Our neighborhood is, to be honest, still mixed on making our 'hood a historic district...there are many opinions and many questions...but as for what Gladwyne is going through? There is no question there...it sucks...we've been to the development movie and we can all agree, it's a T-shirt we've got and would like to give back, thank you.

History lesson
By:Cheryl Allison 04/12/2007

More than a decade ago, residents near the Haverford Train Station saw older homes and historic buildings around the edges of their neighborhoods beginning to be nibbled away for new development.

A nomination was put together and submitted to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museums Commission to designate the area a protected historic district.

State officials wanted to see a more cohesive theme, or perhaps a district that focused on protecting areas along the historic Main Line rail corridor. They sent it back to Lower Merion officials, and the idea quietly died.
Now there's a renewed push - and stronger urgency - to revive that old proposal. Over the past several months, groups of residents in an area roughly bounded by Lancaster and Montgomery avenues have gotten together to take a new look at the benefits of historic district designation. They enlisted the Lower Merion Conservancy for some expert advice and to lead the formal process for nomination.

"Everyone has known for a long time that it's a wonderfully historic neighborhood," said conservancy Executive Director Mike Weilbacher. With some new redevelopment trends taking shape, "This community realized the pressures were only getting worse."

Elizabeth Oberdorf, a 10-year resident of Berkley Road who has spearheaded the effort in her community, can pinpoint the moment more closely. It was when the newest "condo craze" reached her neighborhood. On North Buck Lane on one side and at Dreycott Lane on the other, residents saw developers buying up older homes, consolidating lots, and putting forward plans for multi-unit, multistory structures that would dwarf the single-family homes they would replace - and the modest homes that were left standing.

With the project known as Allaire in particular, Weilbacher said, residents saw development not just crumbling the edges, but coming "right into the heart of their neighborhood."

....The "train" may be shorter, but it's still off track.

That sums up how members of Lower Merion's Historical Architectural Review Board and Gladwyne neighbors reacted this week to a developer's proposal to scale back plans for a property in historic Gladwyne Village.

Gary Gevurtz, who purchased the 1880 Victorian farmhouse at 254 Righters Mill Road last year, told HARB members Tuesday morning that he's willing to cut back his redevelopment plans by 25 percent.

Gevurtz had proposed restoring the front portion of the home, demolishing some older additions, and adding two new attached townhouses and garages. In addition, he proposed taking down a cottage at the rear of the lot, replacing it with a separate, fourth unit.

The proposal has raised a number of thorny issues, both for neighbors, who object to the density of development, and for historic preservation advocates. The house is a designated Class 1 resource on the township's historic inventory, meaning that it cannot be demolished without permission from the board of commissioners.

....But Gevurtz still faces an uncertain outcome on zoning relief he has requested. In a hearing set for April 12, he must still convince the zoning hearing board that he should be permitted to build the multiple residences.

....Even as it opened the door to some demolition, HARB made it clear the density of the original proposal is "inappropriate for the historic district." Acknowledging that, Gevurtz this week said he would drop the fourth unit. His attorney, Fred Fromhold, said the application to the zoning hearing board would be amended to include no more than three residences.