West Windsor Parking Authority proposes 41-space lot and pocket park at former bus garage

The West Windsor Parking Authority on Feb. 19 presented plans to turn the former municipal bus garage on Wallace Road into a 41-space commuter parking lot and an adjacent pocket park featuring covered seating, picnic benches and landscaping to screen a nearby electrical substation.

Jeffrey Hall, conflict counsel for the authority, said the property (Block 59, Lots 1 and 2) is about nine-tenths of an acre and will be leased from the township. "The parking authority is proposing a project that will construct 41 parking spaces, and also a pocket park at the corner of Wallace Road and Princeton Heights Road," Hall said during the planning board courtesy review.

Andy Lupo, chair of the Parking Authority, framed the project as part of the authority’s ongoing work to add parking near the train station and to remediate contamination on the site in cooperation with Amtrak and township administration. "From our point of view ... we were able to move forward with the plan, to try to work with Amtrak and remediate the contamination that's in the soil there and then to turn that into the pocket park and parking that we're discussing tonight," Lupo said.

Project engineer Reese Nordine described site features: the lot sits close to the Princeton Junction Train Station and the design includes a pocket park with a gazebo, bicycle lockers, bicycle infrastructure and planters. He told the board the parcel meets the redevelopment plan and zoning amendments previously adopted and that "no variance or waivers are required for this." Nordine said the pocket park area will be just over the redevelopment requirement — about 6,050 square feet where 6,000 is required — and that the parking lot will be used for weekday commuter parking and weekend community gatherings.

The authority is pursuing two pending grants to fund parts of the project: a Transit Village grant intended to help pay for the pocket park portion and a Safe Streets to Transit grant for sidewalk and crosswalk improvements between the site and the train-station entrance. Nordine said Mercer County and NJDOT provided letters of no interest for the proposed Wallace Road entrances and PRCC made a jurisdictional determination that further review is not required.

Board members asked for clarifications on several operational and design issues. On bicycle facilities the board debated bicycle lockers versus racks. One member said lockers are unnecessary if the Princeton Junction station lockers are underused; another argued for lockers to protect high-value e-bikes. The transcript records an applicant pledge to "review and whatever makes sense," and the board asked the authority to check occupancy of existing lockers before finalizing a decision.

On electric-vehicle parking, the applicant confirmed there will be two "make-ready" EV spaces wired for future charging but said they will not include charging stations at this time. "They're prewired for it and you don't put a electric vehicle charging station there, then there's no difference between that and a regular vehicle," one board member said, expressing concern about reserving spaces without chargers.

Planning and landscape professionals raised a handful of technical comments about signage, lighting and screening that the applicants said they will address. Ed (filling in for a planning professional) asked the applicant to identify proposed wayfinding signage; Kwazi Masood, the township traffic engineer, noted minor curb-ramp and ADA labeling adjustments the applicant agreed to incorporate. The chair read a memo from the fire chief concluding the proposed design provides adequate emergency-vehicle access and raises no objection.

Because this was a courtesy review the board will not vote on the application tonight. Applicants and board professionals agreed to refine lighting, signage and landscaping plans and to return with any required changes during a subsequent review or at the building-permit stage.

Next steps: applicants said they will address professionals’ comments, confirm locker utilization, finalize lighting levels to avoid spill, and pursue the Transit Village and Safe Streets grants.