Thank you to all who attended our community forum last evening with North Ardmore and ArdWood Civic Associations. It was a very productive, informative, and engaging conversation, and we look forward to more in the future.

We want to thank you, our audience, for attending. We had many familiar local faces in Lower Merion along with a whole bunch of new ones. We had guests from the Haverford Township side of Ardmore eager to join with us and make ALL of Ardmore the best it can possibly be.

We had quite a few guests from Radnor Township - members of the Save Ithan Coalition who are fighting to preserve the historic and environmental integrity of Radnorville and Ithan, now under the gun from development. We urged them to forgo the tactic of closed door meetings that we know some within their group are proponents of and active participants in because quite frankly, it will bite them in the ass. We learned that one of the developers up there has new plans but that still includes condos on stilts.

Radnor you have a choice to make: either you are going to end up with Peddlers Village on Conestoga or something that resembles Atlantic City. Both are inappropriate for the most historic part of Radnor Township. The folks (and they know who they are) who are playing Monte Hall with the Lone Ranger from the Planning Commission need to put their egos aside and get a reality check. And the newspapers need to cover this more. People are confused and in the dark and we feel sorry for them. Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled program:

Thank you to Commissioners Taylor, Gelber, and Dellheim for attending, and we're sorry that Vice President Phillips had a last minute, unavoidable conflict in scheduling- but we know she was there in spirit! We have to say that our Ardmore centric commissioners have been very supportive of the community at large.

Thank you to Township Manager Doug Cleland for attending this forum, it was simply terrific to have him in the audience because he adds a lot to these conversations. Those of you whom have never met the Township Manager should.

We can't thank enough, our panel of speakers. Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director of the Lower Merion Conservancy, Chris Leswing, Assistant Director of Lower Merion Township's Building & Planning Department and Jerry Francis, President of the Lower Merion Historical Society all were absolutely tremendous. To those of you who missed it, we also must thank our local public access, Channel 99 PATV - through the generosity of Irene McNeil, once again our forum was covered and filmed. Please support Channel 99 financially with any small bequest you can manage so they might continue to cover the community in which we live!

Chris Leswing gave us an update on comprehensive planning and the thought process involved. He spoke about issues he found troubling including monster garages built on new construction and the overall detrimental effect of parking and stormwater issues. Chris was refreshingly honest when he said the planning department, as well as he doesn’t have all of the ideas and they are always desirous of feedback. So, out there, you have an idea? Let Chris know.

Mike Weilbacher was smack on top of his game. He started out the evening with something SAC loves - new acronyms:

NIMBY with BANANA!

NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard
BANANA = Build Absolutely Nothing Absolutely Near Anybody

Mike continued on with an interesting fact: during the 60's, 70's and 80's people (population) decreased yet the number of houses increased. Today, we continue with that trend and are building larger houses for fewer people on smaller plots of land.

Mike felt the audience was on the same page as many with regard to density and the giant condo that wants to eat the Main Line. Condos might be viewed as smart growth, but in Ardmore where density is the highest; there is no comfort level with that type of "smart" growth.

Mike said in Ardmore there is no common vision yet, so what do we all want to be when we grow up? Mike remarked that although Ardmore has the highest density and calls for open space, it has the least amount of open space (exactly why a pocket park on Linwood is needed!). We all need to talk with each other, not at each other, which is why community forums like we are doing are so important. (Thanks Mike, we couldn't have said it better ourselves!)

Mike went on to comment that although we want to live in a village when it is convenient, we want to jump in our cars when we want. It's hard to go back to a village when part of what you have to change is human behavior. Narberth has survived as a village because it is slightly off the beaten track - Montgomery Avenue and Lancaster Avenue don't pass directly through what is considered their "Main Street" and down town.

Mike also briefly mentioned the proposed historic district in Haverford. Unfortunately for all of his hard work, there are malcontents in this neighborhood we report upon often. This definite minority (small handful) of residents always want the township to protect them from development and commercial encroachment, yet they are fighting this historic district with signs that say "No Historic District. We Don't Want One". As someone said this morning, to an extent they can't have it both ways: they can't demand protection and not take advantage of tools being offered now. (yes Haverford, we understand you want more zoning protections, but still, please consider that no matter how much you want everything to happen, change and improve instantly overnight to your liking, the reality is it just won't - that is all we're saying - take advantage of tools as offered. But in the end: your properties, your rights - you have to live with the consequences, not us)

Jerry Francis let us into a fascinating trip through the history of Lower Merion. He said this township has always been, historically speaking, transit oriented starting with the Indians who used the river and streams to travel. Then came the settlers who built the first roads.

He spoke of Lower Merion prior to 1875 when the trains arrived bringing more modern transportation, mansions, and name changes to suit the "modern" era. Towns prior to 1875 had sweet old fashioned names like Elms, Jones Crossing, Humphreysville, Pencoyd, Rose Glen, Libertyville, and Athensville all changed after the railroad came and became the towns we all know and live in today! (We’ll let all of you out there go to www.lowermerionhistory.org and figure out which town is which and what became what!)

Jerry went on to discuss how the 1950’s further changed Lower Merion. During that time came new schools, the infamous Schuylkill Expressway, growth of those things called malls, and more cars and the beginnings of a loss of public transit.

The conversation continued from there. The newspapers were in the audience, so next week you will have their take on our forum. The audience was extremely interactive and the conversation was lively the whole time. Actually, we could have easily talked to each other another hour!

Things that came up were the holes in our existing public transit system and how woefully inadequate it is considering how we want to grow and model our communities around it.

Ken Haskin, former SAC VP commented how we are not going to escape growth, we need it. But he remarked on the other hand why is it the only solution being proposed is to increase height and density where it already exists? He doesn’t see that as a concrete solution. He raised the question of would a moratorium help because after 4 years there is no comprehensive plan yet, etc. Ken wasn’t the only one to bring up the concept of a moratorium on development, and we could tell the township doesn’t like that idea. While it might not be THE answer to all woes, if moratoriums were allowed, would it at least give us all a chance to breath?

SAC Member and active historic preservationist Christine Jones remarked upon the inadequacies of our historic preservation ordinance among other things. She said it was a mistake to have Class 1 and Class 2 and people could go in and out and off and on. She said either properties are historic or they aren’t, and they shouldn’t basically be shuffled off and on the inventory like folks moving little plastic houses around a Monopoly board. Christine is someone we are fortunate to have as part of SAC. She helped create much of the preservation efforts we know today, as well as being instrumental in the founding of HARB and their awards of which we are a recipient as a group for 2007. And without her late husband Dick Jones, SAC would have no logo and Lower Merion might not have the fabulous “First 300: The Amazing and Rich History of Lower Merion”.

We would also like to commend our current and founding President of Save Ardmore Coalition, Sharon Eckstein. She was a fabulous moderator and commentator through out. She hit the nail on the head when she said that in truth our communities are both stressed and vulnerable.

There you have it, a peek inside our community forum last night, “The Converation Continues”. There was more, and you will read more in the newspapers and be able to view this shortly on LM PATV Channel 99. But as we have now concluded our second forum, we see that once again preservation of our architectural styles and history along with moderate and sensible development mixed with sensitive comprehensive planning, stronger and updated zoning codes and an overall OVERHAUL to the ultimate “out”, the Municipal Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is what people seem to want. That and a transit system that works and a wish that people would rely less heavily on the overabundance of cars, trucks, and SUVs that dominate our area.

Don’t you wish you were there last night?

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