We do not have a category for "development" and "historic preservation" under "topics" just yet, but this is important:

We would like to open up a community discussion.

How do all of you out there feel about development and historic preservation?

Do you think we need more, or tweaking in specific areas? What do you like, don't like, are ambivilent about?

Tonight, at the regularily scheduled Board of Commissioners, several development related issues will be up for discussion, and none so heartbreaking as the scheduled "by right" development on North Buck Lane. Many of our members,township residents, and concerned citizens from other communities have been making a pilgrimage to Haverford to see why all the fuss about that block.

The feedback we have received, plus the result of our own internal discussions is this might be by right, but it is wrong for this small neighborhood. It is heartbreaking when small communities are torn assunder. If this project had to be built (and truly it doesn't), it could have been approached from a whole different angle.

As one neighbor, who is out of town this week has written:

We feel that last Wednesday night the Board of Commissioners did their utmost – within the current zoning regulations -- to shield our little neighborhood from the adverse effects of ....proposed development. But as Chris Leswing said, “our own code is working against us” with developers free to “maximize their building envelope” without being required to design infill that is compatible with the surrounding existing structures.

We are a neighborhood of just such “existing structures” –a neighborhood of 2- and 3-storey houses, many very charming and old, if not technically “historic.” [One] house, at the corner of North Buck Lane and Old Lancaster Road, was once a water tower for the nearby railroad. Three clapboard farmhouses along Old Lancaster Road were built nearly a hundred years ago for three local daughters.

It is for the neighborhoods such as this one, plus our own in Ardmore which are so similar, that we open up this discussion.

We are seeking citizen input. Register and post your comments here at www.saveardmorecoalition.org or e-mail us at

We have a Board of Commissioners now that care, but they aren't psychic. Any comments received shall be passed along to our township if you, the public, would like.

Alternately, we encourage you to write to the local papers:

Tom Murray, Editor Main Line Life

Susan Greenspon, Editor Main Line Times

The Suburban and Wayne Times:
Managing Editor: Erin DeStefano

News Editor: Ryan Richards