A new vision for downtown Ardmore avoids tall buildings, more density, and less parking

Six years ago, a business owner transformed a defunct Radio Shack on Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore into a stylish pastry shop called Delice et Chocolat.

Joseph Amrani’s lunch and dessert spot is the sort of small local business that a downtown master plan released June 16 hopes to encourage in this formerly fading commercial area of Lower Merion Township.

Downtown Ardmore has rebounded in recent years, but now the business district faces some post-pandemic challenges.

“Ardmore’s revitalization has happened, but I wouldn’t say that it’s done,” said Jillian Dierks, the township’s senior planner. “So what is the next phase? What does the community see in Ardmore in 20 years? That’s why we did the master plan.”

The 50-page plan represents a year’s worth of work by consultants, township staff, and a 28-member steering committee, including civic leaders and business groups. Collectively, they hosted more than a dozen community presentations, workshops, open houses, “visioning” sessions, and opportunities to talk to planners over pizza.

Meanwhile, an interactive “comments map” created by the consultant, Kittelson & Associates, is accepting public input through July 1.

So far, commenters generally agree on planting more trees, improving pedestrian and bicycle safety, and somehow calming traffic on Lancaster Avenue.

But the comments also indicate deeper disagreements over parking (there isn’t enough, there’s no need for more) and development (more is needed, developers have “too much power”).

And interviews with business owners suggest that while some see the downtown historical district as a plus, others view it as a potential hindrance to enlivening an avenue sometimes referred to as the Main Line’s Main Street.

“The plan has a lot of elements in it, and the next step is: What will be the priorities?” said Todd Sinai, the president of the township board of commissioners, who likened the plan to a “master playbook” rather than a list of directives. “Which elements are going to be implemented, and in what order?”

Like many older suburbs in the Philadelphia region, Lower Merion developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because of its abundant rail connections to Center City. Today, Lower Merion’s population of 64,151 is spread across nearly 25 square miles of Montgomery County.

The Ardmore master plan focuses on the traditional downtown along Lancaster Avenue as well as Suburban Square, a retail complex on Montgomery Avenue often described as one of America’s first shopping centers. The avenue and the square are separated by railroad tracks and a station — long under reconstruction — that’s served by Amtrak as well as SEPTA. The master plan calls for improving the connections between the two retail hubs.

But the pandemic has disrupted age-old patterns of working, commuting, and socializing. Traditional downtowns, including those in suburbs like Lower Merion, face pressure to provide places for people to gather, enjoy recreation, and attend cultural events on foot and by bicycle, as well as in cars.

“How do you help our downtown areas evolve to be centers of community socializing? How do you amplify those elements to make downtown a place people want to gather?” said Sinai, a department chair and professor of real estate, business economics, and public policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The idea of creating what would become downtown Ardmore’s first real park has been discussed on and off for years. Remaking much of the Schauffele Plaza parking lot on Lancaster Avenue into a public park called Schauffele Green is included in the Capital Improvement Program budget the commissioners approved last December.

And in May, the commission opted to set aside provisions in an earlier draft of the master plan that would have paved the way for taller buildings, more residential density, and fewer required parking spaces in downtown developments.

“The comments map got over 400 submissions with really specific feedback about doing things to help revitalize downtown,” he said. “But the [revised] plan doesn’t speak to a lot of the public concerns.”

Steering committee member Craig Timberlake of the ArdWood Civic Association said he was surprised by “knee-jerk opposition to any type of development” despite the apparent success of recent downtown projects such as Cricket Flats and Shops. That 77-unit rental and retail complex replaced a tavern and an auto body shop on Cricket Avenue.

But steering committee member Chris Helle, representing the North Ardmore Civic Association, noted that the earlier draft would have allowed for buildings of up to six stories. ”Many in the community feel that allowing three to four stories maximum height is much more appropriate,” he said.

Jane Murray, who lives in South Ardmore and is active with the Progressive group, said she thought the township was doing a good job collecting reaction from different audiences. “But new townhouses have [replaced] smaller, more modest rowhouses, and people miss their old friends and neighbors. There’s distrust among some in the community.”

The Rev. Carolyn C. Cavaness, pastor of the Bethel AME Church of Ardmore, is concerned that the plan does not address the need for affordable housing as real estate values rise.

“We have a community that is very much a hidden treasure, and absolutely, people are worried about being displaced,” she said. “We have families who have lived here for four or five generations, in a neighborhood that’s the historic Black quarter of the Main Line.”

“We see the changes, and we welcome the new, but how do you merge the new and the old? We need those voices at the table,” said Cavaness. “We don’t want to lose Ardmore.”

“A lot of developers are willing to put their bucks here, but some of the rules and requirements for building are holding things back,” said Peter Martin, managing partner at Ardmore Music Hall and the nearby Ripplewood W&C.

“I’d like to see new buildings mixed in with old buildings,” he said.

Artisanal soapmaker Topia Tessema moved her shop, Abiyah Naturals, from Philadelphia’s East Falls neighborhood to Ardmore Avenue a year ago because “Ardmore needed this type of vibe and energy.”

An Ardmore native, Tessema said, she loves having a shop there. “But I don’t think businesses on this side of Ardmore are really highlighted or get recognition” during promotions and events, she said.

“The face of Ardmore has changed dramatically. Local businesses have gone and been replaced by upscale chains,” she said. “And I miss Mapes.”

That family-owned hardware and variety store business had two locations in Ardmore, and their closure in the last two years is still mourned by locals. One of the stores has since become a fitness center.

The retail vacancy rate in downtown Ardmore is in the single digits, said Nancy Scarlato, executive director of the Ardmore Initiative, which oversees and promotes downtown’s Business Improvement District.

“There were a huge number of vacancies in the 1980s and ‘90s, but the number is 7% now,” she said.

Amrani, who opened Delice et Chocolat in July 2017, said, “This location was the right space in the right community for us. We took this corner [property], which was really ugly, and gave it a new look.”

The Ardmore Initiative’s 10-year plan complements the master plan; Scarlato served as a steering committee member. “The unofficial motto of the Ardmore Initiative is ‘Get more feet on the street,’” she said.

“We think it’s a good thing to have more people living here, and that’s the trend,” she said. “We’ve had 200 or so new apartments since 2020, and both buildings are fully leased. But you have to keep it going.”

Said Sinai: “A lot of forces and pressures that need to be balanced … in the interests of the entire community. That’s not the consultant’s job. It’s ours.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to remove an inaccurate quote from the Ardmore Progressive Civic Association.