Can't say this opinion is off base, can you? Of course it remains to be seem if anyone cares..

Posted on Wed, Jun 18, 2008
One step forward, one step back for Ardmore
Natural Selections
By Mike Weilbacher

Ardmore remains at the center of community attention - and some of it even good. But on the whole, as an inveterate Ardmore-watcher, it's one step forward, one step back.One step forward: Just last week, at a gathering at the township building, plans for the Linwood Avenue pocket park were happily revealed. The plans for the one-acre park pack a ton of possibilities, including a reading garden, an active grassy play space, a trail around its periphery, a large sculpture that might somehow interact with the weather, lots of trees and plantings, and even rain gardens (strategically placed and heavily planted depressions). When it rains, stormwater seeps into these depressions to be absorbed by rain-hungry plantings. The water disappears after a couple of hours. Rain gardens are a new and exciting technique for getting rain water underground where it belongs.

But one step back: Also in the last couple of weeks, word has reached the community that the new owners of Suburban Square plan on seeking approval for a mixed-use development on the Ruby's lot, wrapping first-floor commercial and multi-level apartments around a parking structure.

Now, that kind of mixed use development is exactly what planners have been hoping for in Ardmore, so this could be a step forward for the community. But the catch for me is threefold.

First, the township has pegged huge hopes on the Carl Dranoff plan for Ardmore, sinking untold resources of time, attention, and yes, taxpayer dollars into crafting a redevelopment plan for Ardmore that just has to, at the end of the day, be successful. The alternative is unconscionable.

At the time the township was creating its plan, the mall's owners lobbied successfully to be removed from consideration in Ardmore-wide redevelopment. I remember back in one of the initial Ardmore public workshops, a visioning exercise, and people played with putting all kinds of things in the Ruby's lot; there was even wide sentiment for sliding the train station west on the tracks to actually land on the Ruby's lot as part of a mixed use development. That might have been cool.

But the mall's owners demanded no part of redevelopment schemes. In fact, their lawyers rattled several sabers at public meetings noting their displeasure in being included in any redevelopment discussion. They got their wish. The line for Ardmore's redevelopment was adjusted to bypass Suburban Square and the Ruby's lot.

Now, they suddenly see themselves adding value to the Dranoff plan. Fine. But whatever they plan for the Ruby's lot has to be not only sympathetic to what Dranoff is proposing, but it absolutely cannot detract from the Dranoff plan. Suburban Square is already a hugely successful endeavor; it's Lancaster Avenue's turn to blossom, and all efforts must be steered in allowing that to occur. If the Ruby's lot residential pulls people away from Dranoff's proposed multi-story dwellings, just what will we have accomplished all these years later?

Second, back when the Ardmore pot was really bubbling over, the township commissioned detailed traffic and parking studies of Ardmore. The engineers looked at what would happen to the traffic around the Ruby's lot if that site was redeveloped into mixed use. It wasn't pretty.....Finally, the current pedestrian experience of the Ruby's lot is demonically dysfunctional - since Suburban Square has built so many new buildings on what was once its own parking. Remember the ocean of spaces that used to be the Farmer's Market, Trader Joe's and Urban Outfitters? More people are parking, and walking, to and from the Ruby's lot. I've seen three streams of pedestrians trying to simultaneously cross Anderson, with cars on Coulter trying to turn left onto Anderson and Anderson traffic desperately running the gaunt-let to Montgomery.

It's not pretty. In fact, it's downright dangerous...So the Dranoff negotiations are moving ahead, there is a stunning plan for a Linwood Avenue park, and traffic might also soon be realigned at the Ardmore Avenue intersection near the McDonald's.

At the same time, the Ruby's plan could dent Dranoff's, there are more proposals for tear-downs on the community's periphery, and those lush Victorians that were Talone's are gone, replaced by car dealer parking lots.

In Ardmore, it's one step forward, one step back. The town needs to recapture the Big Mo, and here's hoping that happens soon.