Last night was all about Bryn Mawr at the Lower Merion Township Building. Everyone was very dressed up and had their hair done...television cameras and all...a lot of people spoke...some were quite curious - like that Bryn Mawr business owner who spoke about the "BID" (i.e. having an Ardmore Initiative for Bryn Mawr).

One thing? Are all the property owners there hip to the fact that if it goes through there will be annual assessments they will have to pay? That is one of the realities of those things - also, if the proposed "BID" for Bryn Mawr is formed, they will have to get along with the Bryn Mawr Business Association, and a BID needs a healthy business association associated with it since a BID would be more for the property owners, while a business association addresses the needs of business owners...

We also suggest if they are serious about this that they spend some time with Christine Villardo and some of the Ardmore Initiative folks...not just people with BIDs in other communities - talk to one right in our own township. Anyway, apparently this zoning thing will come back again in June, since there are wrinkles to be ironed out.

Here is an update from Diane Mastrull and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Also, check out a couple little virtual tours of Central Ave, Old Lancaster Road in Bryn Mawr and Pennsylvania Ave:

Central Ave Bryn Mawr
Old Lancaster Rd Bryn Mawr
Pennsylvania Ave Bryn Mawr

Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008
Bryn Mawr downtown plan closer to final approval
By Diane Mastrull
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Bryn Mawr is a substantial step closer to a long-envisioned revitalization now that a new zoning map for the aged Main Line village has been adopted.
Approved by a 12-0 vote by Lower Merion commissioners last night, the map divides much of the Bryn Mawr business area and adjacent neighborhoods into four zoning districts. The new zoning classifications won't take effect, however, until the ordinance that spells out building standards for each -- including allowable uses, heights and density – also is adopted.

Citing the need for more time to discuss a number of details, the commissioners rescheduled the vote on those zoning regulations for June 18.

In their most controversial decision of the night, they rejected requests from three members of the sparse audience to approve an exclusively residential zoning classification for Central Avenue. The once close-knit street of more than two dozen affordable rowhouses and twins, now has just three occupied homes. Since 2002, the rest of the owners have sold their properties to the real estate division of the eager-to-expand Bryn Mawr Hospital, which then demolished 18 of the homes.

The hospital wants to build a garage on Central Avenue, along with houses and some retail or other commercial development. The new map puts Central Avenue in a zoning category that allows for a variety of residential and non-residential uses.

....Not buying that last night was Elba Doorly, one of the few holdouts on Central. As such, her modest brick rowhouse soon could be neighbors with a hospital parking garage that rise as high as 59 feet. (The ultimate limit is among the issues the commissioners will decide next month as part of the zoning ordinance.)

Without zoning that specifically precludes anything but residential on Central, what ultimately will be built around her "is very unpredictable," Doorly said after last night's meeting. "And that is my agony."

Earlier, reading from prepared remarks addressed to the commissioners, Doorly said: "Allowing the rebuilding of a residential neighborhood is not the same as ensuring it."

It has been a long journey to last night's zoning map approval.