Princeton Council Votes Down Parking Technology Ordinance

PRINCETON, NJ — The town council on Monday voted unanimously against the bond ordinance that hoped to provide funding for parking enforcement technology. A few weeks ago, Princeton introduced the ordinance which included $170,000 for license place scanning technology.

At the council meeting, residents expressed their concerns over Princeton’s parking woes, with many saying the ordinance was introduced in a way that gave them insufficient time to respond.

Councilwoman Michelle Pirone Lambros said the idea to introduce the funds for parking enforcement tech “was to be transparent.”

“It’s not a decision to move forward with the technology, but rather to plan in the eventuality,” she said. “In municipal budgeting, you should be foreseeing anything and everything.” Since the permit parking task force was still discussing the issue and taking public input, Pirone Lambros moved to vote down the ordinance to ensure there was full clarity that this was not an “authorization to spend the money on this program at this time.”

Councilwoman Eve Niedergang said she regretted the impression residents got that the council was moving forward with the ordinance. “I think sometimes appearances are very important and I regret ignoring that." Niedergang said the Council is committed to the public process for reviewing the technology in a more “linked way.”

Councilman David Cohens said he was unsure what the financial implications would be for the municipality of “separating this from other parking-related bond ordinances.” Cohen said he contacted the CFO to learn more about it and was now “comfortable voting it down.”

He said the main advantage of the license plate registration technology was convenience with online permitting, which can happen instantaneously.

During the public comment section, many residents expressed reservations over introducing the new technology.

“We really need to wait until we are truly post-pandemic before instituting such a plan. A post-pandemic downtown may have very different needs from what was going on before everything,” said a resident who went by her first name, Alice.

The resident said the township should wait and see how things play out in the next few months before committing taxpayer money to bring in “robocop technology to Princeton neighborhoods.”

Leticia Fraga said the task force was working to find a way to make parking equitable since neighborhoods like Witherspoon Jackson were “carrying the burden.”

“I support equitable parking in all neighborhoods. I don’t think any resident needs to pay for parking, we pay taxes,” said resident Marco Gottardis. “We have to think of parking holistically not as a little fix,” he said

The council will be meeting again on July 20, at 11 a.m. Click here for the agenda and other details.

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