**Update**: The meeting occured on Saturday in Wayne. And can it be said that just as the whole thing in Wayne is rather curious, doesn't it make you wonder about the same developer's purported interest in Bryn Mawr? Is it true this same developer is interested in Bryn Mawr? We are going to promote a post from a neighboring blog and we're going to ask a very difficult question that folks in Main Line communities everywhere need to ask themselves: In whose best interest do local governments act? What do local governments get out of development projects? Should citizens be content to just see municipal land given away? Should citizens have more of a say? How do people in Wayne feel about that other sort of "mixed use" project? The Pembroke North (click here) project (click here too) ? Doesn't it look like a school building? Why is Venturi so applauded for a building that live looks like scary Legos built by really large elves?

Whatever, Wayne, it's your destiny....all we know is the town could go from enviable to pitiable in a snap, eh? We're sure someone will have something to say about a Radnor based blog daring to comment. But hey you know what? Radnor best get hip with lots of things, including the First Amendment and other things....

Round Radnor: Saturday, March 01, 2008
Keating Presentation on Wayne

I attended the Keating presentation for the South Wayne development today. I understand that this is only a "concept plan" at this point but, quite frankly, I wasn't pleased. Too big, too much and what benefits come to my mind initially. The artist's concept showing the post office building with the new condo building looming up behind it, said it all for me...

It was wonderful to see the turnout. The meeting room was packed to overflowing. And there appeared to be unanimity in opposition to the project. I think it was summed up best by one of the commenter's who suggested that we don't need more housing units.

I recognize that this is only an initial presentation but there were far too many "We still have to investigate that" type of answers. Especially given the fact that the project has been festering for maybe 2 years....I heard several interesting discussions in the lobby after the meeting. We all love conspiracies don't we? It was suggested that the Wayne Overlay took so long to allow this project to to be developed.

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Our curiousity is piqued. It's the Wayne Keating thing.....We hear that Wayne residents are super irritated by this proposal, so will the citizens turn out and realize the Garrett Hill Coalition have the right idea about residents first? (Heck we're all about residents first, only in Lower Merion...it doesn't always happen that way....). We urge the residents in Wayne who object to this to get up and fight for their private property rights...we love it when the term "smart growth" makes it into government vernacular...watch out we had a Plan A once....but it came with a Plan B we didn't care for very much did we?

Suburban and Wayne Times: Development plan in South Wayne to emerge Saturday
At a public meeting, Keating Development Company will share its vision for post office and library block
By Sam Strike

A number of proposed large-scale, mixed-use and transit-oriented residential projects have recently been popping up along the Main Line from Ardmore to Malvern.

While residents struggle with concepts of increased density, scale and the possible impacts of such development, local governments also are encountering a new learning curve in weighing the benefits of planning for its future population and approving projects its constituents can live with.

The communites of Wayne and Radnor Township will no doubt be grappling with planning issues over the near future as a concept plan for a sizable project has emerged for downtown Wayne.

On Saturday, the public is invited to a presentation of a concept plan being pitched for the Wayne Post Office/Radnor Memorial Library/municipal parking-lot site by Philadelphia-based Keating Development Company.

The meeting will be held Saturday, March 1 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Radnor Township building. It will be telecast live on Radnor’s cable government-access channels 10 (Comcast) and 30 (Verizon).

The Keating Development Company has carved itself a niche of working with the United States Postal Service in redeveloping post-office sites.

In downtown Wayne, the concept plan currently stands to move the Wayne Post Office’s distribution center, retain the “retail” post office somewhere on site and use the building’s façade as the entrance to a new Radnor Library.

But that’s only one aspect of a complex project containing ever-moving parts and numerous stakeholders and landowners.

The township is also asking the developers to build a new senior center there and put in more public parking. What the developer seeks right now is to attach as many as 100 condominiums and townhouses in the four-story structure.

It was as early as 2004 that Keating approached Radnor Township about a project in Wayne, said township manager Dave Bashore....Baumann said he gives the proposed concept plan an “A,” saying “it really meets the fundamentals of Smart Growth,” like, developing on existing developed land (as opposed to open space), having access to multimodal transportation and including civic uses.

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