PRINCETON, NJ — The Princeton Council introduced three ordinances at its July 27 meeting that will restrict parking near two schools and raise parking rates across the municipality, with public hearings on all three set for Aug. 10.
One ordinance would prohibit parking on the odd-numbered side of Hun Road for its entire length, in response to a request from the Hun School of Princeton, according to a memo from Assistant Municipal Engineer James J. Purcell.
Hun Road "currently has no parking restrictions," Purcell wrote, and despite the school's efforts to educate students about parking safely, "students were parking on both sides of the road." Because the road has a maximum width of 24 feet, Purcell wrote that "when vehicles are parked on both sides of the road, the travel width is reduced to eight to ten feet, making passage by most vehicles difficult if not impossible." The Police Department temporarily banned parking on the road under an emergency order at the end of the 2025-2026 school year, according to the memo.
The proposal was considered by the Traffic Safety Committee and the Infrastructure & Operations Committee after the Engineering Department consulted with the police and fire departments. Purcell wrote that officials evaluated "the width of the roadway ... for safe emergency vehicle passage" and the road's primary direction of travel, ultimately determining that parking would continue on the right-hand side "when traveling from south to north (the even numbered property side)," mirroring the existing restriction on adjacent Russell Road. The ordinance is set to take effect Aug. 24 if adopted.
A second ordinance would reconfigure faculty, staff, bus and student drop-off parking near Princeton Middle School on Walnut Lane and Guyot Avenue to accommodate construction tied to a capital improvement program at the school, according to a memo from Purcell.
"The construction of the improvements at Princeton Middle School will result in disruption of the parking for teachers and staff and student drop-off and pick-up, and a future need for additional teacher and staff parking," Purcell wrote. He added that school administrators "rearranged the entrances and exits to the school in order to avoid conflicts between the construction activities and academic activities," necessitating the requested changes.
The Princeton Planning Board had directed Princeton Public Schools "to work with municipal staff to implement traffic safety improvements associated with the improvements" as a condition of approving the school's construction project, according to the memo. Engineering staff met with the district's business administrator, the PMS principal and the project's construction manager to discuss the changes before the district "submitted a formal request for permanent changes to the parking and drop-off/pick-up locations."
Under the ordinance, a 70-foot portion of Guyot Avenue west of Walnut Lane and a 291-foot portion east of Walnut Lane would be designated for faculty and staff parking during school hours. A 60-foot section would become bus-only parking "to accommodate after-school athletic programs," and portions of the existing bus and student drop-off zones would be reconfigured "to facilitate safer student circulation and access to the school building wings," Purcell wrote. Two accessible parking spaces would also be relocated on Guyot Avenue to replace "the current accessible spaces within the restricted crosswalk clear zone." The ordinance is set to take effect Aug. 24 if adopted.
A third ordinance would raise rates for metered parking and the Spring Street Garage — the first broad rate update since 2019 — according to a memo from Deputy Administrator Deanna Stockton.
"While the majority of the parking rates in Princeton have been unchanged since 2019, the municipal cost of operating a parking system continue[s] to increase," Stockton wrote, noting that parking expenditures rose 16% between 2021 and 2025. She cited increased demand "based upon revenue reporting, public comments that there is not enough parking available in the heavily visited central business district (CBD) near Nassau Street and Palmer Square, and tourism data."
Under the proposal, the 30-minute metered rate would rise from $1 to $1.25, the 90-minute rate from $3 to $3.50, and the all-day rate from $1 to $1.25 per hour. The existing three-hour zone rate would increase from $1.75 to $2 per hour, and a new, higher-rate three-hour zone would be set at $2.50 per hour. The Princeton Station rate would rise from $5 to $10 per 24 hours, and the Omnibus Parking Zone rate would increase from $20 to $30 per hour.
At the Spring Street Garage, the daytime hourly rate would rise to $2 between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., with a flat $5 fee overnight; vehicles entering and leaving within 30 minutes would not be charged. The monthly garage permit fee would increase from $180 to $225, and the ordinance would eliminate a separate, reduced holiday parking rate at the garage.
Stockton noted the rate structure follows parking principles espoused by Dr. Donald Shoup, author of "The High Cost of Free Parking": that "cities should charge fair market prices for metered parking" and "spend the revenue to improve services in the metered area." Parking revenue funds the Princeton Loop buses, public trash collection, street sweeping, stormwater management, landscaping, tax relief and parking utility staffing, according to the memo. The rate ordinance is set to take effect Sept. 14 if adopted.
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