A: Because they DON'T HAVE TO!

Last evening, before the Planning Commission Meeting in Lower Merion Township, there was a meeting on the Comprehensive Plan and Institutions

It was a very good meeting, and it's too bad the only institutions that decided this was important were a couple of churches. Watching on TV it was hard to tell how well attended the meeting was, but those we know (including several of our own members) said about 20 people give or take in either direction.

That in itself is utterly pathetic. We get so few chances for interaction of this kind in a relaxed setting, so is it the 6 p.m. time that does it? Or is it the fact that the people in Lower Merion Township who have signed up for Verizon Fios don't get Channel 7 so they forgot about the meeting? Or is it that there are a lot of people out there who talk the talk but can't walk the walk?

After a while, you can't just say the right things, people, you actually have to do them. If you do not participate in this process, you will end up with a comprehensive plan you will whine about for the next 30 years it will take them to do another one, and you will only have yourselves to blame!

Last night there was a pie sheet up - on TV it flashed kinda fast, so we didn't get it all...but we did get some interesting numbers:

In Lower Merion we are:

69% Residential
13.2% Institutional
3.6% Commercial

We will also note that while last night was a very interesting meeting, there was one person who kept trying to talk about Ardmore's RFP - no offense, friend, but that is another meeting. These meetings need to stay on track, and this is the second one that hasn't.

Ok, so churches came to the meeting. St. Matthias and St.Asaphs (?) and maybe one other that didn't speak. The thing is this, except for those churches who suddenly wish to be developers of McMansions (well, that priest from St. Justin Martyr in Penn Valley has to pay for his Main Line lifestyle somewhow, right?); or those who are rumored right now in Gladwyne to be considering tormenting their neighbors by going into another line of business as if they don't have enough other problems, right? Or those not even in our township like Church of the Savior in Wayne or Proclamation Presybeterian in Radnor section of Bryn Mawr (no Bromall zip codes to worry about)who basically just seem to grow and grow unchecked and create all sorts of issues including but not limited to stormwater runoff issues (Church of the Savior causes these issues supposedly in two townships) and can't hang onto their mature trees like they are supposed to issuses (Proclamation Presbyterian and the case of "oops we cut down our trees"), Churches make decent neighbors. They participate in the community and do good works because it is simply part of who they are, not merely to get themselves some free PR in the society pages.

What insitutions weren't there? All the schools, hospitals, colleges, and let's not forget the Barnes Museum ....but we hear they are busy planning some gala at a swanky joint like the Four Seasons or something and who is paying for that? If you are teetering on financial insolvency, is that the best use of resources? And is it true the party is being planned for those non imaginative architects chosen to turn a prison for kids into a prison for someone else's art?

The township says they are conducting interviews with these institutions, but the thing is this, residents are there all the time and experience all the issues with institutions...they need to come first - the residents that is. We all know the good institutions can achieve, but no one makes them be good neighbors. Either they just are, or they aren't. And face it, a lot of them AREN'T. One neighborhood in Haverford can attest to that. They are an institution's parking lot. For students. For construction workers. They feel under siege almost year round because this institution rents it's facilities out. So then when that happens, there is additonal noise to be dealt with from the over amplification of tortuously bad ballad rock to crowd noise, etc.

So when it comes to institutions and the residents, everyone except one woman who just moved to the area and doesn't get it yet, seemed to be asking for the same thing: for the institutions to have to play by the rules and not only be nice, but if they want to expand, they have to prove they can handle the additional people and cars - ON their OWN properties. And non profits need other rules when it comes to renting out their properties.

Because face it, if you are a non profit insititution you have the best deal going - you don't really deal with taxes, the money you make is tax free....you can sit like Jabba the Hut in our communities and rake in the profits and have the option of being a good neighbor or a bad neighbor depending upon mood.

Yes we need schools, museums, and hospitals...but we definitely need the rules redefined....especially when it comes to schools and hosptials/continuing care faciliites.

Thoughts anyone out there? Or have you all turned to stone and been rendered mute?