “Ys,” referring to the YMCA and YWCA.

Kristin Appelget, president and chief executive of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce and director of community and regional affairs at the University, assured the council that the Ys were in the process of having a conversation about their role in the project.