Petition to the Princeton town council

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We strongly urge the Princeton Town Council to reject the proposal made by the Parking Task Force to appropriate our residential neighborhood streets for business parking permits and instead, adopt a new, better alternative.

We reject the current proposal:  Appropriating home frontage for business parking spots reduces the number of spots available for residents, their guests and home workers.  Adding business parking creates narrower driving lanes with more traffic congestion and obstructed sight lines for cars and children.  Adding employee parking increases late-night noise and enforcement surveillance, lowers property values and changes the residential character of our streets.  

We demand a better plan which would achieve the following goals:

1) In residential neighborhoods, reduce the potential for accidents.  Reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and noise overall

2) Make use of existing unused parking capacity before adding spillover capacity in neighborhoods

3) Allow residents (and their guests) to park in front of their own homes if they need to

4) Avoid adding on-street business parking where off-street residential parking is sufficient

5) Preserve and improve the character of our neighborhoods as safe, quiet and verdant places to live

6) Give more weight to protecting the investment value of our homes than to the interests of investors and commercial real estate developers who do not live here

7) Incentivize local commercial interests to pay living wages and benefits (including the cost of parking) to their workers

8) Align the parking proposal with a sustainable, long term plan to improve the quality of lives of our citizens